A Short Analysis of W. H. Auden’s ‘Epitaph on a Tyrant’

Interesting Literature

A reading of a short political poem

‘Epitaph on a Tyrant’ is one of Auden’s short masterpieces. In just six lines, W. H. Auden (1907-63) manages to say so much about the nature of tyranny. You can read ‘Epitaph on a Tyrant’ here, before proceeding to our short analysis of this powerful poem that remains all too relevant today. We’re going to go through the poem line by line and combine our summary of ‘Epitaph on a Tyrant’ with a close textual analysis of it, since every line yields new observations and questions.

W. H. Auden spent some time in Berlin during the 1930s, and it was here that he probably wrote ‘Epitaph on a Tyrant’, which was published in 1939, the year that the Second World War broke out. The specific tyrant Auden had in mind, then, was probably Adolf Hitler, though the poem can be analysed as a…

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From Demagogue to Tyrant – We’re All His Slaves Now (VOTE!)

SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE

Solon, Epistle II:

“Note that the most terrible man has laid hold of tyranny. He started with demagoguery, and then he feigned some injury to himself. He then ran to the courts and shouted, saying that he had suffered at the hands of his enemies, and thought that he should be provided with a guard of four hundred men. They paid no heed to my warnings, and gave him the men. These men were club-bearers. After that, he subjugated the people. In vain did I strive to free the poor from servitude – they are all Peisistratus’ slaves now.”

ἴσθι γὰρ τὸν ἄνδρα, ὦ ἑταῖρε, δεινότατα ἁψάμενον τῆς τυραννίδος. ἤρξατο μὲν δημαγωγεῖν, εἶτα δὲ ἑαυτῷ τραύματα ποιήσας, παρελθὼν ἐφ’ ἡλιαίαν ἐβόα φάμενος πεπονθέναι ταῦτα ὑπὸ τῶν ἐχθρῶν, καὶ φύλακας ἠξίου παρασχεῖν οἱ τετρακοσίους τοὺς νεωτάτους. οἳ δὲ ἀνηκουστήσαντές μου παρέσχον τοὺς ἄνδρας. οὗτοι δὲ ἦσαν κορυνηφόροι. καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο τὸν…

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A Short Analysis of Shakespeare’s ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy from Hamlet

Interesting Literature

‘To be, or not to be, that is the question’: perhaps one of the most famous lines in all of English literature, but arguably also one of the most mysterious – and one of the most misread. Hamlet’s soliloquy from William Shakespeare’s play is rightly celebrated for being a meditation on the nature of life and death, but some analyses and interpretations of the soliloquy serve to reduce the lines to a more simplistic meaning. So what does ‘To be or not to be’ really mean? First, here’s a reminder of Hamlet’s words:

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand…

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Σε ομάδα αγαλμάτων ανήκουν οι Δίδυμοι Κούροι της Κλένιας

ΕΛΛΑΣ

Χρονολογούνται στο τρίτο τέταρτο του 6ου αι. π.Χ., είναι αυθεντικά, φέρουν ίχνη από πολλά σπασίματα και αποτιμώνται 5,35 εκατ. € έκαστος.

Πέντε εκατομμύρια τριακόσιες πενήντα χιλιάδες ευρώ έκαστος αποτιμώνται, σύμφωνα με ασφαλείς πληροφορίες, οι Κούροι που εντοπίστηκαν σε χέρια αρχαιοκαπήλων στην Κορινθία. Αυτή είναι η εμπορική αξία. Η αρχαιολογική είναι ούτως ή άλλως ανεκτίμητη, ιδίως για τόσο σπάνια έργα της αρχαϊκής εποχής. Το πόρισμα διαβιβάστηκε ήδη στην Εισαγγελία.

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NOTES OF A WET AUGUST

ΚΡΥΣΤΑΛΛΟ

Στεκόμουν στη βεράντα

τον απέραντο ορίζοντα

και το γαλάζιο τ’ ουρανού κοιτούσα

 

κι έπαιρνα μέσα μου

την ευωδία του γιασεμιού

 

παρατηρούσα το χορό

του σύνεφου στ’ αγέρα το τραγούδι

 

κι αφού η αιωνειότη δεν φαινόταν

ήρθες εσύ

και το φως γίνηκε πιο λαμπρό

κι ο ήλιος φάνηκε

πίσω απ’ του σύνεφου το κάλος

 

κι ήσουν εσύ η αιωνειότη

που εμφανίστηκε

κι έσεσες στην παλάμη μου

κρυστάλινο εκμαγείο

 

CRYSTAL

I stood on the terrace

gazing the immense horizon

 

and the light-blue of the sky

I took inside

 

the jasmine’s fragrance

noticing the dance

of the cloud in the wind

 

and when eternity couldn’t be

you came

and the light got brighter

the sun appeared

among the cloud dance

 

and you were my eternity

that presented itself

falling in my palm

a newly cut diamond

 

NOTES OF A WET AUGUST, Libros Libertad, winter, 2018

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