Alex Weathersby
English/Irish Poetry
Dr. Drummond
December 7, 2008
A Remarkable Critic
“The Fall of Rome” fits almost perfectly into the typical thematic framework of
his early work of the late 1920’s through the 1930’s despite its having been written postWorld War II, and after Auden’s move to the United States. In “The Fall of Rome,”
Auden draws connections between the decline of the Roman Empire and what he views
as the utter hypocrisy and backwardness of contemporary society. He does this through
juxtaposition of contrasting ideals that are illustrated through brief but powerful images.
Each stanza contains another picture of the declining Roman society, and therein another
societal criticism. “The Fall of Rome” is as clear an example as any other of the societal
perspective and social criticism that are so prevalent in Auden’s early work, and his
feeling that his contemporary society is corrupt and diseased, and that it lacks any
forward progression, are all expressed with beautiful, specific images, which represent a
larger theme of social stagnancy.
Auden’s theme of societal inability to progress is expressed in the first stanza
through a series of brief images much like those he uses throughout the entire poem to
convey his intended meanings. The images found in the first stanza will set the tone for
the rest of the poem, and Auden therefore chooses pictures that feel tired and desolate. He
creates a storm by describing the sea: “The piers are pummeled by the waves” (Ricks
609). This creates a mental image of constant, persistent testing of man’s creation by
natural forces. Having just come from the Second World War and the Great Depression,
England must surely have felt as though it was constantly being battered, both from the
Weathersby 2
inside and out, and Auden captures this with his first line. The next image he creates is
one that expresses, with an incredible poetic beauty, Auden’s feelings about society’s
position: “In a lonely field the rain / Lashes an abandoned train” (609). This picture is a
direct description of Auden’s view of society’s lack of movement. The image of the
“abandoned train,” sitting “In a lonely field” to be battered by a downpour is an image of
a machine that is designed for progress, industry and improvement that has been
completely ignored and allowed to sit in a time of complete stagnancy. It also seems
likely that this image is one which describes Auden’s feelings of societal stagnancy due
to the obvious lack of locomotives early in the first millennium A.D., and because he is
describing Rome—at least on the surface—this image is quite clearly one which
describes a sentiment or social phenomenon that Auden has observed. The final line and
image is one of foreboding, and one which describes Auden’s feeling of constant threat
as “The outlaws fill the mountain caves” (609). On the Roman level this seems to
describe the gathering of Germanic hordes north of the Alps, as well as civil unrest
during and following the period of the Barracks Emperors.
But for Auden, this picture is not only the ever-ominous threat of war during the
early to mid 20th century, but is also a description of the internal war that he saw being
waged within society. This idea carries support from other works, and in fact connects
quite closely with a poem that is placed directly before “The Fall of Rome” in Edward
Mendelson’s compilation of Auden (Knox 22). This poem is titled “Under Which Lyre,”
and it describes the societal reinstatement of the conscripts from World War II, and
shows a strange period of reconnecting with normal procedures and daily tasks. One
Weathersby 3
stanza in particular stands out in connection with the internal strife in society following
the war that connects to the image of “outlaws fill the mountain caves”:
Let Ares doze, that other war
Is instantly declared once more
’Twixt those who follow
Precocious Hermes all the way
And those who without qualms obey
Pompous Apollo. (Auden “Under” ll. 32-37)
Auden seems here to describe not an anxiety over foreign threats, but instead a
new battle that forms in society between the progressive intellectuals: “Precocious
Hermes” who is both constantly moving towards his destination and is intellectually
precocious, and “those who without qualms obey / Pompous Apollo,” or those who have
been gifted but seem nonetheless to pursue their own vanities.
This pursuit of vanity, as opposed to a sort of intellectual humility, is one of the
major points of criticism for Auden in “The Fall of Rome.” In the second stanza, he
creates a stark contrast between the images of vanity of the Roman citizenry, and the
corrupt nature of the government organizations. In the first line he says, “Fantastic grow
the evening gowns” (Ricks 609). This stands out and seems awkward in the stanza which
goes on to describe: “Agents of the Fisc pursue / Absconding tax-defaulters through / The
sewers of provincial towns” (609). Auden uses juxtaposition in the first line to compare
this image with the rest of the stanza to point out the absurdity of the vain obsession with
personal appearance, even while society crumbles all around. Auden uses the second
description to illustrate the government’s use of relatively menial tasks to avoid
confronting major social issues. While Rome is in steep decline, the “Agents of the Fisc”
are occupied pursing the tax-defaulters through “the sewers.” His language serves to
reinforce the menial nature of the governmental pursuit, which makes a priority out of the
Weathersby 4
relatively unimportant back-alley issues, as depicted in his description of “The sewers of
provincial towns.” This particular criticism seems almost universally consistent of
overwhelmed governments, and was certainly relevant throughout the middle of the 20th
century, when the entire world was focused on a war that was never fought. This issue
certainly stains against the egocentric concerns of the citizenry of the first line that seem
terribly narcissistic after the stanza is through. Auden contrasts these two not only with
language, but also with punctuation. Of the two marks of punctuation in the stanza—one
of which is a period that marks the end, the first is a semi-colon after the description of
“the evening gowns.” Auden chooses this place for punctuation to separate the two
images and further isolate the first line. This isolation creates a remarkably distinct
contrast.
Auden goes on to develop this criticism of societal vanity and governmental
backwardness two stanzas later in a description that uses the same contrast of images
between the first line and the rest of the stanza. This criticism is another that carries
disdain towards the ruling bodies. Throughout his work, Auden seems generally
displeased with the conduct of the heads of state in contemporary society as illustrated by
this passage from “The Managers”:
“…Can
They so much as manage
To behave like genuine Caesars when alone
Or drinking with cronies,
To let their hair down and be frank about
The world? It is doubtful.”(Auden Selected 124)
This attack on “Caesars” manifests itself in “The Fall of Rome,” as well. In fact,
Auden uses the same image of the Caesar as a representation for the heads of the
government in his inner-stanza juxtaposition as an illustration of corruption. The stanza
Weathersby 5
begins with the line, “Caesar’s double-bed is warm.” Auden uses this line to criticize the
hypocrisy of the government that is seemingly comfortable, even sleeping, much like the
wearers of “the evening gowns,” amongst serious societal struggles. One such issue is
embodied in the rest of the stanza “As an unimportant clerk / Writes I DO NOT LIKE
MY WORK / On a pink official form” (Ricks 609). Following his critique of the ignorant
government, he shows one of the results. In Auden’s poem, unengaged leaders lead to an
unengaged body of citizens, like the clerk who “writes I DO NOT LIKE MY WORK.”
It is through his poetic wording and use of powerful literary techniques in works
like “The Fall of Rome” that Auden reveals his progressive intellectual side in its truest
form. Auden is a poet who possesses not only the ability to articulate concepts and
controversies, but he is also a poet who is able to convey his intellectual conviction in a
beautiful and passionate way. When Auden has a criticism, he exhibits it as a theme in his
poetry, and his poetic ability allows him to criticize openly and powerfully. Yet Auden
still does not seem a distant prophetic critic of society, but will often engage closely on a
sentimental level with the world around him as exemplified by his works like “Musee des
Beaux Arts” (3) and “The Unknown Citizen” (Auden Collected 142). This makes Auden
particularly admirable as a poet who not only possessed extraordinary poetic skill and
intellect, but felt human and a member of the society that he sought to better.
Works Cited
Auden, W. H., ed. Selected Poetry of W.H. Auden: Second Edition. New York: Random
House, Inc., 1971.
Weathersby 6
Auden, W. H., ed. The Collected Poetry of W.H. Auden. Kingsport, TN: Kingsport Press,
Inc., 1961
Auden, W. H.. “Under Which Lyre.” 20 Nov. 2008. <www.cs.rice.edu/~
ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1082.html
Knox, Bernard. “W. H. Auden.” Grand Street 1 (Winter 1982): 18-27. JSTOR. Carlyle
Fraser Lib. 17 Nov. 2008.
Ricks, Christopher B., ed. The Oxford Book of English Verse. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1999.
Weathersby 7
Most Commonly Annotated Works
1) “Musee de Beaux Arts”
2) “Epitaph on a Tyrant”
3) “Funeral Blues”
4) “The Shield of Achilles”
5) “Lullaby”
6) “In Memory of W.B. Yeats”
7) “The Unknown Citizen”
8) “The Letter”
9) “September 1st, 1939”
10 “Autumn Song”