September 1, 1939

Auden's poem is oddly similar to the events on 9/11. While he was writing about World War II, the poem sounds like he was writing about 9/11. He starts out by describing a city and being on "Fifty-second Street" on a September night and later talks of skyscrapers. Auden them writes about how people "cling to their average day," which could explain how it started as a normal day for many people. After 9/11, our nation banned together, just like in WWII. While Auden did not mean to predict 9/11, his poem sounds like it did.