Debata nad związkiem poezji i polityki w Pamięci W. B. Yeatsa W. H. Audena i Elegii przed wojną A. Ostriker
A debate regarding the relationship of poetry and politics in In Memory of W. B. Yeats by W. H. Auden and Elegy Before the War by A. Ostriker

Summary/Abstract: In Memory of W. B. Yeats by W. H. Auden and Elegy Before the War by A. Ostriker are two “pre-war” elegies, in which the personal element is confronted with the political. The Auden’s poem portrays the death of a known figure with the background of the unsteady 30s of the 20th century, when the fear of fascism and its repercussions was common. In the long, 7-pieces work of Ostriker framework is the portrait of the poet’s dead mother, and the inlay is the ardent and ironic anti-war manifesto, in which the author not only attacks the American imperialism obvious during the Iraqi war, but she also meditates on the sense of war and violence. The elegy of the poet born in Great Britain, and especially the phrase “poetry makes nothing happen”, is the starting point and a pretext for Ostriker to initiate a dialogue regarding the role of poetry and its relationship to the politics. The analysis of both poems in regard to the essays of both authors discussing the sense of poetry, their other works, and also the “post-war elegies” (The Shield of Achilles and The Eight and Thirteenth) reveals that the stance of both of the poets regarding the role of poetry is ambiguous and unstable. Also interesting are their poetical considerations in the context of the dilemma indicated in the Ostriker’s Poem 60 Years after Auschwitz, in which the poet wonders, what should be the shape of poetry and its overtone after the holocaust.

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