Political Poems: W.H. Auden's 'Spain 1937'

In their second episode, Mark and Seamus look at W.H. Auden's, ‘Spain’. Auden travelled to Spain in January 1937 to support the Republican efforts in the civil war, and composed the poem shortly after his return a few months later to raise money for Medical Aid for Spain. It became a rallying cry in the fight against fascism, but was also heavily criticised, not least by George Orwell, for the phrase (in its first version) of ‘necessary murder’. Mark and Seamus discuss the poem’s Marxist presentation of history, its distinctly non-Marxist language, and why Auden ultimately condemned it as ‘a lie’.
Mark Ford is Professor of English at University College, London, and Seamus Perry is Professor of English Literature at Balliol College, Oxford.
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Seamus Perry: That's what Wystan says
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Close Readings is a multi-series podcast subscription from the London Review of Books exploring different periods of literature through a selection of key works. Enjoy an introductory grounding like no other from Europe's leading literary journal: fluent, rigorous, irreverent and never boring.
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Running in 2024:
ON SATIRE with Colin Burrow and Clare Bucknell
HUMAN CONDITIONS with Adam Shatz, Judith Butler, Pankaj Mishra and Brent Hayes Edwards
AMONG THE ANCIENTS II with Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones
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MEDIEVAL LOLS with Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley
POLITICAL POEMS with Seamus Perry and Mark Ford
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AMONG THE ANCIENTS I with Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones
MEDIEVAL BEGINNINGS with Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley
THE LONG AND SHORT with Mark Ford and Seamus Perry
MODERN-ISH POETS: SERIES 1 with Mark Ford and Seamus Perry
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[@maolsheachlannoceallaigh4772]

Cathleen Ni Houlihan was a play, not a poem. I enjoyed the discussion, thanks.

[@EmphaticW]

Hello. Other than war and death, what would you say are other themes present in the poem?

[@aclark903]

There was a young man in 🇺🇦
Who saw that it started to rain.
He said with a shout
Does anyone doubt?
We can stop all this rain with our brain? 🧠

[@maolsheachlannoceallaigh4772]

"Homophobically tinged?". Oh, please... This was long before PC. Would Orwell even have known Auden was gay?

[@findbridge1790]

influence of st John Perse still present