The poem ‘1 September, 1939’ is one of Auden’s most well-known and celebrated. In an apparently simple form, the poet ranges over a wide range of subject matter, casting his eye over the totality of human existence at the outbreak of the Second World War. The poem consists of nine 11-line stanzas written approximately in iambic trimeter – that is, with the occasional reversed initial foot or extra initial syllable.
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