Mead1 Camillia Mead May 2020 Looking Back Poetry, little words, multiple pages and infinite meanings make up this genre of writing. Poetry is often confusing yet, it can also make complete sense to the reader. The choice of words that are used, the comparisons, the emotions that are brought up all lead to the meaning of the poem. What the meaning is however, can vary from reader to reader. Cities and civilizations are an interesting topic, from living in a cityin the time of war, remembering the past and a walk through their city. History, it is ever changing yesterday becoming history, time moving fast, how do we remember? Poems, they are short or long, they are descriptive or vague, they bring emotion they remember the past. Three poems, remembering the past, showing the growth of mankind, and making an emotional connection. War can bring emotional feelings for everyone, reading about war is one thing but reading about it through an average person's words is another thing. You can see it through their eyes, see the emotion in the words. In the poemSeptember 1, 1939by W.H. Auden does exactly this. “ Uncertain and afraidAs the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade” (Auden) this right at the beginning draws emotion from the reader. The words describing feelings that have only been felt by modern America a handful of times. The closest having been September 1, 2001 being the one that leaves a lasting impression even almost 20 years after. “The unmentionable odor of death” (Auden)is another striking line in the first stanza. Death was common in that time, not just from war but also the medical practices of the time. While, that is the most literal meaning, one could say the amount of death on all sides of the war hung on the earth. The heaviness of the poem that almost turns the reader away yet dragging them in further
