September 1, 1939 Setting

W.H. Auden
This Study Guide consists of approximately 13 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of September 1, 1939.

September 1, 1939 Setting

W.H. Auden
This Study Guide consists of approximately 13 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of September 1, 1939.
This section contains 283 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the September 1, 1939 Study Guide

The Dive Bar

The poem’s physical setting is perhaps not so important as the temporal and ideological space in which it was composed. The speaker identifies his location as a nameless dive "on fifty-second street" – that is, a nondescript public space which caters to individuals of all classes and occupations (1-2). This universal backdrop simultaneously expands the poem’s applicability and draws its reader away from material conditions into a more abstract, reflective mindset. Readers seeing "September 1, 1939" at the time would have been immediately transported to the day of Poland’s invasion. Auden seeks to construct not a visual, but a mental-emotional atmosphere with which all of his contemporaries can interact.

Twentieth-Century Europe

As suggested by its title, the poem relies very heavily on a specific moment in history, and European history in particular: Third Reich Germany’s first major bid at continental domination. The speaker is noticeably...

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This section contains 283 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the September 1, 1939 Study Guide
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