September 1, 1939

The poem opens by establishing the setting and the perspective. The narrative is told in first-person point of view through a speaker sitting in a bar in New York City—many miles away from the conflict alluded to in the poem’s title. This immediately suggests that the impact of the war extends beyond Poland or Europe, creating repercussions on a global scale. Although the poet himself had recently come from Europe, this is not stated in the poem; instead, the reader is left to perceive that no one, American or European, is exempt from the effects of war: “Waves of anger and fear / Circulate over the bright / And darkened lands of the earth” (Lines 6-8). The first few lines lean heavily into S sounds (sometimes called sibilance) before transitioning into the harder consonants to foreshadow the looming conflict. Once the broad setting is established, the speaker moves away from the present moment and examines the “scholarship” (Line 12) of the past. They state that cracks in humanity have always existed, and these cracks can be driven open and exploited by trauma. This, the speaker believes, is what happened to Adolph Hitler, which raises the question of whether evil is something that is born or made. The poem suggests that perhaps both are true. Looking further back into the past, the speaker references the Greek general Thucydides as a lens through which to look at democracy. The speaker argues that political leaders are “apathetic” (Line 28) and prone to the same habits of dishonesty and betrayal. By following them, a nation risks having its “enlightenment driven away” (Line 30). This supports the poem’s theme of finding strength in the individual, rather than the faceless state.

The speaker moves back to the present moment, examining the “neutral air” (Line 34) of America, a country not yet invested in the war effort. The city uses its “blind skyscrapers” (Line 35) as a symbol of power. At this time, this type of architecture was very characteristic of America and would not have been seen in Auden’s home of England. Thus, these skyscrapers represented the freedom and power that America claimed to offer its citizens. However, the speaker goes on to say that each country presents the same façade in its own way. This is because humanity is innately guilty of the same weaknesses wherever they may be.

In the fifth stanza, the setting becomes even narrower as the speaker re-examines the bar visited in the opening of the poem. This setting becomes a microcosm of the nation as a whole as the patrons try to cling to normalcy, pretending not to have any responsibility for the events of the wider world. The reference to lights and music is specific to this interior setting, and yet the implication behind it is one carried out all over the country. Yet behind this ignorance is uncertainty, fear, and the knowledge that each person is implicitly guilty in a culture of oppression. The speaker cites the Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and eventually had a mental health crisis, as evidence of the unpredictability of need. Because of this, the speaker thinks people are more drawn toward selfish validation than true human connection.

The seventh stanza contains the poem’s only line of dialogue: “I will be true to the wife, / I'll concentrate more on my work” (Lines 71-72). This is meant to portray the day-to-day promise people make to themselves to survive by the conventions of society, reaching for an ideal that is innately unrewarding. The people become stuck in a cycle of ignorance and unfulfilled aspiration, allowing politicians to enact “their compulsory game” (Line 74) in driving the world forward. To this seemingly hopeless norm, the speaker presents a solution: “All I have is a voice / To undo the folded lie” (Lines 78-79). This is a call to action for both artists and for the common man to speak their own personal truths. “Lie” is mentioned three times in this stanza (Lines 79, 80, 82), suggesting a layering of mistruths and half-truths that have infected the speaker’s society. The only way to rise above this deception is to come together in unity and honesty, rather than remaining isolated in fear (while this section of the poem refers to the strength of the collected individual, it can also be read as a call for “neutral” America to join the war).

Despite the darkness within the poem, it ends on a hopeful note: Enlightenment, illumination, and courage are “dotted everywhere” (Line 91). The speaker acknowledges that they are made of the same material as every other person around them—in other words, an everyman archetype representative of the greater whole. This allows the reader to see themselves in the speaker’s voice, and to recognize the potential for strength within themselves—during catastrophic times of upheaval like the war, or even in the struggles of the everyday. The speaker does not pretend they are free from the “[n]egation and despair” (Line 98) that haunts each living person, but they close the poem by proposing that they can do some good in spite of it.