Classic to Modern English Literature

Introduction: Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. "In Memory of W. B. Yeats" is W. H. Auden's complicated tribute to William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), considered the foremost Irish poet of his age and one of the finest writers in the English language. Throughout the poem, Auden weighs the complexities of Yeats's legacy, including his tremendous literary "gift" and his sometimes "silly" or foolish ideas. More broadly, he contemplates the poet's role in society, particularly during "nightmar[ish]" periods of history—like the eve of World War II, when Auden wrote the poem. The poem dates to February 1939, the month after Yeats's death, and appears in Auden's collection, "Another Time" (1940). It remains one of the most famous poetic elegies of the 20th century. The first part speaks on the loss and how it impacted and didn’t impact, the world. The second section of ‘In M