PRESENTATION

MODERN POETRY
AS I WALKED OUT ONE
EVENING
BY
W. H. AUDEN
PRESENTED BY
GROUP #4
 W. H. AUDEN

Born February 27, 1907 in York, England

Died September 28, 1973 in Vienna, Austria
Wrote As I Walked Out One Evening in 1940
Occupation writer, poet, essayist, and
playwright
Writes about moral issues
Moved to the United States in 1939 and became
a
• citizen in 1946.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

Personification
Hyperbole
Allusion
• Inverted word order
SOUND PATTERNS

Rhyme
Alliteration
• Repetition
 MODERN POETRY

• Modern poetry in English emerged in the late 19th century, and

was rooted in the idea that “traditional” forms of art, literature,
social organization and daily life had become outdated, and that it
was therefore essential to sweep them aside and reinvent culture.
It encouraged the idea of re-examination of every aspect of the
art of poetry with the goal of finding that which was “holding
back” progress, and replacing it with new, and therefore better,
ways of reaching the same end.
 FORM
The poem adopts the Elegiac form. This form is
associated with a song of mourning.
This form relates to the poem which is about time. The
form is mournful making clear it wants to stop all the
clocks and time.
• The voice is in first person ‘As I walked out’ which
could be Auden talking to the reader. Therefore, the
silent listener being us is being directly spoken to.
STRUCTURE

14 stanzas
• quatrains
HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Railroads
• Love affair