Key Facts

• Writer: W. H. Auden (1907-73)
• Original Title: In Memory of W. B. Yeats
• Source: A collection of Auden’s poems
• Written Time: 1939
• Published Date: 1939
• Form: Elegy
• Genre: Modernist Poetry, Elegy
• Tone: Reflective, Mournful, Philosophical 
• Point of View: Third-person omniscient
• Total Lines: 97 lines
• Total Part: 3 parts
• Setting: 

• Time Setting: Winter, 1939 (the time of Yeats’ death)
• Place Setting: Global context, with mentions of Yeats’ impact on cities, people, and the world