What did W. H. Auden mean when he said that poetry makes nothing happen? He wasnt announcingin poetry, mind youthat poetry has no purpose and serves no function whatsoever. His memorial to William Butler Yeats, where this line is to be found, tells us a different story. Certainly, poetry doesnt make everything happen, but those things that can be said to be goodto be a part of that complex abstraction Plato and Aristotle called the highest goodinvolve poetry at its most fundamental level of meaning. Perhaps Shelley said it best when he wrote in his Defence of Poetry that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. They speak truth to fact, or as Shelley put it simply, a poem is the image of life expressed in its eternal truth. That somewhat paradoxical line of Audens is a strategic call to the reader, a gage thrown at his feet, and a challenge to find, recognize, and celebrate all the things that poetry is and what the poet does. No, we gently chide the poet, poetry makes so much happen. And Mr. Auden, your poem thats such a moving paean to the power of imagination wedded to wordspoetry, you knowhas the power to move our souls, to touch the deepest part of us. That, Mr. Auden, is something, something pretty amazing and well worth celebrating.

What did W. H. Auden mean when he said that poetry makes nothing happen? He wasnt announcingin poetry, mind youthat poetry has no purpose and serves no function whatsoever. His memorial to William Butler Yeats, where this line is to be found, tells us a different story. Certainly, poetry doesnt make everything happen, but those things that can be said to be goodto be a part of that complex abstraction Plato and Aristotle called the highest goodinvolve poetry at its most fundamental level of meaning. Perhaps Shelley said it best when he wrote in his Defence of Poetry that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. They speak truth to fact, or as Shelley put it simply, a poem is the image of life expressed in its eternal truth. That somewhat paradoxical line of Audens is a strategic call to the reader, a gage thrown at his feet, and a challenge to find, recognize, and celebrate all the things that poetry is and what the poet does. No, we gently chide the poet, poetry makes so much happen. And Mr. Auden, your poem thats such a moving paean to the power of imagination wedded to wordspoetry, you knowhas the power to move our souls, to touch the deepest part of us. That, Mr. Auden, is something, something pretty amazing and well worth celebrating.