22 pages • 44-minute read
September 1, 1939
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Themes
The Power of the Individual
A core thread in the poem is the ignorance and lack of personal responsibility people feel in times of crisis. Everyday individuals look to the state to navigate the global problems the world is facing, when, the speaker argues, the true power lies in themselves. In the first stanza, the speaker describes the pervasive “odour of death” (Line 10) that has blanketed the city. This suggests something external and beyond control of the everyday person. However, they go on to point to a “psychopathic god” (Line 18) who, despite the horrors he’s inflicted, is still only a man twisted by his lived experience: “Those to whom evil is done / Do evil in return” (Lines 21-22). This introduces the idea of personal choice and responsibility for those choices.
Later, the poem uses the cityscape to illustrate the broader society and its projection of protection and guidance; however, the image they project is one of the “Collective Man” (Line 37)—in other words, a product of collective individual choice. Yet by viewing it as a collective, it becomes easy to distance oneself from one’s personal responsibility to that society. The speaker describes this dismissal as a “euphoric dream” (Line 42). They argue that people can find the problems at the root of society by looking in the mirror.
The speaker goes on to support this argument by stating that the people of the city “have never been happy or good” (Line 55); that “[t]here is no such thing as the State / And no one exists alone” (Lines 84-85). This suggests that society as we know it is not an omnipresent force external to the individual, but a product of everything within us—and everyone has a role to play in creating a better world. Attempting to lead by example, the speaker closes the poem by promising to use their words to create a light that others may follow.
Human Connection
The poem’s most famous line (which the poet later contested) is, “We must love one another or die” (Line 88)—a call to action, or call to arms, for people to come together in dark moments of history. The speaker argues that the natural state in these times of crisis is to turn inward, rather than supporting each other:
For the error bred in the bone
…………………………
…………………………
Not universal love
But to be loved alone (Lines 62-66).
It’s within human connection, however, that our true power lies.
In the first half of the poem, the speaker explores what happens when this connection is lost. Hitler, the speaker suggests, was a child who was abused or ostracized in some way. By having “evil done” to him (Line 21), he became spiritually and emotionally weakened to the point of losing his very humanity. Meanwhile, the commuters who exist around the speaker are lost in their own way: “Lost in a haunted wood, / Children afraid of the night” (Lines 53-54). They replace true human connection with everyday convention, including lights, music, and drink. Within this isolation, however, is the anger and fear alluded to in the opening stanza. With the realization that “no one exists alone” (Line 85) comes a source of strength. In the final lines, the speaker considers the “points of light” that exist wherever humanity comes together. By using words as a medium, the speaker can create “an affirming flame” (Line 99) which encourages people to connect to one another in unity, power, and hope.
The Cycle of History
The poem suggests that history is innately cyclical in nature—it repeats itself over time, with society falling into the same patterns and mistakes. While the poem is given a concrete setting of 1939, at the precipice of World War II, the speaker argues that such discord has always existed throughout history—and events that have followed the poem’s conception support the idea that conflict is an innate part of human existence. Notably, this poem’s resurgence of popularity in the aftermath of the American terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, illustrate the timelessness of these ideas.
The speaker expresses that the “low dishonest decade” (Line 5) of the world around him can be understood by looking to the lessons of the past. The second stanza introduces Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation in the 15th century, as an example of how far back these struggles go. By citing “[a]ccurate scholarship” (Line 12), the speaker explores how “the whole offence / From Luther until now / […] has driven a culture mad” (Lines 13-15); they’re saying that the roots of today’s conflict run all the way back to the beginning of living history. They also reference the Greek soldier and historian Thucydides, who understood the relationship between authority and its people—a relationship which has changed little between Thucydides’s time and Auden’s.
As the poem progresses, the speaker examines the accountability of the people around them, stating the timelessness of individuality, responsibility, and “the normal [or human] heart” (Line 61). Their perspective is that people have always been people, with the same weaknesses and failings; yet within this humanity, people across history also carry within them the same potential for hope.
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