Key Facts

• Writer: W. H. Auden (1907–1973)
• Original Title: The Shield of Achilles
• Source: Published in Auden’s collection The Shield of Achilles (1955)
• Written Time: Early 1950s
• Published Date: 1952 (first in Poetry magazine, later in the 1955 collection)
• Form: Narrative and descriptive poem (mixing classical and modern imagery)
• Genre: Modernist Poetry / Mythological Allegory
• Tone: Ironic, tragic, reflective
• Point of View: Third-person omniscient narrator
• Total Lines: 67 lines
• Total Parts: Three sections (alternating between Thetis’s vision and reality)

• Setting:

• Time Setting: Modern post–World War II era (reflecting moral and social decay)
• Place Setting: Mythical Greek setting merged with a modern, war-torn world