In “As I walked out one evening” the narrator tells a story about going out one day, and then they bump into their lover singing a song; and also another voice. Within these three voices, they are three different ways of how they tell the story with their attitude towards time.
Temporal adjectives are used several times within the poem, especially by the first speaker. An example to this would be “Love has no ending”, Auden has shown that the two lovers’ are very much in love and ignoring a big factor of life, “Time”. However, after the second voice sings the love song; time starts to catch up and gives them a “chime” back to reality. It in a ballad form, with a consistent meter which could also represent that time has a consistent meter too and always will do.
The poems structure is in-control due to its stanza’s having four lines around the same lengths. The first and last stanza seem to relate, as in the beginning it mentions “harvest wheat”; this indicates that it is the end of the growing season so life with an end is at sight. In the last stanza it mentions, “Clocks had ceased their chiming” which could represent how all happiness and joy has been “ceased” along with the “chiming”. As Time is one of the main themes within the poem, it is clear that it also makes the poem have a forced structure. The line within this poem that does not have rhyme is constantly changing and has the relaxed attitude towards time that is thrown upon by society. Whereas the lines that have lines of rhyme within them, represents the forced structure that Time creates.
The first two speakers in the poem are in first person, making them a reliable narrator as the reader would believe them when reading it. The third voice within the poem has more action than words, their presences and actions are the most important within the poem. The third voice in this poem can be seen as the bad guy, evidence to this would be “Time watches you from the shadow”. This can also be seen as a positive thing, as it may convey that “Time” looks out for people, but on the sly and not too bold and obvious about it.
The setting of the poem is stated within the first stanza, the street the first narrator is walking down is “Bristol Street”. This is located in England, and it is a main street which implies it would be common to come across the first narrator does come across as the poem goes on. It could be suggested that it would be during spring or summer, as it would be a sensible time to go for a walk and also normal. Other evidence would be how the talks about the river around him.
To conclude, one of the main narrative methods that Auden uses for this poem would be having each speaker, representing different attitudes towards time and how they represent different people within society.
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