How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat. (2-4)
From the very first stanza, Auden sets up a comparison/connection between the manmade world and the natural world. The metaphor transforms the crowds of people milling around on city streets into fields of wheat. Cool. But just the metaphor wasn't enough for our boy W.H. He went ahead and reinforced the comparison with the strong rhyme between street (manmade) and wheat (natural world). The sound ties the two together. Auden really wanted to establish this connection early. Mission accomplished.
Quote #2
And down by the brimming river
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway: (5-7)
Auden must have been a believer of that old adage more is always better. In stanza 2, he repeats what he did in stanza 1. This time he connects river and railway, but not by rhyming as he did with street and wheat. This time Auden uses audiovisual similarities: both words share that initial R and they are both end words, hanging there, begging for our attention.
By connecting these two words, one from the natural world and one from the manmade realm, we might find ourselves considering each thing a little differently. Rivers are, in a sense, nature's train tracks and with train tracks humans kind of copied rivers (minus the water, of course).
Quote #3
'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street, (9-12)
Yup. Something is different here. Instead of separating the two realms (the manmade and the natural getting their own lines as in stanzas 1 and 2), now everything is all mixed together. The river is personified. It's given human characteristics. It jumps. The salmon are personified, too. They sing. Plus, Auden places them in the street. You don't have to be a nature-nut to know that salmon belong in the river, not on the road. Now that Auden has the two realms all mixed together, he can show us how Time treats both realms the same. Despite what those lovers might think.