It has no grass no home no hope This empty land symbolizes the spiritual dryness of modern life The people in this land have A million eyes a million boots in line They wait for a sign like machines not humans The voice without a face proves how human life has become controlled by systems and statistics The Crucifixion Scene - Symbol of Human Suffering The next image shows Three pale figures bound to three posts This is a symbol of suffering and injustice like the crucifixion of Christ But the crowd only watches silently This symbol shows that people have lost pity love and moral feeling The Ragged Urchin - Symbol of Lost Innocence A small boy throws a stone at a bird He lives in a world where girls are raped and two boys knife a third This urchin is a symbol of lost innocence in modern society He has never seen kindness or beauty Violence is normal to him Hephaestos and Thetis - Symbol of Art and Love Hephaestos the God who makes the shield and Thetis Achilles mother are old symbols of art and love But now both are helpless Thetis cried out in dismay when she saw the shield This symbol shows that even art and love have no power in the cruel modern world Through these symbols the shield wilderness crucifixion urchin and gods Auden shows the fall of humanity The poem becomes a mirror of modern life full of war cruelty and lost faith The heroic spirit is dead and the world is without hope