Question

Who said, "Poetry makes nothing happen"?

• A. Marianne Moore
• B. Ezra Pound
• C. Wallace Stevens
• D. W. H. Auden

Hint:

If you see "Poetry makes nothing happen," always recall Auden's elegy on Yeats (1939). It reflects poetry's indirect but enduring influence.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Step 1: Identify the source.
The phrase "Poetry makes nothing happen" comes from W. H. Auden's elegy In Memory of W. B. Yeats (1939). In this poem, Auden meditates on the role of poetry in times of crisis, written just after Yeats's death.

Step 2: Interpret the meaning.
Auden's statement is often misunderstood as dismissing poetry. Instead, he suggests that poetry does not directly alter political or material reality—"it makes nothing happen" in a literal, causal sense. Yet, in the same poem, he emphasizes that poetry survives, flows through private lives, and nurtures the spirit: \[ \text{"it survives, a way of happening, a mouth."} \]

Step 3: Eliminate distractors.
\begin{itemize} \item Marianne Moore — modernist poet, but not linked to this quote. \item Ezra Pound — known for the motto "Make it new," but not this phrase. \item Wallace Stevens — wrote philosophical poetry, but never said this. \end{itemize} \[ \boxed{\text{Correct Answer: W. H. Auden}} \]