the Shield

As we mentioned in class, The Shield of Achilles seems to be a mixture of the old and new. As with the Unknown Citizen, in which Auden expresses how the individual is lost, the Shield of Achilles seems to have a similar message. I find it interesting that Auden chose weave the mythology of old into present day, perhaps suggesting that we never escape the problems of the past.

A plain without a feature, bare and brown,
No blade of grass, no sign of neighborhood,
Nothing to eat and nowhere to sit down,
Yet, congregated on its blankness, stood
An unintelligible multitude,
A million eyes, a million boots in line,
Without expression, waiting for a sign.

I think this section of the poem is suggesting the idea of the lost "individual". "A million eyes, a million boots in line" sounds like a robotic formation, something mechanical, a mass body of people moving together not on their own accord, but through the orders of another. As these people wait for a sign, their lives are bleak and mundane; furthermore, no one is taking initiative to move on their own, or separate themselves from this robotic group.

Further in the poem, there is a line stating statistics determined their cause just, and the men keep marching, to their grief. From reading this, I feel like Auden was expressing how he saw the world as a bleak place. When it is later stated that "Achilles will not live long" I am led to think that this death Auden is referring to is a psychological and emotional death that steals a person long before physical death. Lastly, this may be far fetched, but what the heck. . . perhaps Auden is suggesting man cannot be shielded from this grief and the bleakness of the world. Although there was high hope for Achilles, he too was inevitably consumed by the drudgery.