The Watchers (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: W. H. Auden
- First Published: 1945
- Type of Work: Pastoral
- Genres: Poetry, Pastoral
- Subjects: Europe or Europeans, 1930’s, England or English people, Fear, Clocks or watches
The Poem
“The Watchers” is a short, forty-line poem in eight five-line stanzas reminiscent of the medieval French form known as a cinquain, which used a five-line stanza with a variety of meters and rhyme schemes. It was written in February, 1932, but not published until 1945. The speaker or persona of the poem is an observer who is watching a sleeping world from his window late at night. A yellow clock face and a green pier light eerily illuminate “a new imprudent year” as the night’s silence “buzzes” in the poet’s ear. Except for the clock, the light, and the...
[The entire page is 1193 words long]
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