love and clocks

In the poem As I Walk Out One Evening by W.H. Auden, there are several speakers with disagreeing perspectives. The lover deeply believes that he is invulnerable to anything. He expresses that by describing China and Africa meeting and rivers jumping over mountains; he implies that love conquers all. Rules and events have no affect on the lover but when these impossible claims reach their peak the clocks begin to chime and that suggest the start of the battle between the lover and the clock. The lover goes on to say he holds “the flower of the ages, and the first love of the world.” The lover reinforces his belief that their love is invincible because it is the first of its kind and it is so unique that another like it will not come for ages.  The clock retaliates by saying “Time breaks the threaded dances, and the diver’s brilliant bow.” The clock suggests that love is susceptible to aging and that love can only thrive in youth. Love itself not only love for another person but for objects and activities is subject to times will. I believe the clock speaks for societies rules as well.  In society there are several factors that can destroy love, one of them being death. The clock says, Time watches from the shadow and coughs when you would kiss.” Death can come at any moment and through any method such as an unexpected illness. “The glacier knocks in the cupboard, the desert sighs in the bed, and the crack in the tea-cup opens a lane to the land of the dead.” The fact that the clocks speak of societies influence on love is reinforced by the description of poverty which can lead to love’s failure.  Love and time are present together but coincide in different ways. The lover is full of emotions that lead he to be ignorant to times existence. The clocks know they are one of many of the lover’s weaknesses and repeat that fact throughout the poem using references like death and poverty.