The Shield of AchillesBy: Erin Parker
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“The Shield
of Achilles” by W. H. Auden is an ekphrastic
poem that compares and contrasts expectation and reality, war and peace, and
ancient society and modern society. This is a poem about a shield, which is the
extra textual other that is in dialogue with this poem. The poem is separated
into three main stanzas, which all begin with “She looked over his shoulder.”
This refers to Achilles mother, Thetis, expecting to see his shield in a certain
way, but instead finding something entirely different.
Thetis expects to see peaceful scenery, joy, religion, music, and civilization: things that she believes Achilles will be fighting for. Instead, she is disappointed by the images of war, death, punishment, loneliness, barren wilderness, injustice, and sorrow. This poem also speaks to how Auden saw his modern world. He, along with Thetis, expects to see one where there is joy and community, but instead sees one that is cold and inhumane. Auden writes about this ancient society to compare it to the totalitarian society that he saw in the 1950s while writing this poem. Auden saw a society that was artificial, bare, expressionless, and lacking in community and justice. There is a lot of pessimistic diction throughout the poem, revealing how Auden saw the world at that time. Auden uses words like “artificial,” “lead,” “bare and brown,” “ragged,” “aimless and alone,” “blankness,” and repetition of the words “no” and “nothing.” This was a world where promises were never kept, help never came, and no one ever wept for each other. Auden saw his society as one that was hollow and had gotten out of touch with humanity and religion. He writes about “three posts driven” into the ground without anyone saying anything or caring, referring to the Crucifixion. Auden also notes that there is “barbed wire,” which could be an allusion to the over-bearing and troubling totalitarian society that surrounded and enclosed him. This poem shows the negative side of war, and how war only brings about death and negativity in societies. Thetis thought that Achilles would become a man and fight for what was good in their society, but instead, the shield reveals that society is a deplorable place which pits man against man in a battle that ultimately ends in death. This society is one that throws “well-aimed stone[s]” and tries to squash those that attempt to “fl[y] up to safety” and be their own person. Even this “iron-hearted man-slaying Achilles” would be dragged down by the stifling negativity of his surrounding society. Auden saw society as one that crushed the ordinary and extraordinary alike. Even though the story of Achilles is a myth, Auden connects this poem to reality. |