Many people spend their lives creating a legacy for them to leave behind even when they, themselves, are gone. Some of them go great lengths to be noticed such as acting in a movie or becoming president in a renowned group. Others may do the little things here and there and ultimately accumulate an empire of their actions. The depth of their footprint they leave behind is not determined by what they think of their actions, but how others perceive and interpret those actions. In the poem “In Memory of W.B. Yeats”, the author, W.H. Auden, utilizes the elements of diction and tone to emphasize that Yeats’ work ultimately becomes independent of him because he has no control over the interpretation which his readers will give it. Auden communicates
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This particular line offers a key to understanding the poem as a whole due to its tone and diction. Yeats’ work will be “modified” or interpreted by others even though he is gone. Auden refers to the “guts of the living” because his audience will be impacted by how he wrote and not so much what he wrote. The “gut” infers to the raw emotion of his audience and that feeling will eternalize Yeats, the author. Furthermore, Auden does not sentimentalize Yeats’ fate further by blatantly referring to Yeats as a “dead …show more content…
The stanza “Follow, poet, follow right / To the Bottom of the night, / With your unconstraining voice / Still persuade us to rejoice” stresses the immortality of Yeats’ work (Auden 54). Auden symbolically describes Yeats’ death by stating “to the bottom of the night” because the end of the day is figurative to the end of Yeats’ life. However, his voice still resonates freely through his poetry when Auden states “your unconstraining voice still persuades us to rejoice” (Auden 54). This line reiterates that Yeats’ voice still lives without being tied down by time. Another line in the third section says “With the farming of a verse / Make a vineyard of the curse…” (Auden 54). The word “farm” in the dictionary means to make one’s living by growing crops or keeping livestock. Yeats makes his living and continues to live by “farming” or writing poetry for his readers to digest. To “make a vineyard of the curse” is to turn the unfortunate event of death into something enriched with potential that can nourish those who are exposed to it. Time may cease the living of Yeats but his poetry remains
This particular line offers a key to understanding the poem as a whole due to its tone and diction. Yeats’ work will be “modified” or interpreted by others even though he is gone. Auden refers to the “guts of the living” because his audience will be impacted by how he wrote and not so much what he wrote. The “gut” infers to the raw emotion of his audience and that feeling will eternalize Yeats, the author. Furthermore, Auden does not sentimentalize Yeats’ fate further by blatantly referring to Yeats as a “dead …show more content…
The stanza “Follow, poet, follow right / To the Bottom of the night, / With your unconstraining voice / Still persuade us to rejoice” stresses the immortality of Yeats’ work (Auden 54). Auden symbolically describes Yeats’ death by stating “to the bottom of the night” because the end of the day is figurative to the end of Yeats’ life. However, his voice still resonates freely through his poetry when Auden states “your unconstraining voice still persuades us to rejoice” (Auden 54). This line reiterates that Yeats’ voice still lives without being tied down by time. Another line in the third section says “With the farming of a verse / Make a vineyard of the curse…” (Auden 54). The word “farm” in the dictionary means to make one’s living by growing crops or keeping livestock. Yeats makes his living and continues to live by “farming” or writing poetry for his readers to digest. To “make a vineyard of the curse” is to turn the unfortunate event of death into something enriched with potential that can nourish those who are exposed to it. Time may cease the living of Yeats but his poetry remains