WHO’S WHO
Who’s Who is a sonnet by W. H. Auden. Its purpose
is to contrast a man’s entire public life with a facet of his intimate private
life.
In
fact, every man has two sides of his life --- the public and the private. The
public side is open and recorded in almost all public biographies. There are no
amazing characteristics of the man mentioned in such biographies.
The
full biography a person also mentions his secret life which he keeps hidden
from the public eye. It is the real and true life which he knows better than anybody
else.
According
to a literary analyst --- the poem
satirizes the tendency to reduce individuals to a series of accomplishments and
external events. This happens in the first stanza. In the second stanza, there
is a contrast which the poet reveals by highlighting the humble and domestic
life of the same persons by their quiet presence and unwavering support.
W. H. Auden
was a British-American poet. He was born on 21 Feb 1907 in York, United Kingdom
and died on 29 Sept 1973, Vienna, Austria.
He is
considered a modern poet writing with technical perfection on themes of politics, love, death, and society.
Here
is one of his famous quotes : “No hero is immortal till he dies.”
The
full text of the sonnet Who’s Who reads
as follows”
“A shilling life will give you all the facts:
How Father beat him, how he ran away,
What were the struggles of his youth, what acts
Made him the greatest figure of his day;
Of how he fought, fished, hunted, worked all night,
Though giddy, climbed new mountains; named a sea;
Some of the last researchers even write
Love made him weep his pints like you and me.
With all his honours on, he sighed for one
Who, say astonished critics, lived at home;
Did little jobs about the house with skill
And nothing else; could whistle; would sit still
Or potter round the garden; answered some
Of his long marvellous letters but kept none.”
**********
Note:
A shilling life in the first line means: A popular biography bought for a
shilling.
G.R.Kanwal
8th
June 2025
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