W H Auden (1907 –1973) wrote some very fine poems, some of my favourites, but he also wrote many impenetrable poems. I’m reading my way through a collection of his poems, and end a lot of them unmoved and without understanding. (“Why,” you might ask, “are you reading them?” I would answer “That’s a good question,” and say no more.
I’m thinking, like billions of others, about the highly consequential American election, and I’ve even written a blog about it yesterday calling it the end-of-the-world election. https://richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2024/11/05/the-end-of-the-world-election/ I feared that Trump might win, and now he has. I’m disappointed and almost afraid.
Auden’s short, great poem Epitaph on a Tyrant is inappropriate in that tyrant is just beginning again (only this time with more power and more scope to be a tyrant), but in what it says it’s exactly right. Every line says something accurate about Trump.
“Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after”

Initially I thought that this line was wrong about Trump, but now I see it’s right. He is after “perfection,” and the “of a kind” is essential insofar as it’s not a perfection I would recognise. Trump’s perfection is “a golden age for America,” the war in Ukraine ended “in a day,” everybody prosperous, illegal immigrants expelled from the country, and America made “great again.”

“And the poetry he invented was easy to understand.”
This line is perfect. Trump has invented his own “poetry” that is “easy to understand” and touches people’s hearts, avoiding any necessity to spell out how he will achieve what he promises.

“He knew human folly like the back of his hand.”
Exactly. He understands the dark and potent side of people. “Human folly” is everywhere, and Trump knows how to exploit it.

“And was greatly interested in armies and fleets.”
Trump loves power, both hard and soft power. He likes to have generals and admirals with their armies and fleets obeying his every whim and pictured standing behind him.

“When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter.”
Few Republican senators dared stand up to Trump, and none will now.

And when he cried the little children died in the streets.
I think of Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, and perhaps soon Taiwan and the Baltic States. These wars where children die were not started by Trump, but he will not end them. I think too of the many poor children in the US who are likely to suffer more—and die—as Trump makes the state retreat. And I think of the children of the poor crossing the border to try and get a tiny share of the great wealth of America.

Epitaph on a Tyrant by W H Auden

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.