The
way I have always understood this poem is that it is questioning human greatness
or at least offers a secondary/ alternative view to human greatness.
Who’s
Who
by W.
H. Auden
A
shilling life will give you all the facts:
How
Father beat him, how he ran away,
What
were the struggles of his youth, what acts
Made
him the greatest figure of his day;
Of
how he fought, fished, hunted, worked all night,
Though
giddy, climbed new mountains; named a sea;
Some
of the last researchers even write
Love
made him weep his pints like you and me.
With
all his honours on, he sighed for one
Who,
say astonished critics, lived at home;
Did
little jobs about the house with skill
And
nothing else; could whistle; would sit still
Or
potter round the garden; answered some
Of
his long marvellous letters but kept none.