River Profile

Out of a bellicose fore-time, thundering
head-on collisions of cloud and rock in an
up-thrust, crevasse-and-avalanche, troll country,
deadly to breathers,

it whelms into our picture below the melt-line,
where tarns lie frore under frowning cirques, goat-bell,
wind-breaker, fishing-rod, miner's-lamp country,
already at ease with

the mien and gestures that become its kindness,
in streams, still anonymous, still jumpable,
flows as it should through any declining country
in probing spirals.

Soon of a size to be named and the cause of
dirty in-fighting among rival agencies,
down a steep stair, penstock-and-turbine country,
it plunges ram-stam,

to foam through a wriggling gorge incised in softer
strata, hemmed between crags that nauntle heaven,
robber-baron, tow-rope, portage-way country,
nightmare of merchants.

Disemboguing from foothills, now in hushed meanders,
now in riffling braids, it vaunts across a senile
plain, well-entered, chateau-and-cider-press country,
its regal progress

gallanted for a while by quibbling poplars,
then by chimneys: led off to cool and launder
retort, steam-hammer, gasometer country,
it changes color.

Polluted, bridged by girders, banked by concrete,
now it bisects a polyglot metropolis,
ticker-tape, taxi, brothel, foot-lights country,
à-la-mode always.

Broadening or burrowing to the moon's phases,
turbid with pulverised wastemantle, on through
flatter, duller, hotter, cotton-gin country
it scours, approaching

the tidal mark where it puts off majesty,
disintegrates, and through swamps of a delta,
punting-pole, fowling-piece, oyster-tongs country,
wearies to its final

act of surrender, effacement, atonement
in a huge amorphous aggregate no cuddled
attractive child ever dreams of, non-country,
image of death as

a spherical dew-drop of life. Unlovely
monsters, our tales believe, can be translated
too, even as water, the selfless mother
of all especials.

Our body is a moulded river
NOVALIS © by owner. provided at no charge for educational purposes

Analysis (ai): The poem traces a river’s journey from high mountain origins to oceanic dissolution, structuring its progression through geological and cultural strata; this macro-narrative mirrors myths of creation and decline common in mid-20th-century literature, yet avoids romanticizing nature by emphasizing industrial encroachment.

Linguistic Texture and Lexical Innovation: Compounded descriptors like "penstock-and-turbine country" and "ticker-tape, taxi, brothel, foot-lights country" compress socioeconomic shifts into rhythmic refrains, aligning with Auden’s tendency for cataloguing modern life with ironic detachment; these phrases echo similar lexical density in The Orators but with sharper geographic specificity.

Geographic as Historical Metaphor: The river’s descent parallels stages of human civilization—from pre-industrial subsistence to urban modernity—refracting historical development through physical terrain; unlike many nature poems of the 1930s and 40s that idealize purity, this work presents nature as persistently altered, never pristine.

Industrialization and Moral Neutrality: While contemporaries like MacNeice or Spender cast industrial landscapes in moralizing tones, Auden resists judgment; pollution and urbanization are presented as inevitable phases, not fallacies, reflecting his later theological interest in acceptance and redemption through process.

Form and Rhythm: The poem uses free verse with irregular stanzas and internal rhyme, favoring momentum over symmetry; its cadence mimics the river’s flow, a formal gesture common in modernist long poems, though less pronounced than in Pound or Williams.

Conception of Death and Renewal: The conclusion frames dissolution not as tragedy but transformation, where "effacement" becomes a form of atonement; this aligns with Auden’s post-conversion Christian themes, yet departs from his earlier existential anguish by locating redemption in impersonal natural cycles.

Ecological Awareness Ahead of Its Time: Though written before the rise of environmentalism, the poem anticipates ecological critique by showing progressive degradation without didacticism; its quiet accumulation of damage contrasts with later, more activist eco-poetry.

Place in Auden’s Oeuvre: Less anthologized than his political or love poems, this work stands out for its sustained metaphor and geographic imagination, resembling minor works like The Sea and the Mirror in structural ambition but differing in its grounded, anti-pastoral vision.

Subversion of National Myths: Unlike rural elegies that tie landscape to national identity, this poem strips the river of symbolic patriotism, presenting it as indifferent to human use; this undermines Romantic legacies still prevalent in mid-century British poetry.

Modernist Engagement with Process: By focusing on transition rather than fixed states, the poem aligns with modernist preoccupations with flux, akin to Eliot’s Four Quartets, though it lacks mystical resolution, ending instead in material dispersion.

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Peter solway -

finally some decent verse on ap classics- w.h. going down the Mississippi (maybe)

on Nov 03 2022 02:35 PM PST

Kenny Wilson - Excellent. not a trace of sentimentality.

on Oct 21 2022 03:39 AM PST

Halvie54 -

This has always been a much-loved favorite of mine. Having spent most of my adult life living near the Wisconsin river, this poem has a well entrenched hold on me. Auden generously spoke of which he knew.

on Feb 03 2013 08:59 AM PST

- An absolutely marvelous writing of the subject, which many could have trouble with compared to how beautifully perfect it's described here. I love this poem.

on Jan 14 2013 12:28 PM PST

Morag -

A beautiful description of the stages and changes of a river.

on Jan 01 2013 09:11 AM PST

B L McA - Interesting. I think Lanier's "Song of the Chattahoochee" is better, but perhaps it's that different rivers bring out different descriptions? What other rivers are there out there? (There's a German poem about the Danube that inspired Strauss, and then there's the Moldau, which has the music, if, perhaps, not the poem -- or does it have both, perhaps? I think those are all I can think of. No, wait: musically we can do the Volga, and perhaps Die Lorelei can be construed as "about" the Rhine. How far can we go?)

on Dec 30 2012 10:04 AM PST

Morag - The Thames has Spencer's 'Prothalamion' and T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land'. The Liffey is the heroine of 'Finnegan's Wake', which could almost count as poetry! 'The Old Vicarage, Grantchester' is all about the Granta (the river which becomes the Cam once it reaches Cambridge). If you want to go further, try www.poetryatlas.com.

on Jan 01 2013 09:14 AM PST

B L McA - After a bit of fooling around on the site, I decided it's really a lot of fun. They've promised to correct the minor error in spelling Edna St. Vincent Millay, so if you want to see the erroneous version, you'll have to hurry. (I just looked,and it's already too late -- boy are they prompt! -- but I think y'all should visit there anyway.)

on Jan 03 2013 10:09 AM PST

B L McA - Not just a good source: a great source. Maybe even an overwhelming source!

on Jan 02 2013 08:52 AM PST