O WHERE ARE YOU GOING?
"O where are you going?" said reader to rider,
"That valley is fatal when furnaces burn,
Yonder's the midden whose odours will madden,
That gap is the grave where the tall return."
"O do you imagine," said fearer to farer,
"That dusk will delay on your path to the pass,
Your diligent looking discover the lacking
Your footsteps feel from granite to grass?"
"O what was that bird," said horror to hearer,
"Did you see that shape in the twisted trees?
Behind you swiftly the figure comes softly,
The spot on your skin is a shocking disease."
"Out of this house," said rider to reader,
"Yours never will," said farer to fearer,
"They're looking for you," said hearer to horror,
As he left them there, as he left them there.
-- W. H. Auden
"O Where Are You Going" is one of my favorite heroic poems; I love the theme, the characterizations, and the alliteration. (Hear the music; feel the beat.) The Anglo-Saxon Beowulf, "The Battle of Maldon," "The Wanderer," and "The Seafarer" stand behind this poem, though perhaps through the workings of William Morris, G. M. Hopkins, and Ezra Pound. (Some research just might settle that question.) Likewise, later medieval allegories and mystery plays invigorate the Modernist invocations of personae and praxis. Mostly, I appreciate how the poem partakes of ancient, traditional cadences without sounding like pastiche, without merely deriving from those past patterns. In short, the poem lives.
Auden also used an alternative title for this piece--"The Three Companions"--which reminds me of Job's "comforters." Passive versus active; stuck versus steady. The companions: reader, fearer, and horror. The hero: rider/farer/hearer. I love how the last verse pulls together all that comes before as our hero gets the last word with each nay-sayer. "As he left them there, as he left them there."
