The Demagogue and the Sotto Voce
The Demagogue and the Sotto Voce
Pronouns are crucial tools for any poet. They create dramatic relation and perspective, but because they are insubstantial they allow for abstraction and inclusion. No poet was quite so preoccupied with pronouns as W. H. Auden, who reflects on them often in his poetry and essays. This chapter considers Auden's relatively neglected poem “Law Like Love,” which incorporates many of the pronominal registers explored throughout this book. In this poem Auden reveals his skepticism about public orators and their absolutes, and turns against the rhetoric of his own most famous public poems, “Spain” and “September 1, 1939.” In “Law Like Love,” Auden finds alternatives for realizing the civic function of poetry.
Keywords: W. H. Auden, poets, poetry, pronouns, Law Like Love
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