W H AUDEN AS I WALKED OUT ONE EVENING SIGNIFICANCE OF TIME
Joseph O’Donnell
Explore the significance of time in ‘As I Walked Out One Evening’.!
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In ‘As I Walked Out One Evening’, time plays a pivotal role in Auden’s description of life and love and his narrators view of the scenario he has landed in. !
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The frequent mention of clocks and time remind the reader that loving one another is what we have to do to present our own personality and differentiate ourselves from the rest of the world. Auden depicts the crowds in the first stanza as ‘fields of harvest wheat’, suggesting that we are all the same and must stand out from the crowd to live a loving life. Auden uses the phrase: ‘you cannot conquer time’ presenting the idea that it is foolish for one to think that love could be more powerful than the personified ‘Time’. This idea represents that even though we can be happy and feel the wonderful emotion which is love, we are all still organic matter and must die eventually. There is no escape from death so we must face the world with the dignity and state that we are not scared of death as we are well aware of its ability to take us
‘tomorrow or today’. !
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Auden also makes it known to the reader that although physically we visually age over time, the mental effects of ageing are merely a concept and that we only have to act the age we wish to ask. Time and abiding to the social constraints of becoming old are simply a notion we place upon ourselves as an excuse to our feelings and physical perceptions. Through his narrator he reminds us that even though we may become old and less able to love or live life to the exciting nature we wish to ‘life remains a blessing’ and no matter our situation we must help one another to achieve happiness before the clocks eventually ‘cease their chiming’.
Auden presents this idea through the phrase ‘you shall love your crooked neighbour with your corked heart’ suggesting the further belief that love does not have to be romantic love but can also come in the form of a platonic
Explore the significance of time in ‘As I Walked Out One Evening’.!
!
!
!
In ‘As I Walked Out One Evening’, time plays a pivotal role in Auden’s description of life and love and his narrators view of the scenario he has landed in. !
!
The frequent mention of clocks and time remind the reader that loving one another is what we have to do to present our own personality and differentiate ourselves from the rest of the world. Auden depicts the crowds in the first stanza as ‘fields of harvest wheat’, suggesting that we are all the same and must stand out from the crowd to live a loving life. Auden uses the phrase: ‘you cannot conquer time’ presenting the idea that it is foolish for one to think that love could be more powerful than the personified ‘Time’. This idea represents that even though we can be happy and feel the wonderful emotion which is love, we are all still organic matter and must die eventually. There is no escape from death so we must face the world with the dignity and state that we are not scared of death as we are well aware of its ability to take us
‘tomorrow or today’. !
!
Auden also makes it known to the reader that although physically we visually age over time, the mental effects of ageing are merely a concept and that we only have to act the age we wish to ask. Time and abiding to the social constraints of becoming old are simply a notion we place upon ourselves as an excuse to our feelings and physical perceptions. Through his narrator he reminds us that even though we may become old and less able to love or live life to the exciting nature we wish to ‘life remains a blessing’ and no matter our situation we must help one another to achieve happiness before the clocks eventually ‘cease their chiming’.
Auden presents this idea through the phrase ‘you shall love your crooked neighbour with your corked heart’ suggesting the further belief that love does not have to be romantic love but can also come in the form of a platonic