As I Walked Out One Evening Analysis

As I Walked Out One Evening is not the traditional love poem. The first time I read it, it was obvious that the main subject was love. But just like every poem I read, I knew it was much deeper than that. While reading the poem a second time, I realized that the tone changes twice; each time representing a new narrator. The three different narrators have their own opinion about the battle of love versus time. The first narrator is the lovers. They believe that their love is timeless as if time was an avoidable object that could be ignored. They make their love seem perfect as if it could only be stopped when “China and Africa meet.” At the point where they say they hold “The Flower of the Ages, And the first love of the world” the clocks ring as if their love was a lie and time intervenes. The clocks speak for time and they believe that time is unconquerable and it will spare nobody. The love that the lovers share will not be able to last forever because time will take its toll on it. The “t” in Time is capitalized which personifies it and gives it a place in society. Lines such as “Time watches from the shadow and coughs when you would kiss” show Time’s human like qualities and how it can ruin love. The lovers’ “Flower of the Ages” will not be around forever because Time says “Into many a green valley rifts the appalling snow; Time breaks the threaded dances and the diver's brilliant bow.” The last narrator is the narrator of the poem whom I believe to be Auden himself. He believed that neither time nor love could be conquered. Time is constant and cannot be changed but it is not cruel as suggested by the clocks. His perception of love was probably more lenient than most for it is said that he was homosexual. “You shall love your crooked neighbour with your crooked heart” is his opinion of love. I believe that he thought love was an occurrence that happens on its own. A person cannot choose whom they love.

This poem which is told from a 1^st person point-of-view makes use of many poetic devices. The most obvious is imagery. Auden uses lines like “The crowds upon the pavement were fields of harvest wheat” to create the setting of the poem. His use of personification is what makes the element of time an intriguing figure. The poem has an “abcb” rhyme scheme in every stanza which flows with the meter of the poem. There are a few acts of alliteration throughout and he uses repetition at key points during the poem.

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