The poem
She looked over his shoulder For vines and olive trees, Marble well-governed cities And ships upon untamed seas, But there on the shining metal His hands had put instead An artificial wilderness And a sky like lead.
A plain without a feature, bare and brown, No blade of grass, no sign of neighborhood, Nothing to eat and nowhere to sit down, Yet, congregated on its blankness, stood An unintelligible multitude, A million eyes, a million boots in line, Without expression, waiting for a sign.
Out of the air a voice without a face Proved by statistics that some cause was just In tones as dry and level as the place: No one was cheered and nothing was discussed; Column by column in a cloud of dust They marched away enduring a belief Whose logic brought them, somewhere else, to grief.
She looked over his shoulder For ritual pieties, White flower-garlanded heifers, Libation and sacrifice, But there on the shining metal Where the altar should have been, She saw by his flickering forge-light Quite another scene.
Barbed wire enclosed an arbitrary spot Where bored officials lounged (one cracked a joke) And sentries sweated for the day was hot: A crowd of ordinary decent folk Watched from without and neither moved nor spoke As three pale figures were led forth and bound To three posts driven upright in the ground.
The mass and majesty of this world, all That carries weight and always weighs the same Lay in the hands of others; they were small And could not hope for help and no help came: What their foes like to do was done, their shame Was all the worst could wish; they lost their pride And died as men before their bodies died.
She looked over his shoulder For athletes at their games, Men and women in a dance Moving their sweet limbs Quick, quick, to music, But there on the shining shield His hands had set no dancing-floor But a weed-choked field.
A ragged urchin, aimless and alone, Loitered about that vacancy; a bird Flew up to safety from his well-aimed stone: That girls are raped, that two boys knife a third, Were axioms to him, who'd never heard Of any world where promises were kept, Or one could weep because another wept.
The thin-lipped armorer, Hephaestos, hobbled away, Thetis of the shining breasts Cried out in dismay At what the god had wrought To please her son, the strong Iron-hearted man-slaying Achilles Who would not live long.
Thetis, goddess and mother of Achilles, looks over the shoulder of Hephaestos, who is forging a new shield for her son. Expecting to see scenes of greatness and bounty which exalt her son, she is shocked to see dark pictures of the everyday world. This poem seems to be a rebuttal of Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn," and it also showcases Auden's lack of faith in military might and the contemporary world while at the same time condemning the faith in the power of arms that Achilles held.
this was a pice of brilliance and is special
Yeh, i agree, this is excellent poetry. I didn't realise the 'she' was Thetis and the 'his' was Hephaestos. Thank you for that Ed.
The shield of achilles
The constrast between the Shield and the real world is very good!
Comment on the shield of Achilles
I think this is a very strong poem. I see an obvious thesis between the ideas about the war, that applied in that time and the real war. The ideas about the war were heroic and romantic. The real war was horrible. The tesis stress the terrible things of the war.
A beautiful poem, in which Auden hits the right tone about the sphere of war. Especially the part of the men who died before their bodies died really struck me. When one has seen so much misery in his life, one's soul dies. A good poem from a good poet.
It's a very special poem, I recomment to read first the poem on which this one is based, Homerus hiliad. then the contrast between both poems becomes much sarper and you will apriciate this poem even more.
the Shield of Achilles
The Story is magnificent. You really understand the astonishement of Achilles' mother when she sees the coldness and bitterness on the shield.
I never thought, I'd be so touched. I really like this poem and recommend this to everyone
I fell in love with this poem :$
I still like tractors more than this poem, but it's good
the contrast between the shield and the real world is very good
Combinations
I am impressed by the contrast this poet tries to reach between the poem of Homer and himself. It is a modernisation of the old poem, but it is deeper!