"**September 1, 1939**" atau 1 September 1939 adalah puisi oleh W. H. Auden (1907 - 1973) yang ditulis pada saat pecah Perang Dunia II. Pertama kali dipublikasikan di *The New Republic* edisi 18 Oktober 1939, dan ditulis pula dalam buku koleksi puisi karya Auden yaitu *Another Time* (1940).

Teks puisi
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> 
> *I sit in one of the dives*
> 
> 
> *On Fifty-second Street*
> 
> 
> *Uncertain and afraid*
> 
> 
> *As the clever hopes expire*
> 
> 
> *Of a low dishonest decade:*
> 
> 
> *Waves of anger and fear*
> 
> 
> *Circulate over the bright*
> 
> 
> *And darkened lands of the earth,*
> 
> 
> *Obsessing our private lives;*
> 
> 
> *The unmentionable odour of death*
> 
> 
> *Offends the September night.*
> 
> 
> 
> Accurate scholarship can
> 
> 
> *Unearth the whole offence*
> 
> 
> *From Luther until now*
> 
> 
> *That has driven a culture mad,*
> 
> 
> *Find what occurred at Linz,*
> 
> 
> *What huge imago made*
> 
> 
> *A psychopathic god:*
> 
> 
> *I and the public know*
> 
> 
> *What all schoolchildren learn,*
> 
> 
> *Those to whom evil is done*
> 
> 
> *Do evil in return.*
> 
> 
> 
> Exiled Thucydides knew
> 
> 
> *All that a speech can say*
> 
> 
> *About Democracy,*
> 
> 
> *And what dictators do,*
> 
> 
> *The elderly rubbish they talk*
> 
> 
> *To an apathetic grave;*
> 
> 
> *Analysed all in his book,*
> 
> 
> *The enlightenment driven away,*
> 
> 
> *The habit-forming pain,*
> 
> 
> *Mismanagement and grief:*
> 
> 
> *We must suffer them all again.*
> 
> 
> 
> Into this neutral air
> 
> 
> *Where blind skyscrapers use*
> 
> 
> *Their full height to proclaim*
> 
> 
> *The strength of Collective Man,*
> 
> 
> *Each language pours its vain*
> 
> 
> *Competitive excuse:*
> 
> 
> *But who can live for long*
> 
> 
> *In an euphoric dream;*
> 
> 
> *Out of the mirror they stare,*
> 
> 
> *Imperialism's face*
> 
> 
> *And the international wrong.*
> 
> 
> 
> Faces along the bar
> 
> 
> *Cling to their average day:*
> 
> 
> *The lights must never go out,*
> 
> 
> *The music must always play,*
> 
> 
> *All the conventions conspire*
> 
> 
> *To make this fort assume*
> 
> 
> *The furniture of home;*
> 
> 
> *Lest we should see where we are,*
> 
> 
> *Lost in a haunted wood,*
> 
> 
> *Children afraid of the night*
> 
> 
> *Who have never been happy or good.*
> 
> 
> 
> The windiest militant trash
> 
> 
> *Important Persons shout*
> 
> 
> *Is not so crude as our wish:*
> 
> 
> *What mad Nijinsky wrote*
> 
> 
> *About Diaghilev*
> 
> 
> *Is true of the normal heart;*
> 
> 
> *For the error bred in the bone*
> 
> 
> *Of each woman and each man*
> 
> 
> *Craves what it cannot have,*
> 
> 
> *Not universal love*
> 
> 
> *But to be loved alone.*
> 
> 
> 
> From the conservative dark
> 
> 
> *Into the ethical life*
> 
> 
> *The dense commuters come,*
> 
> 
> *Repeating their morning vow;*
> "
> 
> 
> *I will be true to the wife,*
> 
> 
> *I'll concentrate more on my work,"*
> 
> 
> *And helpless governors wake*
> 
> 
> *To resume their compulsory game:*
> 
> 
> *Who can release them now,*
> 
> 
> *Who can reach the deaf,*
> 
> 
> *Who can speak for the dumb?*
> 
> 
> 
> All I have is a voice
> To undo the folded lie,
> 
> 
> *The romantic lie in the brain*
> 
> 
> *Of the sensual man-in-the-street*
> 
> 
> *And the lie of Authority*
> 
> 
> *Whose buildings grope the sky:*
> 
> 
> *There is no such thing as the State*
> 
> 
> *And no one exists alone;*
> 
> 
> *Hunger allows no choice*
> 
> 
> *To the citizen or the police;*
> 
> 
> *We must love one another or die.*
> 
> 
> 
> Defenceless under the night
> 
> 
> *Our world in stupor lies;*
> 
> 
> *Yet, dotted everywhere,*
> 
> 
> *Ironic points of light*
> 
> 
> *Flash out wherever the Just*
> 
> 
> *Exchange their messages:*
> 
> 
> *May I, composed like them*
> 
> 
> *Of Eros and of dust,*
> 
> 
> *Beleaguered by the same*
> 
> 
> *Negation and despair,*
> 
> 
> *Show an affirming flame*.
> 
>

Referensi
---------

1. ↑  "September 1, 1939". *Poets.org*. Diakses tanggal 1 Januari 2022.

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