Auden's
poem is named for the day World War II began. The poet uses a blunt, conversational tone,
communicating both a sense of despair over what led to the war and a clear vision of what he
argues is the only way out of the predicament the world is in. Auden also uses literary devices
that show this is a poem, not a conversation, and that adds intensity and emphasis to what he is
saying. These include , , rhyme, assonance, and .
The poem opens in the
first person with "I" as the poet directly addresses his readers using simple words of
one syllable: "I sit in one of the dives" and the next two lines locate him in
physical space, "On Fifty-second street," which would be in New York City, and locate
him psychologically, "uncertain and afraid." The use of such simple, stark language
that even a child could understand draws us into the poem. The fact that Auden places himself in
New York City is also important: the US was not in World War II on September 1,...
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