Who's Who

W.H. Auden's Who's Who is pure genius and truth.  How many times do we run across written biographies of the great people of the past and yet we are left to wonder what about their life was left out and what was given more attention.  W.H. Auden says,"What were the struggles of his youth,/what acts Made him the greatest figure of his day" (Line 3-4) We always hear about the common hardships of growing up as a poor child or having the disapproval of a parent but we have to wonder if that is what the great people of yesterday considered to be their hardship.  If we were to have the chance to talk to such a person would we get the same answers we read about or would we get something completely different. This where the title is key and comes into play because the entire poem is the big question.  Who is this great person that we know of and not just who are they as in what they have achieved but who are they really? Are they just this intelligent mind that knows nothing else but what they do or is there more?