No. of Recommendations: 4
Lambo:
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.I'll see your Yeats and raise you an Auden. In “September 1, 1939” W.H. Auden denounces the fascism taking hold in governments around the world and also lays the blame at the feet of individuals for the “evil” that their governments carry out unchecked.
Since governments are made up of imperfect individuals, Auden suggests it is necessary for everyday citizens to question their governments’ motives and authority. The most famous line of the poem arises from a paradox, suggesting that although people must act as individuals, their true strength comes when they act as a group — “We must love one another or die”.
But the poem is not all doom and gloom, the last stanza offers a small flicker of hope:
Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.“September 1, 1939”:
poets.org: September 1, 1939 by W. H. Auden - Poems 