An essay I wrote on WH Auden's poem:
W. H. Auden
Law Like Love
Law, say the gardeners, is the sun,
Law is the one
All gardeners obey
To-morrow, yesterday, to-day.
Law is the wisdom of the old,
The impotent grandfathers feebly scold;
The grandchildren put out a treble tongue,
Law is the senses of the young.
Law, says the priest with a priestly look,
Expounding to an unpriestly people,
Law is the words in my priestly book,
Law is my pulpit and my steeple.
Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose,
Speaking clearly and most severely,
Law is as I've told you before,
Law is as you know I suppose,
Law is but let me explain it once more,
Law is The Law.
Yet law-abiding scholars write:
Law is neither wrong nor right,
Law is only crimes
Punished by places and by times,
Law is the clothes men wear
Anytime, anywhere,
Law is Good morning and Good night.
Others say, Law is our Fate;
Others say, Law is our State;
Others say, others say
Law is no more,
Law has gone away.
And always the loud angry crowd,
Very angry and very loud,
Law is We,
And always the soft idiot softly Me.
If we, dear, know we know no more
Than they about the Law,
If I no more than you
Know what we should and should not do
Except that all agree
Gladly or miserably
That the Law is
And that all know this
If therefore thinking it absurd
To identify Law with some other word,
Unlike so many men
I cannot say Law is again,
No more than they can we suppress
The universal wish to guess
Or slip out of our own position
Into an unconcerned condition.
Although I can at least confine
Your vanity and mine
To stating timidly
A timid similarity,
We shall boast anyvay:
Like love I say.
Like love we don't know where or why,
Like love we can't compel or fly,
Like love we often weep,
Like love we seldom keep.
Dichotomy and Poetic Mechanisms in Auden’s Law Like Love
By: K
W.H. Auden’s poem Law Like Love presents an age-old quandary: how does one define the indefinable? Is the definition of law reached through an evaluation of what law means in one’s life, or is it a definition existing in and of itself—a universal constant? Auden illustrates diverging ideas of, and approaches toward, the law by presenting a series of multi-layered conflicts. The juxtapositions in Law Like Love are at once extremely apparent, as in the substantive argument of the definition of law; and astonishingly subtle, as evidenced in the poem’s more nuanced philosophical, structural and metamorphic dichotomies. While the major thrust of argument is immediately apparent, the more subtle cues layer upon each other, coming together in a crescendo at the end of the poem, when the reader is revealed the outcome of the poem’s journey—a passage from the concept of law as metaphor to law as simile. In defining law as a relational concept, Auden provides a valuable insight into the process of semantics, and the evolution of concepts and ideas from dichotomies into cohesive principles.
Auden introduces a menagerie of characters, consisting of normal members of society that most people deal with at some point in their lives—the gardener, grandfather, grandchildren, judge, scholar, and unidentified “others.” It is interesting that each group’s concept of law centers on the important things in that person’s life. For the gardener, law is the sun—for the old it is their wisdom for the priest, his pulpit. What the reader ultimately comes away with after reading the first seven stanzas is that each group has its own conception of what the law is. These statements are made assertively—they leave little if no room for argument. The definitions each of the groups attribute to the law are categorical, and often, as is the case with the grandfathers and grandchildren, in conflict with one another. “Others” even claim, just as assertively as the rest, that “law is no more, law has gone away.” The personification of the law as something possessed and internalized on a personal level is further emphasized in the seventh stanza: the crowd always says “law is we,” while the idiot always says, “Me.” The characters in the first seven stanzas consistently take on views of the law that are inconsistent with others’ views.
On a philosophical level, the conflict in the first seven stanzas accentuate the poem’s theme of legal positivism versus natural law. Positivist philosophers like Jeremy Bentham and John Austin argued that the existence and content of law depends on social facts and not on its merits. Legal positivism is often contrasted with legal naturalism, which centers on the idea that the existence and content of law derives from moral concerns. While positivists focus on the relationship of ideas to one another, naturalists focus on the underlying purpose or meaning of ideas. Austen seems to assert through the structure of the poem that legal naturalism gives way to positivism. The Gardeners’, Grandfathers’, grandchildren’s, and priest’s arguments set forth the naturalistic view of law as innate, something that bears no relation to extrinsic facts. However, in the end Law Like Love is decidedly positivist—the poem is an exercise in of contrasts and conflicting viewpoints. Every character in the poem has their own view of what the law is. The undercurrent of legal positivism serves as a base for the substantive and structural conflicts of the poem.
The multiple dichotomies of the poem are reflected in the interchangeability of words and the antonymic nature of word-pairs. First, it is readily apparent that the words “law and “love” are interchangeable throughout the poem. This supports the conclusion that law and love are indeed similar, and analogous in their indefinable nature. The synonymous positioning of the words “law” and “love,” viewed alongside the glaringly antagonistic word choice, further accentuates the poem’s pervasive sense of conflict. Words are positioned against each other in pairs of antonyms throughout the poem: old and young, priestly and unpriestly, wrong and right, loud and soft, gladly and miserably. These words create a tension that pulls at the reader and causes a sense of uncertainty—which is the correct view? As it turns out, the characters in the first seven stanzas seem to have it all wrong about law.
The futility of the characters’ effort to understand is illuminated by the fiercely dissonant views each group takes, and the fact that they don’t seem to be listening to one another. The grandfathers “shrilly scold,” but the grandchildren don’t seem to listen. The judge offers a mundane explanation that the law is “the law,” a severe admonition likely to serve no use whatsoever. The scholars write that “law is neither wrong nor right,” yet they themselves obey the law.
The aspect that most elucidates Auden’s view of the law is the poem’s mechanics, which are incredibly nuanced. Auden constructs in Law Like Love a poem that denotes disequilibrium and resolution through its rhythm and structure alone, without ever needing to examine or interpret substance. The difference in the cadence of the first seven stanzas, and the last two, is glaringly obvious, but a closer analysis reveals an even greater contrast. Out of thirty-four lines in the first seven stanzas, only seven lines begin with unstressed syllables, and out of the twelve lines in the eighth stanza, all but one (or arguably two) lines begin with unstressed syllables. In the final stanza, each line begins with an unstressed syllable. Further, while the reader can comfortably pause at the end of each line in the first seven stanzas, the eighth stanza begins a pattern of enjambed lines--a clear shift in rhythm. Additionally, the eighth stanza is the point at which the narration shifts from third person to first person. The final stanza is the most tidy, consisting of twin couplets in perfect iambic meter, taking on a formality and cohesiveness absent from all prior stanzas. The shifts in rhyme, structure and meter alone, not even taking into account the meaning of the words, indicate a discord and final accord. Auden’s poem is a journey from rhythm that breaks into an unsteady cant, to an even more steady rhythm. The final stanza is constructed of iambs that have the cadence of a heartbeat, indicating steadiness, conclusion, equilibrium.
The structure of the poem serves beautifully to complement its substantive transition. Auden takes the reader from the concept of law as metaphor to simile. This change is explained in the eighth stanza: “No more than they can we suppress/ The universal wish to guess/ Or slip out of our own position/ Into an unconcerned condition.” The assertion is that the speaker can either guess or slip—If he does not guess, then he concedes that the law is and thus, arriving at a conclusion similar to the characters in the first seven stanzas, ceases to become concerned. The ultimate crux of conflict in the poem is the quandary of what to do when he perceives he must take a point, yield to the “universal wish to guess,” that is not suppressible, yet somehow in so doing avoid losing concern over the matter. The speaker’s solution is to change the concept of assertion from “Law is” to “Law like” – a movement from metaphor to simile. The law cannot be defined by a metaphor, as the law is all things to all people. The speaker seeks instead to define what the law is like. He recognizes that he needs to guess because he can’t suppress the urge to do so, yet he is wary of the danger that guessing could lead him to slip into unconcern over the matter. He realizes that the danger of becoming unconcerned doesn’t mean that he needs to try to label something that cannot be labeled. He does take a stand, and it is that law, like love, is indefinable as a metaphor—the law can never be consistent, it is always changing. It is a living thing, different with each judicial decision and each new statute. The concept of law in the poem is ever-changing, and evolves as the poem evolves.
By asserting that law is defined more as a similarity or likeness of something, rather than a personification or embodiment of its perceiver, Auden recognizes that the law is all things to all people—and that law can never be consistent. By taking a step backwards and looking at the law from a wider angle, Auden reveals the astonishing point that a change in perspective can shed light on a previously incomprehensible problem. Just as the speaker takes a step back to review the concept of law, a step back from the substantive barrage of conflicts in the poem reveals a structure that indicates a clear resolution. Auden’s portrait of law as a likeness, a simile, is both astute and appropriate, as like love, law can never fully be explained.
Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law.
~Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, A.D. 524
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