The Dive Bar

The poem’s physical setting is perhaps not so important as the temporal and ideological space in which it was composed. The speaker identifies his location as a nameless dive "on fifty-second street" – that is, a nondescript public space which caters to individuals of all classes and occupations (1-2). This universal backdrop simultaneously expands the poem’s applicability and draws its reader away from material conditions into a more abstract, reflective mindset. Readers seeing "September 1, 1939" at the time would have been immediately transported to the day of Poland’s invasion. Auden seeks to construct not a visual, but a mental-emotional atmosphere with which all of his contemporaries can interact.

Twentieth-Century Europe

As suggested by its title, the poem relies very heavily on a specific moment in history, and European history in particular: Third Reich Germany’s first major bid at continental domination. The speaker is noticeably...