Allegory in Auden's The Age of Anxiety

Author(s): Edward Callan

Source: Twentieth Century Literature , Jan., 1965, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Jan., 1965), pp. 155-
165
Published by: Duke University Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/440556

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TWENTIETH CENTURY LIIERATURE
A SCHOLARLY AND CRITICAL JOURNAL

Volume 10, Number 4 January, 1965

ALLEGORY IN AUDEN'S
THE AGE OF ANXIETY

EDWARD CALLAN

In the course of an essay on Rosetta, they embark on a surrealistic

Kierkegaard in 1944, W. H. Audendream-journey through seven stages
of the unconscious. Awakened at
identified the basic human problem
as "man's anxiety in time." In his
closing time, they join in a yearning
lament for an archetypal father-
fourth major work of the 1940's, The
Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue, figure; later, they seek happiness in
he attempted to make this humansensual love; and, finally, at day-
problem manifest in the form of break,a they go their separate ways.
dramatic allegory. Baroque in its re- On this simple framework Auden
essays to construct an allegorical
affirmation of the flesh, as well as in
its exuberant fantasy and elaborate drama of modern man in search of a
technique, this work is properly, if soul.
ironically, called an eclogue; for its The machinery of allegory in Aud-
method, however unconventional, de-en's eclogue is derived, chiefly, from
the psychological theories of C. G.
rives from the pastoral convention of
Jung and from the existentialist
allegorical characters animating an
allegorical landscape. philosophies of Heidegger, Jaspers and
There are two levels of allegory inKierkegaard, as well as from the
The Age of Anxiety; one psycholog- main stream of Judeo-Christian be-
ical; the other spiritual. And bothlief. The chance encounter of four
allegories share the same simple plot:strangers in a Third Avenue bar be-
one Night of All Souls, during Worldcomes, as psychological allegory, a
War II, four strangers meet in a Thirdmanifestation of Jung's concept of
Avenue bar. They are Malin, a Med- the disintegration of the psyche
ical Intelligence Officer in the Can-into four differentiated functions:
adian Air Force; Rosetta, a JewishThought (Malin), Feeling (Rosetta),
businesswoman-British by birth; Tntuition (Quant), and Sensation
Emble, a college sophomore enlisted (Emble). And the allegorical land-
in the U.S. Navy; and Quant, an scape explored by these personified
elderly clerk of Irish origin. Led by functions is an inner landscape of
Malin, this foursome discusses "the the psyche encompassing the realms
seven ages" of man; then, led by of personal and collective uncon-
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scious. The superimposed spiritual basis of likes and dislikes: "why were
allegory presupposes the disintegration the men one liked not the sort who
of the faculties to be inherited from proposed marriage and the men who
the Fall. In For the Time Being, an proposed marriage not the sort one
earlier work, Auden's personified liked?" Her character is somewhat
Four Faculties declare that, before more complex than Malin's because
man's act of rebellion, "We who are of her necessary correlation with an
four were/Once but one." unconscious function, so that we see
A diagram of the four points of her mainly through the veil of her
the compass superimposed on a circle habitual day-dream. Rosetta usually
will sufficiently illustrate the rela- expresses her feelings through an im-
tionships among Jung's four functionsagery of pleasant or unpleasant scenes,
of the psyche for any interpretation and water symbolism frequently ac-
of The Age of Anxiety. The upper companies her day-dream of in-
half of the circle represents the sphere nocence. Her poetic imagery often
of consciousness, and the lower half includes "the big house"-the imag-
that of the unconscious. If the two inary mansion of her father; and the
changes in Rosetta's attitude to "the
evaluative functions, thought and feel-
ing, are placed north and south re-
big house" (which is also a symbol
spectively (thought high in the con-of the intellect or of thought) paral-
scious sphere and feeling submerged lel
in the stages of her awakening to
the unconscious and, therefore, de- her real heritage which she admits in
scribed as feminine); and the two her final speech.
perceptive functions, intuition and Of the two perceptive functions,
sensation, are placed east and west, Emble, who personifies sensation, has
the resulting figure will serve asthe a additional role of portraying the
diagram of the dissociated functions uncertainty of youth which adds
in the psyche of the "Thinking type" complexity to his character. The
which, collectively, the characters in
Narrator's commentary and his own
The Age of Anxiety constitute. opening monologue show that Emble
Malin is clearly characterized asadapts to the world through external
thought, for his habitual means of perception: "he looked about him as
apprehending reality is the mode of if he hoped to read in all those faces
speculative reason, and whereas the the answers to his own disquiet." He
others react subjectively in the philo-
is both sensitive and sensual, and can
sophic discussion on man in "the apprehend the external world almost
Seven Ages," he is objective through- as poetically or almost as grossly as
out. His speech is sometimes charac- Shakespeare's Caliban. In the first of
terized by a cryptic wit, and some- these qualities, he resembles those who,
times by a tendency toward abstractin his own estimate of an ideal civili-
speculation which seems unsuited to zation, "entertained with all their
poetic expression as, for example, thesenses/A world of detail." When
statement: "His pure I/Must give ac- this quality is combined with a youth-
count of and greet his Me/That field ful poignancy, as it sometimes is, his
of force where he feels he thinks.... poetic
" utterances show an unusual
Rosetta, representative of the othersusceptibility to sense impressions.
evaluative function, is clearly de-As a personification of the sensual,
fined as feeling. She evaluates on thehe undertakes a quest for erotic hap-
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piness, and his speeches commonly Malin; in Part Three, "the Seven
link him to the archetypal Don Juan, Stages," Rosetta is called on to "be
through such allusions as "I have our good guide" into the realm of the
pencilled on envelopes/Lists of my unconscious; Part Four, "The Dirge,"
loves." is sung by all, but in this yearning
Quant, who personifies the oppos- for a mythological saviour-hero the
ing perceptive function intuition, is mode of seeking is Quant's; and in
described as "a tired old widower" Part Five, "The Masque," the quest
for sensual happiness is Emble's.
whose imagination is constantly filled
with memories from two sources: his
Furthermore, all six parts of The Age
Irish childhood and his random study
of Anxiety, at the level of the spirit-
of books on mythology. Quantualisallegory, are successive stages in
a descent into, and ascent from, a
introduced first by the Narrator and
is the first to speak. As the poem
purgatorial night which commences
progresses, the reader realizes that
at sunset on the Night of All Souls
Quant is constantly first to become
and ends at sunrise the following
aware of new situations. (In For morning.
the
Time Being, Intuition had played a
similar role.) Quant's mode of ap- II
prehension is imaginative and poetic,
and, the mirror is his symbol. Each of the six episodes in The Age
The dramatic action in The Age of
of Anxiety has its own internal
Anxiety consists of an unfoldingstructure
in consisting of a series of
the direction of "wholeness." Such movements towards "wholeness."
The "Prologue," for example, has
ch-ange will be most obvious in the
evaluative functions, and, therefore, four such movements, corresponding
the significant dramatic action will beclosely to stages of phenomenological
the raising of feeling to the sphere ofawareness through which an individ-
consciousness (Rosetta's awakeningual awakens into full consciousness.
to the world of reality), and also the In the first two stages-awareness of
freeing of thought from exclusive the existence of the self and aware-
preoccupation with the rational (aness of the existence of a world of
deepening of Malin's vision). objects-the thoughts of each char-
The plot of The Age of Anxietyacter are presented as interior mono-
reveals, not character development inlogue. Dialogue begins, appropriately,
the conventional sense, but develop-with the stages of awareness of
ment within the psychic personality.others. These stages of progression
More specifically, the six parts ofowe more to such phenomenological
The Age of Anxiety are six stages in descriptions of consciousness as those
a regenerative journey; and, further-of Heidegger and Jaspers than to
morer each of the four central acts Jung's psychology.
of the drama (omitting the "Pro-
logue" and "Epilogue", presents the The Structure of the "Prologue"
search for "wholeness" in a mode ap- In the opening series of interior
propriate to one of the functional monologues Quant, communing with
types. In Part Two, "The Seven his mirror image, is conscious of him-
Ages," the quest for an intellectual
self as a poetic or intuitive character.
solution to man's anxiety is led Malin
by is thinking about thinking, and
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about his concept of the self. Rosetta timacy of a booth." As their "high
is lost in her reverie of innocent land- wooden stools" had been symbols of
scapes, and Emble, externally oriented, their isolation, the booth becomes a
considers himself in relation to the symbol of what Jung calls fourness.
others. According to Jung: "A perception of
In the second movement the char-the significance of fourness, or the
acters progress from self-awarenesstotality of the psychic structure,
to awareness of a world of objects:means illumination of the 'inner
region'. This recognition is a first
"The radio suddenly breaking in with
its banal noises upon their separate
step, a necessary station on the road of
inner development."'
senses of themselves, . . . began with-
out their knowledge, to draw these
four strangers closer to each other."The Structure of "The Seven Ages"
This second movement is a further In Part Two of The Age of
Anxiety, "The Seven Ages," the newly
series of interior monologues in which
the warring worlds of the sagas and formed society holds a symposium on
of the 1940's are presented simulta-the life of man in which the theme
neously. Each monologue ends with isa that of Jacques in As You Like It:
"And each man in his time plays
refrain line, "Many have perished:
more will," which echoes-with a many parts/His acts being seven
ages." But Auden's scheme for the
sardonic reversal of the note of hope--
the refrain line from Deor: "That seven ages corresponds more closely
passed away: so may this." More to the divisions of the life-cycle put
particularly, there is a deliberate forward in Jung's essay "The Stages
imitation of both the sound and of Life." Malin, whose province is
kennings of Beowulf in Malin's the philosophical, leads the discussion
monologue. Quant, in character, seesand his theme of the life-cycle from
war imaginatively: "All war's woes Iinfancy to extreme old age provides
can well imagine;" and Emble records a core around which the clashing
his sensations. viewpoints of the other characters
The dialogue commences with the can revolve as they react subjectively
third movement-the stage of aware- in their roles of personified functions
ness of other selves. As the news and also as representatives of different
broadcast concluded, "they couldstages
no in the life-cycle from youth
(Emble) to old age (Quant). The
longer keep these thoughts to them-
selves, but turning towards each
structure of "The Seven Ages" may,
other on their high wooden stools,
therefore, be compared to a musical
become acquainted." The tenor of
composition in which Malin's nar-
this third movement is that of lament rative represents successive phases of
for the "City of Man" in which the warmain theme while variations on
is the normal condition. each phase are provided by the other
In the brief fourth movement, the characters. In the first three ages,
characters take a significant step to- those from infancy to early youth
ward integration-that of forming a which all have experienced, the sub-
community. Quant (the poet) names jective accounts of Quant, Emble
the society and their theme; and at and Rosetta merely elaborate on the
Rosetta's suggestion they move from general theme related by Malin. It is
their bar-stools "to the quieter in- only in connection with the adult
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stages that the clash of viewpoints be- Castle and Environs provides the
comes dramatic. As the philosophic somatic landscape for the dreamer H.
discussion of "The Seven Ages" pro- C. E.: "The cranic head on him,
duces no solution to the problems be- caster of his reasons, peer yuthner in
setting the participants, Quant in- yondmist. Whooth! His clay feet,
tuitively chooses Rosetta to lead them swarded in verdigrass, stick up starck
further on their quest. Although she where he last fellonem, by the mund
of the magazine wall . . ." (Viking
wonders what gift of direction is en-
trusted to her to lead them on the
ed., p. 7.) In similar vein, the Nar-
journey homeward "'through therator in The Age of Anxiety says:
Maze of Time,/Seeking its center,"
"So it was now as they sought that
Rosetta agrees to seek the "regressive
state of prehistoric happiness which,
road to Grandmother's house." by human beings, can only be imag-
The Narrator then intervenes to ined in terms of a landscape bearing
suggest that among the phenomena a symbolic resemblance to the human
which accompany a state of semi- body."
intoxication is the possibility "that
members of a group in this conditionThe Structure of ' The Seven Stages"
establish a rapport in which com-In structuring this dream sequence
munication of thoughts and feelings Auden has worked in two ways: with
the surface pattern and with the
is so accurate and instantaneous, that
they appear to function as a single structure in depth. The surface pat-
organism." In other words, the Nar- tern produces the impression of the
rator is saying cryptically that, chaotic
led events in a dream through the
by Rosetta, the feminine and uncon- constant flitting of the characters
scious function, they are about from to point to point singly, in pairs, or
commence a journey into the un- all together; and through the use of
a great variety of stanza forms, none
conscious where their conscious psy-
chic differences will be submerged: of which is repeated. The structure
"The more completely these four in depth is an allegorical journey over
forgot their surroundings and lost the human body, correlating bodily
their sense of time, the more sens- organs with those archetypal symbols
itively aware of each other they through
be- which the collective uncon-
came, until they achieved in their scious manifests itself.
dream that rare community which isThe journey into the unconscious
otherwise only attained in statesinof "The Seven Stages" is the focal
extreme wakefulness. But this did point of The Age of Anxiety. This is
not happen all at once." In "statestheofdeepest penetration the characters
extreme wakefulness" all four psychic
make into the landscape of the psyche,
functions would be raised simul- and their actions in succeeding epi-
taneously to the level of consciousness.
sodes are influenced by their experi-
Here, "in their dream," they ences willthere. It is in this episode, too,
function as a single organism inthat thethe psychological and spiritual
unconscious. A journey into theallegories
un- begin to overlap. The psy-
conscious must be a journey chological
into allegory of Rosetta's route
some body's unconscious; for there to health-"the regressive road to
can be no psyche without a soma. Grandmother's
In House" - reflects
Finnegans Wake, for example, Howth Jung's theories on the regenerative
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powers of the unconscious. The limitations of philosophic man. In
spiritual allegory of "The Seven the fourth stage Rosetta runs enthus-
Stages" may bear some affinity to iastically to the big house of her
Dante's seven cycles of purgation; for dreams-both a father symbol and
the seventh stage brings the travellers the seat of emotions and affections
to the desert of Anxiety, reputedly, (the loins)--only to be similarly
"dotted with/Oases where acrobats disappointed. Emble also perceives
dwell/Who make unbelievable leaps" things as they are in the third stage
-an ironic identification of the and Quant, without entering it, is
seventh stage with Kierkegaard's
aware of the poverty of the big house
in the fourth. In these two middle
concept of Anxiety as the spring-
board for the leap of faith. stages then, each of the four personi-
fied functions receives an insight
In their journey into the uncon-
into the weakness of his conscious
scious the travellers first pass through
ideals, which is recollected later
two liminal stages in a mountainous
frontier district. Here they are still anamnesis.
through
in touch with consciousness symbol- In the fifth and sixth stages, all
ized by mountains; and are, presum- are similarly disappointed, or made
ably, in the sphere of the personal aware of weaknesses. Like the tomb-
un-
conscious, for each still walks alone conscious Wise Men in For the Time
but with a restless urge to find water, Being and the idealists addressed by
the commonest symbol of the un- Caliban in The Sea and the Mirror,
conscious. Quant is the first to per- they find that the progressive road
ceive anything: "I hear a salt lake leads to "the forgotten graveyard"
lapping;" but Rosetta is the first to (the digestive organs or skeleton).
see clearly; for she is now, after all, The sixth stage brings them to the
in her element. As they proceed, still hermetic gardens: the abode of
separately, each has a vision of man- mother nature and the "Grand-
kind's struggle into consciousness in mother's house" to which Rosetta
which images of peaks, hills, banks, promised to lead them. This is the
and mountains recur. Their first archetypal symbol of the Magna
stopping place, "the Mariner's Tav- Mater, for which the generative organs
ern (miles inland)," is the gateway supply the corresponding body imag-
to the unconscious, the link betweenery. This is an appropriate terminus
the individual psyche and pre-history to "the regressive road" of their
(the navel in corresponding body descent into the collective uncon-
imagery). They find the place fa-scious because, as the hermetic specu-
miliar, but Rosetta insists on going lation of Bernard Silvestris taught:
on "from the high heartland to the ". .. in the Deity's spirit conceived
maritime plains," and they take down- as a feminine power (Noys), the
hill roads "in search of the sea," that
entire course of history is written."-2
is, to the collective unconscious. This region commonly appears in
From this point on the reactions of
mediaeval literature as, for example,
in the Anticlaudian of Alain of Lille
the characters to the archetypal sym-
bols they encounter show the un-where its regenerative aspects are
conscious to be a place of healing.stressed:
The third stage, the city (the brain), It is a secret place and in a region far
causes Malin to become aware of the from our clime, that makes a mock of
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 the foments of our abodes. . . . There by imagery which indicates that the
the silver stream gets rid of engendered
"single organism" of the dream is in
dregs and, returning to the rights of pure
element, glistens. . .. This drink makes process of disintegration: "Violent
drunk the bosom of the pregnant soil and winds/Tear us apart. Terror scat-
incites the desires of the procreator of ters us/To the four coigns;" and
births.:"
which associates this disintegration of
Auden's hermetic gardens have a cor- the faculties with fallen nature:
responding imagery of water and "Graven on all things,/Is the same
groves, and all the characters see them symbol, the signature/Of reluctant
as a place of generation. This sixth allegiance to a lost cause."
stage, with its ambivalent references "The Seven Stages" is related to
to generation and regeneration, is the the subsequent development of The
central point of the structure of The Age of Anxiety through a theory of
Age of Anxiety. All the earlier events anamnesis: that is, through conscious
of the poem lead to it and subsequent recollection of what was experienced
events lead away from it and are re- in the unconscious. It is still night
lated to it through symbolic corre- when the characters emerge from their
spondences. In the purgatorial al- dream, and some further stages in
legory these gardens represent the their purgatorial ascent towards the
Earthly Paradise, the temnos described dawn remain to be undertaken. They
in Auden's New Year Letter, which commence this final ascent almost
fallen man may glimpse, but from wholly submerged in the unconscious,
which he must depart immediately.4 but its influence gradually recedes and
After first feeling joy in the the evaluative functions-thought
Earthly Paradise, the four characters and feeling represented by Malin and
soon find themselves suffering the Rosetta-eventually arrive at more
effects of the Fall. Quant becomes perceptive states of consciousness
aware of his depraved imagination; than at the beginning of the drama.
Emble of his sensuality; Rosetta of The Structure of "The Dirge"
her feelings of superiority; and Malin In Part Four, "The Dirge," the
of his intellectual pride. They are Narrator reminds us that "As they
thrown into confusion and "one by drove through the half-lit almost
one they plunge into the labyrinthine empty streets, the effect of their
forest and vanish down solitary paths, dream had not yet worn off but per-
with no guide but their sorrows." sisted as a mutual mood of discourage-
The seventh stage introduces the ment." In this "half-lit" area of the
Kierkegaardian concept of "the king- city (itself a father-image), their
dom of anxiety," for which the un- minds turn to the recollection of an
conscious (instinctive) cannot pro- archetypal father: "Our lost dad,/
vide. In the course of the seventh Our colossal father." The elaborate
stage the characters commence theirstanza form of "The Dirge" signifies
ascent into consciousness. In struc- that the characters are still dominated
turing this ascent, Auden reverses
by the unconscious; for Auden uses
the technique whereby, in For the
thetraditional alliterative line for the
Time Being, he dramatized Mary'sconscious episodes, and a variety of
coming into consciousness as a fully
stanza forms for episodes in the un-
integrated personality in the unfallen
conscious. The subject, too, is ap-
state; for the ascent is accompanied
propriate to the ascent into conscious-
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ness for in Jung's view: "Gaining the way for the final step in their
consciousness, formulating ideals-- purgatorial ascent, that is, the trans-
that is the father-principle of the formation of Eros into supernatural
Logos, which in endless struggles love. After Malin and Quant leave
extricates itself ever and again from Rosetta's apartment, the allegory
the mother's womb, from the realm develops rapidly. Rosetta's mono-
of the unconscious.") logue over the sleeping Emble, who
has "passed out" shows her turning
The Structure of "The Masque" from her habitual day-dream to con-
The first actions of the charactersfront reality. She thinks first of the
in Part Five, "The Masque," are also differences in background that would
done in anamnesis of their journey have made their love no more than a
into the unconscious. Here the in- casual affair. This leads her to con-
stincts awakened in the hermetic sider her Jewish heritage. She finally
gardens lead them to seek happiness faces the truth about her father: "I
in sensual love. "The Masque" con-
shan't find peace/Till I really take
trasts ironically with the courtly
your restless hands,/My poor fat
father,"
celebrations of marriage for which it and concludes with a con-
is named, for it is primitive Eros, fession
not of faith in Hebrew: the Shema
courtly Cupid, who is ceremoniously which proclaims the unity of God.
honoured. The tone of "The Masque"
is set by Quant's bawdy "prospector's
The Structure of the "Epilogue"
ballad" in which the landscape im-
The "Epilogue" deals with the
agery reappears in an erotic context.
thoughts of Malin and Quant as they
Similar erotic imagery pervades take separate ways homeward. Malin
Malin's invocation to Venus, and the is described as travelling southward,
dialogue between Rosetta and Emble. i.e. toward feeling, and away from
In one of Emble's love lyrics the the compass point that represents
sensual instinct, "My carnal care," is thought as dominant. This route
linked directly to the collective un- brings him to the highly symbolic
conscious: "join as arranged by topographical point where he com-
Giants' Graves/Titanic Tombs which mences his final soliloquy. On his way
at twilight bring/Greetings from the he muses on the problems of time and
great misguided dead." eternity and the relationship of flesh
The influence of unconscious rec- and spirit; and concludes that "the
ollection is apparent in the first twonew locus" is "For the eyes of faith
scenes in "The Masque" which cor-to find." On his reaching this con-
respond to two aspects of the hermetic clusion, "his train came out onto the
gardens. The first, the erotic loveManhattan Bridge. The sun had risen.
scene between Emble and Rosetta, is The East River glittered." The sun-
influenced by the generative aspects rise and the river at its confluence
of the hermetic gardens; and the
with the sea bring together the
second, a glimpse of "the millenial symbols of consciousness and of the
Earthly Paradise," by the correspond-unconscious: "The East River glit-
ence between the hermetic gardenstered." Malin's travelling south has
and Eden. Their celebration of the brought him to the point where the
love of Emble and Rosetta as symbolic
directional lines in the map of the
of such a paradisial state preparespsyche form a cross. At this point,
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the three-stress alliterative line of his thoroughbred./Over the hill into
speculative musings changes to the Abraham's Bosom."
four-stress line of its final monologue
III
which affirms that faith in Christ
"scorned on a scaffold" is the focal This outline of Auden's debt to
point of his quest. Jung for the framework of his al-
Malin's final monologue meditates legory cannot convey all the symbolic
on the dual nature of man and on his dimensions of The Age of Anxiety
historical situation in time and space: nor does it elaborate the other theories
for all gestures of time of modern thinkers echoed in the
And all species of space respond in our work. It does, however, indicate that
own

Contradictory dialect, the double talk some familiarity with Jung's theories
Of ambiguous bodies. ... is valuable for a full understanding of
In keeping with this view theof
work.
manIndeed, it might reason-
which admits "the double talk of ably be said that Jung's work, par-
ambiguous bodies," the expressionsticularly
of Modern Man in Search of
faith of Malin and Rosetta suggest a Soul,
a is related to The Age of
Anxiety much as Jessie Weston's
spiritual transformation of the events
From Ritual to Romance is to The
in "The Masque" and "The Seven
Stages," so that Malin can speakWaste of Land. But Auden uses other
"His Good ingressant on our gross resources to give universality to his
occasions." Therefore, the juxta- allegory of Everyman. It is probable,
position of "The Masque" and the for example, that the names of the
final declaration of faith expresses characters in Auden's eclogue, in
the positive values of Eros for, like keeping with literary tradition, have
Ferdinand in The Sea and the Mirror, allegorical significance. In this regard
through sensual love they have be- the name Rosetta has more obvious
come aware of its spiritual analogue. symbolic connotations than the
The change that occurs in the others. Its association with one of
perceptive functions is less note- the mouths of the Nile and with the
worthy, but their fate is in keeping Rosetta stone--a link between history
with the allegory. Emble, who per- and prehistory-relates her, and her
sonifies the exaggeration of sensation consistent use of water imagery, to
falls asleep at the point where Rosetta the feminine principle, to the past,
comes to grips with reality. In Jung's and to the unconscious. The name
words: "the exaggeration of sensation Malin has less obvious symbolic con-
ceases as soon as the function with notations. The French word malin,
which sensation is fused is different-
as an adjective, denotes clever in the
iated in its own right."" Emble's sense of mischievous; the noun le
descent into unconsciousness-he has malin is synonymous with the devil
"passed out"-may be a stage in his in his association with the tree of
healing process. Quant finally be- knowledge. Auden's Mephistopheles
comes aware of what his dual nature in New Year Letter is a clever ration-
really is: animal and spiritual; and alist or dialectician. Malin, as exag-
characteristically, he stumbles upon gerated thinking function, may be
associated with a demonic, or arche-
this solution and expresses his realiza-
tion metaphorically: "Come, Tinker- typal, Faustian intellect. The name
bell, trot. Let's pretend you're a Quant suggests quantum, the percep-
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tion of things as wholes, perhaps in ment in Auden's eclogue: an ambi-
its specific use by Whitehead in guity characteristic of those later
Process and Reality to denote any- works in which he presents "serious"
thing apprehended as a unity, that is, subject matter through the "frivol-
grasped intuitively. The name Emble ous" medium of art.
suggests emblem, that which makes In the preface to his Anathemata,
concepts manifest to the senses, David Jones speaks of how "the men
specifically to the eye. In religious of some ages have managed to wed
art, the Emblem Books are fore- widely separated ideas, and to make
runners of the sensuous element in odd scraps of newly discovered data
baroque art in their reaffirmationsubserve
of immemorial themes." In
the flesh. The Age of Anxiety Auden has at-
Furthermore Auden's setting tempted
in to wed modern speculations
World War II, and his choice of al- on the structure of human con-
literative verse associates the conflict sciousness-ideas of such thinkers as
within man's psyche with the warring Jaspers, Heidegger, and Jung-to the
worlds of the sagas and of the immemorial theme of Everyman's
twentieth century. In addition, the journey. Auden's poetic use of
verse form evokes specific associations materials supplied by such thinkers
with such medieval allegorical poems need not signify exclusive intellectual
as Piers Plowman, and such Anglo- allegiance to their theories. It has be-
Saxon poems of loneliness and war come a too facile commonplace of
as The Seafarer and Beowulf. Nor is Auden criticism to chop up his poetic
the alliterative verse without variety. development into stages influenced by
The prevailing line, which like the this or that thinker without sufficient
Anglo-Saxon has four stresses and allowance for his tendency to seize
three alliterations, is used only for upon the artistic or "shaping" pos-
episodes that take place in the realm sibilities that a particular theory may
of consciousness. For episodes in the provide for the poetic imagination.
realm of the unconscious, particularly The Age of Anxiety is an ambitious
"The Seven Stages" and "The Dirge," and ingenious work of art, even
there are some forty different stanza though it gives the impression, in
forms based on greatly varied com- places, of having been "roughed out"
binations of stress and alliteration. rather than carefully polished. (Aud-
There are also a number of son en's gs too frequent reliance on the
combining a metrical rhythm withnarrator's
al- commentary to carry on
literative stanza forms; and there theare allegory may be its most obvious
some amusing curiosities like the defect.) But it is a significant work,
duet between Emble and Rosetta pioneering imaginatively in unfamil-
where the alliterations in the "If" iar territory; and it was well described
lines progress alphabetically while
by Marianne Moore as "a deep and
those in the answering "When" lines
fearless piece of work matched by a
are in reverse alphabetical order.
mechanics of consummate virtuos-
Verse of this last kind exemplifiesity."7
the
deliberately frivolous and ironic ele- Western Michigan University

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 1 C. G. Jung, The Integration of the Per- SJolan Jacobi, The Psychology of Jung,
sonality (London, 1940), p. 41. trans. K. W. Bash (New Haven, 1943), p.
2 E. R. Curtius, European Literature and 45.
the Latin Middle Ages (New York, 1956), G The Basic Writings of C. G. Jung, ed.
p. 320. Violet Staub De Laszlo (New York: The
3 The "Anticlaudian" of Alain of Lille, ed. Modern Library, 1959), p. 270.
William Hafner Cornog (Philadelphia, 1935), T New York Times Book Review, July 27,
pp. 45-55. 1947, p. 5.
4 W. H. Auden, Collected Poetry (New
York, 1945), p. 291, 11. 873-81.

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