Corruption Then and Now: Comparing Auden's Poetry and Modern Film Nathan Kerr 12th Grade

Throughout history, regardless of changing contexts, individuals have employed various forms of art to effect political change and expose corruptions within society. W.H Auden’s selection of poems including “Spain” (1937) and “In Memory of W.B. Yeats” (1939) depicts a diminution of the political power of art in the pre-war period, as influenced by Auden’s gradual failing belief in the power of poetry. Similarly, Dan Gilroy’s thriller Nightcrawler (2014) represents the politicisation of the media and its ability to manipulate the emotions of their audience. Gilroy also utilises the filmic form to reveal the political message that 21st century society glorifies individual success at the expense of traditional morality.

In “Spain”, Auden attempts to inspire individuals to act in the Spanish Civil War, ultimately imposing his socialist values on society through the form of poetry. In his attempt to achieve this, Auden portrays war as the basis for individuals to reintegrate themselves with humanity, by restoring the symbiotic relationship between man and nature. Beginning Auden’s “yesterday, today, tomorrow” structure, “yesterday” depicts a technological disconnection between man and nature; “railways in the colonial desert” and “...