Summary
Summary Stephen Spender - "XXII" - Analysis
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This is a summary and analysis of the poem "XXII" by Stephen Spender.
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“Oh young men, oh young comrades” weaves Spender’s political faithwith his homoeroticism, and includes through the glorification of the
“young men” his adoration of the figure of the hero.
Spender's emotions qualify his political statement with personal
sentiment, compromising his overt Communism with bourgeois
sympathies.
The general impression is of a dream-like disengagement which
reinforces the impression that the poem is less a genuine call to action
than a piece of well-intentioned fantasy.
The poem strives to be a vigorous revolutionary call but remains a
wistful personal thought: referring to and valuing “young men” before
“young comrades”. Moreover, the “young men” are poorly realised -
cardboard figures which represent rather than embody the possibility
of healing. The poem is less concerned with the “young men” than
their significance to the impotent poet. This disjunction between
intention and realisation stems from the interplay between the internal
and external.
Allen Tate has perceptively observed that “within the general terms of
the intellectual crisis of the age, Spender has defined a personal crisis
of his own.” Spender’s personal crisis involves the exploration and
selection of values, from the floundering for certainty in such poems.
Spender’s revolutionary vision appears to be deeply flawed. This
poem sets material possessions against the beauty of the young male
body in the context of, presumably, a forthcoming war or revolution.
The poet’s position here is unclear - although he patiently sympathises
with the “young men”, he himself is not directly included in the
salvation he propounds for them.
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