Pure Humor In W. H. Auden's Poetry

Pure humour is not usually accepted as a great work of art. The reason for this is not far to seek. As time changes, our social conventions also go through several changes. A modern man does not see any possibility of entertainment in pure humour. This happens because most of the modern poets are well known for its realistic and sensitive expressions of the despair, disgust and meaninglessness of life. The readers are habituated of it. This is the main reason of the decline of pure humour in modern age. Another reason for it is the inability of pure humour to raise serious matters. W H Auden is important in this context because he has not only produced laughter through his poetry but he communicates important messages for society. His poetry

He produced mixed tones of criticism and laughter. He satirised things with an aesthetic purpose. In his comic proposition, Some kind of moral consideration is involved. The sort of intermingling of criticism and laughter in Auden strengthens G. Highet’s view “satire is a typical emotion which the author feels and wishes to evoke in his readers. It is a blend of amusement and contempt.5 As a matter of fact, satirist and humourist operate upon a common milieu, and take the common stimuli. The satirist and humourist observe incongruity in thought, action and character, but they differ in their approach to the

Some poets have a vision of life that can be called comic and others have a comic style. Sometimes a comic style conveys no view of life worth mentioning but this is not true of Auden from his earlier stages of writing. Auden had produced stylistic comic poetry. It is mainly constituted on incongruous usage. It was 1945 that his best poems are molded in a fashion which has a very large vision of human existence. Auden 's best comic poetry contains the tragic within it. But he has not given much emphasis on suffering. Auden 's comic views have shown speakers talking explicitly about a comic philosophy of