Beginning of Essay
W.H. Auden's poem about the contrast between "eternal love" and the impersonal march of time shows the irrationality of people in love, and the blind, callous nature of time, through the use of language and imagery. The lover's attitude is one of pleasant optimis ....

Middle of Essay
.... that is powerless before time. To say that " vaguely life leaks away," the author is possibly attempting to covey that every moment lost cannot be retrieved, that every second that goes by is a second closer to the death of the body and to the death of love. The images of the frozen, cracked landscapes, and the crack in the teacup are examples of lost, passed time. The verdant valleys shall always be sheathed in snow, they cannot resist; and the teacup, once cracked, cannot be mended. All that is left is the memory of that thing still whole, and even those fade with the unhalting passage of time. At the conclusion of the poem, the author ref ....