September 1, 1939 Summary
W.H. Auden

September 1, 1939 Overview

“September 1, 1939” is a 99-line poem composed by modernist poet W.H. Auden in response to the outbreak of World War II. Structurally and thematically similar to W.B. Yeats's “Easter, 1916,” the poem uses political subject matter to generate commentary on human behavior and the moral failures of the twentieth century. It was initially published in October 1939, and later featured in a 1940 collection of Auden’s works, Another Time.