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A short class with Sarah and her students. The other ways are under More.
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Before we read the summary, tell me what you remember of the shield in Homer's Iliad.
Hephaestus makes it for Achilles at his mother's request, and it shows the whole world, with farms, feasts, dances and two cities.
One city is at peace, with a wedding and a law case, and the other is under siege. So war is there, but so is ordinary happiness.
Exactly. Homer's shield balances war and peace. Auden's Thetis looks at the same shield and hopes for that balance. What does she find?
Only the bad half, and not even a glorious version of it. There are no heroic battles on Auden's shield.
So the poem works by disappointment. We expect Homer and we get the modern world.
Hold on to that word. The whole summary hangs on the gap between what Thetis hopes for and what she sees.
Let us retell the poem in order. How does it begin?
Stanza 1 shows Thetis watching the smith work, hoping for vineyards, olive groves, orderly cities and sailing ships, but the metal shows a wasteland under a heavy sky.
Stanzas 2 and 3 show the plain with the huge silent crowd, and the cold voice that justifies a cause with statistics before the army marches off.
Good. And the second hope?
Stanza 4 is her hope for sacred ritual. Stanzas 5 and 6 give the camp, the three prisoners at the posts and the silent onlookers.
Stanza 7 is the third hope, athletes and dancers, and stanza 8 shows the ragged boy and the bird. Stanza 9 ends with Hephaestus leaving and Thetis crying out.
That is the whole poem in half a minute. Notice the pattern: a hope, then the scene that destroys it.
A summary should be short, in your own words and in the same order as the poem. What should it leave out?
Quotations and line-by-line detail. We give the main events and the idea behind them.
May I mention the myth? A reader who has not studied Homer might not know who Thetis and Achilles are.
Yes, one sentence of background helps. Then the three hopes, the three scenes, the ending and one closing sentence on what the poem is about.
The closing sentence could say that the poem mourns a world that has lost ritual, community and compassion.
Well put. And check that you have not put the scenes in the wrong order or invented details that are not in the poem.
the poem answers Homer's description of the shield in Iliad Book 18, where peace and war, work and festival share one picture of the world.
three times Thetis hopes to see an ancient scene (stanzas 1, 4 and 7) and three times the shield shows a modern one.
four eight-line stanzas about Thetis (1, 4, 7 and 9) alternate with five seven-line rhymed stanzas that describe the shield (2, 3, 5, 6 and 8).
the scale shrinks from a mass of millions (stanza 2) to three prisoners (stanza 5) to a single child (stanza 8).
the shield shows no ritual, no festival, no shared sorrow and no trust, the very things that bind a community together.
the names arrive only in stanza 9, Hephaestus leaves, Thetis gives a cry of dismay and the last line looks ahead to Achilles's early death.
A one-sentence summary of the whole poem: Thetis hopes the shield will show the order and joy of Homer's world, but it shows a regimented crowd, a camp execution and a neglected child, and she cries out as the smith limps away.
A one-sentence summary of stanza 5 (lines 31–37): a patch of ground inside barbed wire, with officials who are bored, sweating guards and silent onlookers who allow three prisoners to be tied to posts.
A model summary of about 100 words: The poem goes back to Homer's shield, which Hephaestus forges for Achilles while his mother Thetis watches. Three times she hopes to see the ancient world, with farming and ships, religious ritual and dancing. Each time the metal shows something else: a plain where a silent crowd obeys a faceless voice and marches away, a camp where three prisoners are tied to posts while onlookers say nothing, and a weedy field where a ragged boy knows only violence. The smith limps away and Thetis cries out, because Achilles is fated to die soon. The poem mourns the loss of ritual, community and compassion.
A model closing sentence for an exam answer: The poem is a lament for a modern world in which power has become impersonal and the values that once held people together have been lost.
Hope for farms, a plain appears / Hope for rites, a camp of fears / Hope for dance, a weedy ground / Then the smith leaves, and cries resound.
Picture a mother leaning over a blacksmith's shoulder in a firelit workshop. Three times she imagines a lovely picture on the metal, and three times he shows her something that makes her heart sink. At last he limps off, and all she can do is cry out.
P-C-F means Plain, Camp, Field, the three scenes on the shield in order (stanzas 2 and 3, stanzas 5 and 6, stanzas 7 and 8).
S.H.I.E.L.D. - Source in Homer, Hopes of Thetis, Images of the plain, Execution at the camp, Loneliness of the boy, Departure of the smith
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Who tells the story of the poem?
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Which stanzas are about Thetis, and how long are they?
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Which stanzas describe the scenes on the shield?
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What is Thetis's second hope and what replaces it?
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Who is the last human figure in the poem?
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What happens in the last stanza?
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A sea-nymph and goddess in Greek myth, the mother of the hero Achilles; in the poem she watches the shield being made and gives a cry of dismay in the last stanza.
The Greek god of fire, metalwork and craftsmanship, who is lame; he forges Achilles's armour in Homer and in Auden's poem.
The greatest Greek warrior in Homer's Iliad, fated to die young at Troy; the poem names him only in its last stanza, although the title announces him.
Homer's epic poem about the Trojan War; Book 18 describes the making of the shield that Auden's poem revisits.
A detailed description of a work of art within a poem or story; Homer's description of the shield is the most famous early example.
One-sided or misleading information used by those in power to make people accept a cause; the faceless voice of stanza 3 is an example.
A very large crowd; in stanza 2 it is described by its eyes and boots and not by faces.
A poor, ragged child who wanders the streets; it names the boy of stanza 8.
In W.H. Auden's “The Shield of Achilles”, the sea-goddess Thetis watches the smith-god Hephaestus forge a shield for her son Achilles. She hopes to see scenes of peace, worship and festival, but the metal shows only a bleak plain, an obedient army, a cruel execution and a lonely, violent boy.
The poem returns to a famous moment in Homer's Iliad, where Hephaestus makes a shield on which the whole world is pictured. Three times Thetis hopes to see the life of that ancient world: farming, city life and seafaring; solemn religious ritual; and sport and dancing. Each hope is answered by a modern scene instead: a vast silent crowd that a cold, faceless voice sends marching off; a barbed-wire camp where three prisoners are tied to posts while onlookers stay silent; and a neglected field where a ragged boy has no idea of trust or shared sorrow. The smith limps away, Thetis gives a cry of dismay, and we are reminded that Achilles is fated to die soon. The poem is a lament for a world that has lost community, ritual and compassion.
Where the poem begins. In Book 18 of Homer's Iliad, Thetis, a sea-nymph and the mother of the Greek hero Achilles, asks the smith-god Hephaestus for new armour for her son. Hephaestus makes it, and above all a great shield on which he pictures the whole world: earth, sky and sea; a city at peace, with a wedding and a lawsuit, beside a city under siege; ploughing, harvest, vineyards and herds; and a dance floor full of young dancers. Auden's poem, first published in 1952 and later the title poem of his 1955 collection, takes us back to that workshop. Thetis, Hephaestus and Achilles are not named until the last stanza. Until then they are only 'she' and 'his', and the title and the myth tell us who they are.
Two kinds of stanza. The poem has nine stanzas and 67 lines. Four stanzas (1, 4, 7 and 9) have eight short lines and are about Thetis. Five stanzas (2, 3, 5, 6 and 8) have seven longer, rhymed lines and describe what is actually on the shield. In stanzas 1, 4 and 7 Thetis peers over the smith's shoulder, hoping for a picture of the old world's life. Each of these stanzas turns on the word 'but' and ends by announcing what appears instead, and the stanza or stanzas that follow supply the scene. Stanza 9 breaks the pattern.
The plain and the voice (stanzas 1 to 3). Thetis first hopes for vineyards, olive groves, orderly cities and seagoing ships, the work and order of a civilised life. Instead the metal shows a wasteland made by human hands under a heavy, leaden sky (stanza 1). Stanza 2 describes it: a bare, featureless plain with no plants, no trace of human settlement, no food and no resting place. On it stands an immense crowd, described only by its millions of eyes and boots, drawn up in ranks, expressionless, awaiting an order. In stanza 3 a faceless voice speaks out of nowhere. In a dry, flat tone it uses statistics as proof that a certain cause is justified. There is no applause and no debate. The crowd marches off in columns through rising dust, clinging to a conviction whose logic will end in disaster somewhere else.
The camp (stanzas 4 to 6). Thetis's second hope is for religious ritual: young cows decked with flowers, wine poured out for the gods, a sacrifice at an altar. At the spot meant for the altar, the unsteady glow of the forge lights another scene (stanza 4). It is a patch of ground chosen at random and fenced with barbed wire. The officials lounge about, bored, and one of them jokes. Sentries sweat in the heat. A gathering of ordinary people watches from outside, silent and motionless, while three prisoners who look pale are led out and tied to upright posts (stanza 5). Stanza 6 turns to the victims. All the power in the world belongs to other people, the victims are insignificant and cannot hope for rescue, and none comes. Their enemies do as they please and the humiliation is as complete as it could be: the victims are stripped of their dignity and lose their humanity before they lose their lives.
The field and the boy (stanzas 7 and 8). The third hope is of athletes in play and people dancing quickly to music (stanza 7). But the shield has no floor for dancing, only a field overgrown with weeds. In stanza 8 a ragged, purposeless boy wanders alone in this emptiness. A bird escapes from the stone he throws. For him sexual violence and knife attacks between boys are everyday facts, and he has no notion of a world in which people keep their promises or feel sorrow because someone else is sorrowful.
The ending (stanza 9). The pattern now breaks. The cold-faced smith limps away. Thetis, now named, gives a cry of dismay at the thing the god has made for her son. Achilles, strong, hard-hearted and a killer of men, is fated to die soon. The poem ends on this plain statement of fact, with no moral lecture.
What it all adds up to. Homer's shield set peace and war, farming and festival, justice and dance side by side. Auden's shield shows only regimented crowds, official cruelty, silent onlookers and a neglected child. The ritual, community and compassion that Thetis expected are missing. The poem mourns that loss and warns that a society without them is a wasteland. Many readers also hear in the three prisoners and three posts an echo of the Crucifixion, and in the plain and the camp the horror of twentieth-century wars and dictatorships.
Writing the summary in an exam. (1) Name the poem, the poet and the myth in one sentence. (2) Give the three hopes and the three scenes in order. (3) Mention the ending. (4) Close with one sentence on what the poem is about. (5) Use your own words and do not copy lines.