Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973) was an English poet, who later became an American citizen. He is best known for his poems dealing with political, social, cultural, psychological and religious themes. He came to wide public attention at the age of 23. He won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for his 1947 long poem, The Age of Anxiety, the title of which became a popular phrase describing the modern era.
Say this city has ten million souls.
some are living in mansions,
some are living in holes:
Yet there's no place for us, my dear,
yet there's no place for us.
Once we had a country and we thought it fair,
Look in the atlas and you'll find it there:
We cannot go there now, my dear,
we cannot go there now.
In the village churchyard there grows
an old yew.
Every spring it blossoms anew:
Old passports can't do that, my dear,
old passports can't do that.
The consul banged the table and said,
"If you've got no passport you're officially dead":
But we are still alive, my dear,
but we are still alive.
Went to a committee; they offered me
a chair;
Asked me politely to return next year:
But where shall we go to-day, my dear,
but where shall we go to-day?
Came to a public meeting; the speaker
got up and said;
"If we let them in, they will steal our
daily bread":
He was talking of you and me, my dear,
he was talking of you and me.
Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky;
It was Hitler over Europe, saying, "They must die":
O we were in his mind. my dear,
O we were in his mind.
Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin,
Saw a door opened and a cat let in:
But they weren't German Jews, my dear,
but they weren't German Jews.
Went down the harbour and stood upon the quay,
Saw the fish swimming as if they were free:
Only ten feet away, my dear,
only ten feet away.
Walked through a wood. saw the birds in the trees;
They had no politicians and sang at their ease:
They weren't the human race, my dear,
they weren't the human race.
Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors,
A thousand windows and a thousand doors:
Not one of them was ours, my dear,
not one of them was ours.
Stood on a great plain in the falling snow;
Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro:
Looking for you and me, my dear,
looking for you and me.
Identify the lines from the poem that convey these meanings.
What do you understand by thunder rumbling in the sky?
Why does the persona mention that his country is no longer what it used to be? What has brought about the change?
Why do you think the persona is jealous of the fish and the birds?
We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.
Went to a committee; they offered me a chair;