The Shield of Achilles by W.H Auden PDF

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The Shield of Achilles by W.H Auden is one of the most famous poem of WH Auden taught in Department of English, AMU under the mentioned paper by Dr. Rabeya and Prof. Vibha Sharma....

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The Shield of Achilles by W.H Auden

The Poem. This poem by W. H. Auden, "The Shield of Achilles," uses an ancient Greek epic by Homer (c. 800 b.c.e.; English translation, 1616) to reflect on the brutality and violence of today's world. the goddess Thetis, mother of Greek hero Achilles, appears as an unnamed woman in the first stanza, but those who know the Iliad well will recognise the woman as Thetis from her name in this poem's title. It's Hephaestos, the god of fire and metalworking, who is commissioned by Thetis in the Iliad to make a shield for Achilles to carry into battle in Book 18 of the Iliad. Hephaestos is decorating the shield in the first stanza, and Thetis watches. Hephaestos has used images of "an artificial wilderness" and a "sky like lead" instead of conventional symbols of victory and power. There's more detail in the next two stanzas, depicting a barren plain with expressionless people standing in line, "wait[ing] for a sign." "Some cause" is declared

to be righteous by a voice from the heavens. Without discussion or reflection, the people march in lines to serve that cause, which brings them to grief. Thetis is mentioned again in the fourth stanza of the poem. Rather than seeing "ritual pieties" in the form of sacrificial cows and ceremonial offerings, she discovers

"quite

another

scene"

Similarly,

the

shield's two remaining stanzas describe its depiction of various scenes. Three people are being crucified in a barbed-wire enclosure watched by a group of bored guards and a crowd of uninterested onlookers. These "they" don't have any hope or pride, and the lines are written so that "they" could be the crucified figures—the crowd, or the guards, or all of them. These men have "died as men before their bodies died," and have lost their humanity. Thetis and Hephaestos are again mentioned in the seventh stanza. Athletics and dancers, both symbols of strength and agility, are what Thetis is searching for. She arrives at a "weed-choked field" instead of a sports field or dance floor. There is only one person in that field, as described in stanza 8, a poor and filthy

boy who has no where else to go and nothing to do but idly toss a rock at a bird. Rape and murder and betrayal have been his only experiences in life; he has no concept of love or empathy. The poem ends with Hephaestos limping away and Thetis getting her first full look at the shield. What she sees and the thought that her son will carry images of violence and cruelty into battle make her sick to her stomach. Hephaestos and Thetis don't know that Achilles is going to die in the war against Troy, and the narrator points this out in the final line of the poem. Forms and Devices. As a literary device, "The Shield of Achilles" uses contrasts between what Thetis expects to find on the shield and what she actually does find. Thetis looks over Hephaestos's shoulder three times, expecting to see peaceful and prosperous civilizations. There are classical images she expects to see—olive branches, flower-adorned sacrificial animals—as well as phrases like "untamed seas," "ritual pieties," and "Libation and sacrifice" in these stanzas that evoke a bygone era.

Those who populate Thetis's imagined world are strong and adventurous, as well as pious and happy. However, the shield's actual images are quite different. With no hope or emotion in the people, the landscape is desolate and barren. They do not participate in any kind of physical activity, but instead stand or march in orderly rows, without passion

or

purpose.

For

her,

she

sees

"an

unintelligible multitude," a crucifixion that clearly echoes

Christ's,

an

audience

of

uninterested

observers, and only one lone boy at the celebration. These passages are set in the present day because of their use of barbed wire imagery and statistics. To highlight these differences, Auden uses two distinct stanza forms. Thetis and Hephaestos are the focus of attention in stanzas 1, 4, 7, and 9 of the poem, which is set in ancient Greece. Second and fourth lines rhyme, as do the sixth and eighth in these eight three-stress

lines.

There

are

several

stanzas

depicting scenes from modern life that are quite different. The seven-line rime royal form is used in these stanzas. The lines are written in iambic pentameter, with ababbccc as the rhyme scheme.

There is a striking visual and aural contrast between the innocent expectations of Thetis and the harsh realities depicted in the shield, and it is impossible not to notice the movement between stanzas. One of the poem's most important elements is irony. However, it is ironic that Thetis would expect a shield to be decorated with images of pastoral beauty, since it is an instrument of war. Distraught at the thought of Hephaestos creating images of desolation and ruin to appease her son, a soldier, a "ironhearted man-slaying" hero, Even though she is a coconspirator in war and aggression, she is appalled by the physical, social, and spiritual devastation that is the only possible outcome of her actions....