Epitaph on a Tyrant
Epitaph on a Tyrant - form Summary
Epitaph with Satirical Bite
Auden frames a satirical, compressed portrait of a tyrant as an epitaph. Short, supposedly laudatory lines catalog the ruler’s qualities—appeal, familiarity with human folly, interest in military power—while the consequences of his emotions reveal cruelty and absurdity. The epitaph form turns expected honor into ironic condemnation, exposing how charisma and public approbation can mask deadly authority and moral corruption in few precise lines.
Read Complete AnalysesPerfection, of a kind, was what he was after, And the poetry he invented was easy to understand; He knew human folly like the back of his hand, And was greatly interested in armies and fleets; When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter, And when he cried the little children died in the streets.
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