September 1, 1939 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDCEFGHIFJHKLHCMNO PO QHHQRSTHUVW XHYJUHZA2XHZ B2HC2HD2E2F2B2G2FG2 H2C2I2J2VK2L2JVVL2 M2VN2VV O2YVVN2 HP2UBHP2Q2L2HHP2 FHXFR2HS2R2YXY| I sit in one of the dives | A |
| On Fifty second Street | B |
| Uncertain and afraid | C |
| As the clever hopes expire | D |
| Of a low dishonest decade | C |
| Waves of anger and fear | E |
| Circulate over the bright | F |
| And darkened lands of the earth | G |
| Obsessing our private lives | H |
| The unmentionable odour of death | I |
| Offends the September night | F |
| Accurate scholarship can | J |
| Unearth the whole offence | H |
| From Luther until now | K |
| That has driven a culture mad | L |
| Find what occurred at Linz | H |
| What huge imago made | C |
| A psychopathic god | M |
| I and the public know | N |
| What all schoolchildren learn | O |
| Those to whom evil is done | P |
| Do evil in return | O |
| - | |
| Exiled Thucydides knew | Q |
| All that a speech can say | H |
| About Democracy | H |
| And what dictators do | Q |
| The elderly rubbish they talk | R |
| To an apathetic grave | S |
| Analysed all in his book | T |
| The enlightenment driven away | H |
| The habit forming pain | U |
| Mismanagement and grief | V |
| We must suffer them all again | W |
| - | |
| Into this neutral air | X |
| Where blind skyskrapers use | H |
| Their full height to proclaim | Y |
| The strength of Collective Man | J |
| Each language pours its vain | U |
| Competitive excuse | H |
| But who can live for long | Z |
| In an euphoric dream | A2 |
| Out of the mirror they stare | X |
| Imperialism's face | H |
| And the international wrong | Z |
| - | |
| Faces along the bar | B2 |
| Cling to their average day | H |
| The lights must never go out | C2 |
| The music must always play | H |
| All the conventions conspire | D2 |
| To make this fort assume | E2 |
| The furniture of home | F2 |
| Lest we should see where we are | B2 |
| Lost in a haunted wood | G2 |
| Children afraid of the night | F |
| Who have never been happy or good | G2 |
| - | |
| The windiest militant trash | H2 |
| Important Persons shout | C2 |
| Is not so crude as our wish | I2 |
| What mad Nijinsky wrote | J2 |
| About Diaghilev | V |
| Is true of the normal heart | K2 |
| For the error bred in the bone | L2 |
| Of each woman and each man | J |
| Craves what it cannot have | V |
| Not universal love | V |
| But to be loved alone | L2 |
| - | |
| From the conservative dark | M2 |
| Into the ethical life | V |
| The dense commuters come | N2 |
| Repeating their morning vow | V |
| 'I will be true to the wife | V |
| I'll concentrate more on my work ' | - |
| And helpless governors wake | O2 |
| To resume their compulsory game | Y |
| Who can release them now | V |
| Who can reach the deaf | V |
| Who can speak for the dumb | N2 |
| - | |
| All I have is a voice | H |
| To undo the folded lie | P2 |
| The romantic lie in the brain | U |
| Of the sensual man in the street | B |
| And the lie of Authority | H |
| Whose buildings grope the sky | P2 |
| There is no such thing as the State | Q2 |
| And no one exists alone | L2 |
| Hunger allows no choice | H |
| To the citizen or the police | H |
| We must love one another or die | P2 |
| - | |
| Defenceless under the night | F |
| Our world in stupor lies | H |
| Yet dotted everywhere | X |
| Ironic points of light | F |
| Flash out wherever the Just | R2 |
| Exchange their messages | H |
| May I composed like them | S2 |
| Of Eros and of dust | R2 |
| Beleaguered by the same | Y |
| Negation and despair | X |
| Show an affirming flame | Y |
W. H. Auden
(1)
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