Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"York: In Memoriam of W.D. Auden" by Joseph Brodsky is a complex and layered poem that pays homage to the great British-American poet W.H. Auden, who influenced Brodsky's work significantly. The poem touches on themes of mortality, the passage of time, legacy, and the landscape-both physical and emotional-that Auden left behind.

The opening lines set the stage with a haunting image of "butterflies of northern England" hovering above "the goosefoot / below the brick wall of a dead factory." Here, Brodsky skillfully blends the natural and the industrial, creating a sort of melancholy beauty reminiscent of Auden's own style. This juxtaposition serves as a microcosm for the larger themes of the poem: life and death, nature and human creation, existing side by side, each lending the other significance.

The context of Auden's death is touched upon subtly: "Four years soon / since you died in an Austrian hotel." However, the focus is not so much on Auden's death, but on his lingering influence and presence. Brodsky muses on the words Auden once said about "three great poets," and in the act of remembering, seems to confer greatness upon Auden himself. The intriguing comment that each of these poets is a "prize son of a bitch" serves to humanize Auden, pulling him out of the celestial realm of "great poets" into the flawed and complex world of human beings.

Structurally, the poem employs free verse, allowing Brodsky to weave in and out of themes and images fluidly. The absence of a rigid rhyme scheme or meter gives room for the reader to breathe, to linger on the imagery and the weight of the words. The poem's style mimics the fluidity of memory and thought, creating an intimate atmosphere that allows for deep emotional and intellectual engagement.

One striking image that encapsulates the poem's complexity is that of "a bent knee, with its obtuse angle, multiplies the captive perspective, like a wedge of cranes holding their course for the south." This is a dense metaphor that captures the essence of the subject: a man (perhaps Auden, perhaps Brodsky himself, perhaps everyman) taking his "blind alley" with him wherever he goes, carrying his limitations and his unique perspective like an inseparable burden or gift.

Brodsky also alludes to England as still an empire, capable of "ruling waves." Here, he perhaps comments on Auden's legacy being inextricably tied to his English background. England represents both the empire that it once was and the diminished state that it's reduced to-much like how Auden is both the larger-than-life poet and the man who "died in an Austrian hotel."

In the end, the poem moves towards an exploration of language itself-how "subtracting the greater from the lesser-time from man-you get words." For Brodsky, this seems to suggest that language, poetry specifically, serves as a medium to capture what is otherwise ephemeral. Auden's absence becomes a sort of presence, just as "the source of love turns into the object of love."

"York: In Memoriam of W.D. Auden" is a haunting tribute not just to a man but to the poetic tradition he represents. It engages with complex themes through equally complex structures and metaphors, making it not just a eulogy but a work that stands on its own merits. It explores what it means to remember, to be influenced, to be human, and to create-ultimately making it a fitting tribute to a man who spent his life pondering these very questions.

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