Analysis Of WH Auden's Poem: Eternal Love

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

every second that goes by
is a second closer to the death of the body and to the death of love. The
images of the frozen, cracked landscapes, and the crack in the teacup are
examples of lost, passed time. The verdant valleys shall always be
sheathed in snow, they cannot resist; and the teacup, once cracked, cannot
be mended. All that is left is the memory of that thing still whole, and
even those fade with the unhalting passage of time.
At the conclusion of the poem, the author refers to the passage of
the lovers. They have succumbed as well to the ravages of time, and no
amount of tears may bring them, nor anything else, back. Perhaps the most
widely known passage on the inviolability of the past is:

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all you Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

It sums up quite well the idea of this poem which, at the end, sees
even the clocks fall silent. ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

CITE THIS PAGE: