Final thoughts on Yeats

Auden’s elegy was a great way to conclude our discussion on Yeats. I am not sure what Auden’s purpose was for writing “In Memory of W.B. Yeats.” You would assume that he would write highly of Yeats considering the title. It seemed as if respected Yeats’s poetry and disagreed with it at the same time. He definitely had mixed feelings about him.

This poem could be about any poet if it didn’t mention his name in the title. The day of his death is dark and cold. Most days in January are cold and dark, so this doesn’t seem unusual. He could also be referring to World War II as dark and cold. “A few thousand will think of this day as one thinks of a day when one did something slightly unusual.” I would think more than a few thousand would remember Yeats’s death, and they wouldn’t consider the day of his death unusual. I thought unusual was an odd choice of words to describe someone’s death.

In the second part of the poem we get the impression that his poetry did not mean anything. I would not expect this from someone who is a poet himself. “Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.” Yeats used Ireland as a theme in nearly all of his work. He was obsessed with Ireland and took over his poetry.

Yeats must have had some positive impact on Auden or he wouldn’t have taken the time to write this elegy. I have to agree with Auden that Yeats went a little overboard with his passion for Ireland. His obsession with Maud Gonne was also a slightly over the top. I am ready to move on to the next poet and away from Yeats.