The Shield of Achilles
By W. H. Auden
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 r*ped, 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.
Summary of The Shield of Achilles
- Popularity of “The Shield of Achilles”: Written in the mythical strain of pointing horrors of war, “The Shield of Achilles” by W. H. Auden, a great anti-war American poet, is a beautiful poem. With a melodious strain, the poem presents implicit references to the Greek hero, his mother, and the metal worker who is preparing the shield. The beauty of the poem lies in its anti-war perspective.
- “The Shield of Achilles” As a Representative of Anti-War Expression: W. H. Auden, who is quite popular for his pacifist views, presents Thetis, the goddess, directing Hephaestos to prepare armor for Achilles to go to war. However, what she sees on the shield proves disturbing for her that she sees a wasteland with no food, no resting place, and no sign of any settlement. An anonymous voice points to the justifications of war and the soldiers’ sacrifices to show how war becomes a necessary evil.
However, in the stanzas scenes carved on the shield, Thetis is again looking over her shoulder to see what is being carved on the shield. She watches the three lives being lost in the ensuing war after being captured. The final stanza presents the scene of a wanton boy involved in different mischiefs, representing the new generation following the devasting war. The final stanza announces the death of her son, Achilles, which seems to be the outcome of modern warfare in the eyes of Auden. - Major Themes in “The Shield of Achilles”: Horrors of war, traditions of war, and deaths of human beings in war are three major themes. Although the poet presents the mythical figures of Achilles, his mother, and the metal worker, all three point to the main theme of the horrors of war. The shapes that the goddess wants to be carved on the shield of her son are different from what she desires. Instead of her desired shapes of bustling societies and green forests, it shows barrenness, the natural result of war. This also points to the tradition of preparation for wars and their immediate consequences in which deaths and captives are all at the mercy of the war, and the captors and almost everybody else are going to die, including the great Achilles. The final stanza shows that death is the inevitable result of such wars.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used in The Shield of Achilles
H. Auden every other literary devices to achieve his ends in this poem. Some of the major literary devices he uses are as follows.
- Allusion: This literary device means the use of a reference to some event or figure from history, culture, or literature to emphasize some point. The poet used allusions of history, religion, and geography, such as Thetis, Achilles, and Hephaestos.
- Alliteration: This sound device shows the use of the same initial consonant sounds in successive words, such as the sound of /s/ in “sentries sweated” and or the sound of /f/ in “flickering forge-light.”
- Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /a/ in “His hands had put instead” and the sound of /a/ and /o/ in “No blade of grass, no sign of neighborhood.”
- Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /l/ and /m/ in “A million eyes, a million boots in line” and the sound of /t/ and /s/ in “And sentries sweated for the day was hot.”
- Enjambment: It means to roll over one verse to the next in the next line without a pause. The poem shows the use of enjambments, such as;
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.
- Irony: It is a literary device in which the intended meanings of the words are different from the actual meanings. There is irony in the use of an olive tree in the beginning. The poet used situational irony at the end in the final stanza in which Achilles gets killed because of war, as these verses show.
At what the god had wrought
To please her son, the strong
Iron-hearted man-slaying Achilles
Who would not live long.
- Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. H. Auden used imagery in this poem, such as “She saw by his flickering forge-light”, “A crowd of ordinary decent folk” and “As three pale figures were led forth and bound.”
- Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from the literal meanings. The poem shows symbols, such as cities, ships, wilderness, death in statistics, and Grecian names to point out the ravages of war.
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in The Shield of Achilles
Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is an analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.
- Diction: It means the type of language. The poem shows good use of formal, poetic, and flowery diction.
- End Rhyme: It means to use verses having matching end words. W. H. Auden shows the use of end rhymes, such as trees/cities/seas and instead/lead.
- Rhyme Scheme: As the stanza length varies in each stanza, there are different rhyme schemes for each of them. The first stanza shows the ABBBCDED rhyme scheme.
- Repetition: This is a rhetorical device that shows the use of repetitions of words or phrases to emphasize an idea. The poem shows the repetition of quick in the seventh stanza.
- Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are nine stanzas, with each comprising seven or eight verses.
- Tone: It means the voice of the text. The poem shows a tragic, indifferent, and frustrated tone in different places in the poem.
Quotes to be Used
The following lines are useful to quote when talking about the horrors of war to show how the world is going to be.
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.
