Which poem shows the spirtual despair of modern life?

Question

"The Hollow Man" by Eliot, "When You are Old" by Yeats, "Musee des Beaux Arts" by Auden, "The Soldier" by Brooke, "Anthem for a Doomed Youth" by Owen or "Futility" by Owen.

I got that "When You are Old" is about personal love, right? "Musee des Beauz Arts" is about an indifference to suffering and "The Soldier" shows a love for England.

Answer 1

(Eliot) The Hollow Men*: Spiritual despair of inaction

(Yeats) When You Are Old: undying, true love, versus mere attraction

(Auden) Musee des Beaux Arts: The meaninglessness of personal tragedy

(Brooke) The Soldier: Nationalism and death given meaning by nature

(Owen) Anthem for a Doomed Youth: the impersonality of modern war

(Owen) Futility: A portrait of the shock of death

*Not `The Hollow Man'

I hope you can see in the poems why I've described them in these ways.  The Owen and Brooke poems are often contrasted as modern and retro looks at modern war; it is unfair that Owen gets two examples.  Yeats is the oldest poet of this group, and his is the most traditional poem; Brooke tries very hard to be sentimental about modern war, but Yeats is sentimental about an old, old topic.  Eliot and Auden's poems are both about despair of different kinds; Eliot's looks back to Christianity, while Auden goes farther back to mythology and contrasts it with the modern bustling commerce that even went on along the Mediterranean 2500 years ago (see the cart and the ships in the painting...).

In all fairness, only Auden's poem is about the spiritual despair of modern life.  However, it is very possible that Eliot's is the `correct' answer because many people see (correctly) The Hollow Men as a sequel to The Waste Land, which was explicitly about modern life; meanwhile lots of people don't realise the importance of commerce in the painting, and Auden's selection of a Dutch painter (the Dutch were the earliest after the middle ages in northern Europe to develop and urban, commercial, and democratic society.).

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

I would say "The Hollow Man" by Eliot probably portrays the most of what you're looking for. :)

Answer 3

Hollow Man