Auden's ability to integrate deep thoughts with everyday speech and subtle rhymes has always impressed me. I came to appreciate him during that pivotal senior year in high school when I was allowed to explore literature in our Instructional Materials Center (as our principal insisted we call the library).
Recently I explained in class how Homer devoted about 200 lines in the Iliad to Haesphestos making Achilles' new armor at the request of his mother, Thetis. We also listened to Auden reading the poem, and look at the structure, with its alternating between the time of the Trojan War and the aftermath of World War II. There are parallels to the current world situation.
Here is a link to him reading the poem. The text is on the screen, so I do not have to re post it here. Who is the poet to chronicle what happens today?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpblaBb93fo
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