What happens when a midnight stroll with the love of your life takes a dark turn as the town clocks rather aggressively remind you that you're going to die and no amount of love can outlast time? Such is the fate of the lovers in W. H. Auden's 1938 poem "As I Walked Out One Evening." Pitting the power of love against the progression of time, Auden examines the intersections between mortality, love, and time.
As I Walked Out One Evening at a Glance
Written By | W. H. Auden |
Publication Date | 1938 |
Form | Ballad |
Meter | Irregular but every line has three stressed syllables |
Rhyme Scheme | ABCB |
Poetic Devices | Personification Metaphor Imagery Hyperbole Allusion Simile Juxtaposition Alliteration |
Frequently noted imagery | Crowds upon the pavement Fields of harvest wheat Brimming river The river jumps over the mountainThe salmon sing in the street Seven stars go squawking like geese about the sky All the clocks in the city began to whirr and chime Life leaks away The desert sighs in the bed Tears scald and start |
Tone | Observational |
Key themes | The inescapable passage of time and death The power of love The inseparability of man and nature |
Meaning | Although love might be passionate and powerful, it cannot outlast time and eventually it will give way to death. |
As I Walked Out One Evening by W. H. Auden
W. H. Auden's (1907-1973) "As I Walked Out One Evening" was first published under the title "Song" in the New Statesman and Nation magazine in 1938. It was later republished in Auden's poetry collection Another Time in 1940. Auden wrote the poem in 1937, a time when economic depressions and political tension hung heavy on people's minds, an ever-present reminder of mortality.
Auden was born in England at the beginning of the 20th century, but he spent much of the 1930s traveling to different parts of Europe, China, and the United States. In 1937, he traveled to Spain to witness the Spanish Civil War, planning to support the International Brigades. His time in Spain drastically affected his views on war and politics, leading him to write the famous poem "Spain" (1937).
When Auden wrote "As I Walked Out One Evening" in 1937, political tensions were mounting across Europe. World War II hadn't broken out yet, but Hitler had come to power in 1933 and the Nazi Party had already dismantled many democratic institutions in Germany. Auden was deeply critical of the Nazi Party and, although he supported socialism, he rebuffed radical fascism and communism.
The setting of the poem is Bristol Street, with which Auden was intimately familiar. Bristol Street is in Birmingham, UK, an industrial city in the heart of England, where Auden spent much of his childhood. The setting is an important cornerstone of his youth, in itself a personal reminder of the passage of time for the adult Auden. The city also shows the intersection of the industrialized and the natural world, reinforcing the major themes of the poem (namely that time is unbounded and indiscriminate).
Fig. 1 - The setting of the poem is Bristol Street in Birmingham, the industrial city where Auden grew up.
As I Walked Out One Evening Poem Excerpt
The middle of the poem presents the major action, tension, and themes. It creates the juxtaposition between the lover's sentiment on unending love and the clock's insistence on the supremacy of time and ultimate death.
I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,
'I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.
'The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.'
But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
'O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.
'In the burrows of the Nightmare
Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs when you would kiss.
'In headaches and in worry
Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or to-day.
'Into many a green valley
Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
And the diver's brilliant bow.'" (9-36)
As I Walked Out One Evening Summary
The speaker walks down Bristol Street in the evening, heading towards the river. The streets are crowded and he hears a lover singing beneath a bridge. The lover tells his beloved that he will love her forever. He says he will love her until the ocean dries up, stars squawk like geese, and the rivers and mountains meet. He takes it a step further and tells her that their love will outlast time. At this, the clocks in the city take offense. They retort that the humans will never be able to outrun time. Eventually their youth and their love will give way to death. When the clocks are done with their speech, the lovers have disappeared into the night.
As I Walked Out One Evening Rhyme Scheme
"As I Walked Out One Evening" follows a very strict rhyme scheme, regardless of who the narrator is. The rhyme scheme is ABCB for the speaker, the lover, and the clocks. This mimics the ultimate control that time has over every sentient thing. Even the lover, who uses fantastical language and otherworldly depictions of love, is bound by the same rhyme scheme as the tightly-wound clocks and the unbiased speaker.
The rhyme scheme also creates a rhythm within the poem that mimics the steady river which flows throughout the poem. Although the river is a background character, it is actually the most consistent image in the poem. The second stanza begins with the idea of the river and the last stanza ends with it. Like the rhyme scheme, it is the only constant and, arguably, the most powerful force in "As I Walked Out One Evening."
As I Walked Out One Evening Analysis
The most prominent literary devices in the poem are personification, hyperbole, metaphor and allusion. They work to create the juxtaposition between the lover's insistence that his feelings are timeless and the clock's rebuttal that the lovers and their love will succumb to time.
Personification and juxtaposition
The main use of personification is to depict the clocks (and Time itself) as a physical antagonist, a direct obstacle that works against the human lovers. The clocks take control of the dialogue in the latter half of the poem, criticizing the lovers for their foolishness:
But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
'O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.'" (21-24)
The clocks also personifies other abstract ideas in their speech by capitalizing the words Time, Justice, and Nightmare and making them capable of human actions:
'In the burrows of the Nightmare Where Justice naked is,Time watches from the shadow And coughs when you would kiss.''" (25-30).
Personification, by making the clocks into sentient beings, creates the juxtaposition and the tension in the poem. In complete opposition to the clocks, the lover himself also uses personification to show the fantastical powers of love. Because love is so powerful, it alone can create supernatural occurrences and given human qualities to animals and inanimate objects:
the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street" (11-12)
Personification creates tension between two powerful forces: on one hand, the lover argues that his love can overcome and outlast any obstacle. On the other, the clocks (personified objects themselves) argue that Time will never submit to love and the ridiculous notion that love can outlast time. Ultimately, it isn't completely clear who Auden sides with. The clocks get the last word, but the lovers have already walked off into the night, unbothered by the clocks' prophesy of death.
Personification: attributing human qualities (characteristics, emotions, and behaviors) to nonhuman things.
Juxtaposition: when two things are placed close together that have contrasting effects/images
Fig. 2 - The lover personifies sea-bound salmon as being able to walk and sing in the streets.
Metaphor
The poem is also full of metaphors conveying life but also—ultimately—death. The threat of death is subtly implied from the first stanza when the speaker says,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat." (3-4)
Comparing the human crowds to wheat shows how lifelike and fertile they are now at this stage in life. Harvest wheat contains the seeds that give life to the next generation and sustain entire populations. But at the same time, wheat ready for harvest is near the end of its life. Wheat was traditionally harvested with a scythe, calling to mind images of the grim reaper who leads souls to the afterlife. These people might be milling about in crowds with one another now, but like the wheat, the threat of death hangs heavy in the air.
Metaphor: the comparison of two unlike things not using like/as
Later, the clocks use metaphors to more blatantly predict the mortal lovers' death. They say,
'The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.'"
The metaphors compare typical human items to omens of death, loss, and nothingness. Take the glacier, for example: glaciers are enormous hunks of ice where nothing can exist. Plants don't grow there, animals don't live there, and humans tend to stay far away to avoid freezing to death. Glaciers are also known for moving incredibly slowly, mimicking the eternal passage of time which will outlast the lovers.
Fig. 3 - The clocks compare death to a glacier: both are frigid and devoid of life.
The desert, like the glacier, is personified, occupies a typically human place (the bed), and is devoid of life. Deserts are, of course, the opposite extreme of glaciers being that their dryness and heat, yet are also hostile towards human life. The fact that it occupies the bed is also important since for centuries many people were born and died in beds.
Finally, the crack in the teacup which leads straight to death is a metaphor for life slipping away. A cracked teacup cannot function, slowly leaking its contents out. Similarly, life leaks away until there is nothing left, giving way to death.
Imagery
Imagery is really effective in creating the fantastical impressions of love for the lovers and the depictions of death, barrenness, and loss for the clocks, as depicted above. It is also used to create a sense of despair that the clocks believe the lovers will experience with age:
'O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;'"
The passage of time isn't just something that will take the lovers quietly and gently. The clocks believe that time will torment the young lovers by showing them how susceptible they are to death. Although imagery doesn't reveal to the readers exactly what aging and death look like, it reveals what it does to humans emotionally. The scalding tears and the hopelessness is arguably more terrifying than gray hair and wrinkles.
Imagery: descriptive language that appeals to one of the five senses
Hyperbole
The primary use of hyperbole in the poem is to depict how much power the lover believes love has:
'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,
'I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry'" (9-14).
None of these things will feasibly happen, but the hyperbole shows how boundless the lover believes love to be. It is also to his use of hyperbole that the clocks take offense because they are adamant that love cannot overcome time, even hyperbolically.
Hyperbole: An extreme exaggeration used for emphasis, not meant to be taken literally
Allusion
The allusions in the poem reimagine classic fairy tales, manipulating them so that they are no longer tales for children. The manipulation takes away the youthful quality of fairy tales and turns them into harsh reminders of aging that eventually leads to death:
And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer, And Jill goes down on her back." (46-48)
Children are taught the same fairytales year after year, where the heroes are invariably young and heroic. In Auden's version, the heroes are older and have changed drastically.
Line 46 refers to the tale of "Jack and the Beanstalk." In the original children's story, Jack is a poor country boy who sells his family's last cow for a magic bean. Although his mother thinks he's crazy, when Jack plants the bean it grows into the clouds and leads him to the Giant's house. The giant kills people, but Jack is able to outwit him and steal much of the Giant's treasures. Jack escapes down the beanstalk and cuts it down with an axe, sending the Giant to his death. In Auden's version, instead of fearing and hating the Giant, Jack is enchanted by him. Whether it's a sexual attraction or an appreciation for the Giant's violence, Auden's version is a little more PG-13.
"Lily-white Boy" alludes to the fairytale "Green Grow the Rushes, Oh!" In the traditional fairytale, the boy is innocent and pure. Here, however, he's presented as a "roarer," meaning loud and violent.
Jill is one-half of the duo from "Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill." In the classic nursery rhyme, the two children are hurt while going up a hill to get a bucket of water. In Auden's version, Jill is still on her back. It is unclear whether Jill is dead (dead people are traditionally placed on their backs in coffins) or if she's engaged in some sexual activities. Either way, the connotations are more mature.
Allusion: a figure of speech in which a person, event, or thing is indirectly referenced with the assumption that the reader will be at least somewhat familiar with the topic
Simile
The lover uses simile to subtly compare love to lively, active things:
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.
'The years shall run like rabbits'"
The lover asserts that he will love his beloved until the stars squawk in the sky. This fantastical image contributes to love's power. The next line, which states that love can make the years pass as quickly as rabbits running, depicts love's perseverance and timelessness. It's important to note that geese and rabbits are living things capable of producing more life. As opposed to time, which is associated with death, love is inextricably connected to life and vitality.
Simile: the comparison of two unlike things using like/as.
Alliteration
The poem is a ballad, which makes it sound song-like and naturally gives it a childlike quality. This is, of course, in direct contrast to the content of the second half of the poem, when the clocks prophesy inevitable death and decay. Alliteration also lends itself to the song-like quality of the poem, making it sound whimsical and childlike even as the content itself is dark. Consider the "L" in line 30: "life leaks," the "B" in line 36: "brilliant bow," and the "L" in line 44: "lane to the land." They sound lyrical and nice even as they speak to mortality and death.
Alliteration also adds to the whimsical, fantastical promises of the lover to his beloved. Consider the repetition of the "B" sound in line 5: "by the brimming," the "S" in lines 12 and 15: "salmon sing in the street" and "seven stars go squawking," and the "R" in line 17: "run like rabbits."
Try reading the poem aloud! Do you hear the song-like quality of the ballad? Is the alliteration effective? What effect does alliteration have on your interpretation of the poem overall?
Themes in As I Walked Out One Evening
The major themes in the poem are the inescapable passage of time and death, the power of love, and the inseparability of man and nature. The themes can be found primarily in the juxtaposition between the lover's song and the clocks' rebuttal.
The inescapable passage of time and death
Obviously the clocks spend a long time talking about the passage of time and how it inevitably leads to death. They talk for 9 stanzas, prophesying death through metaphor, personification, and allusion. At the end of their speech, the clocks tell the lovers to look in the basin, mirror, and window and watch as their youth slips away while they can do nothing to stop it:
O look, look in the mirror, O look in your distress:Life remains a blessing Although you cannot bless." (49-52)
The clocks want the lovers to see their reflections and witness the physical effects time has on the body as it ages. They can ignore the clocks' warning all they want, but they won't be able to deny their physical demise. The clocks, too, are not immune to time's effect. Though they chime loudly in the city, one day they will rust or rot and stop working entirely. Just like the lovers, their bodies will not be able to evade the passage of time and death.
The power of love
On the other hand, love is presented as the only force that has a fighting chance against death. Perhaps the clocks are so cynical about love because they know they will not be saved by it. The lover presents love as fantastical and powerful, using hyperbole, personification, and simile. Using all of those literary devices makes love see completely other. It is so strong because it is not a human emotion but a force in itself. If love can make "the river jum(p) over the mountain" (11), then perhaps it is the force controlling the "deep river r(unning) on" (60) at the end of the poem as well. The river outlasts even the clocks, showing that it is perhaps the only thing able to outlast time.
The inseparability of man and nature
The natural imagery interposed with life, love, and death also shows how man is inextricably linked to nature. Consider the fields of harvest wheat at the beginning of the poem, the snow covering the green valley in the middle of the poem, and the desert and glacier at the end of the poem. They all convey that death is a natural part of being alive and that time has the power to change everything. By implicitly comparing humans to these things, Auden argues that every living thing is bound by the same rules of nature.
Although humankind attempts to distance itself from the natural world and even dominate it, death is an equalizer, reminding man that no matter what he achieves he will be bound by the same limits as the rest of the natural world. The only thing that humans have that nature might not is the powerful force of love.
As I Walked Out One Evening Meaning
"As I Walked Out One Evening" position love and time in opposition to one another. On one hand, the lover argues that love is capable of outlasting time. And on the other hand, clocks (or time itself) argue that no living thing is outside of time's domain and free from its effects. The meaning of the poem is that although love might be passionate and powerful, it cannot outlast time and eventually it will give way to death.
Ultimately, Auden gives the lover only three stanzas to argue his side, while the clocks have nine stanzas (three times as many!) to present the power of time. The lovers never even have time to refute the clocks, as at the end of the poem they have disappeared into the night.
So who has won the argument? Auden seems to be leaving this open to interpretation. Consider the last line of the poem: "And the deep river ran on" (60). Even after the clocks have ceased their timing and the lovers have disappeared, there is an eternal current rushing on. This could either be representative of time's endless pace or of love's easy, self-assured flow. In the end, the river outlasts the physical lovers and the clocks. Whoever it sides with, which is ambiguous, is ultimately the winner.
As I Walked Out One Evening - Key Takeaways
- "As I Walked Out One Evening" was written by British American poet W. H. Auden.
- It was published in 1938, a time of social and political changes when many people were forced to think about their own mortality.
- The poem is controlled by three different narrators: the main speaker who introduces the scene, the lover who extolls the power of his love, and the city clocks who argue that the lovers will die and their love will not be able to save them.
- The poem primarily uses personification, hyperbole, metaphor and allusion to create juxtaposition.
- The major themes in the poem are the inescapable passage of time and death, the power of love, and the inseparability of man and nature.
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