Poetry Review – W H Auden – Taller To-Day

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A poem from 1928 about the changes caused by the passage of time. The narrator is walking beside an old childhood friend on a country lane as the sun is due to set. Both of the walkers are older now and thus taller as stated by the title. They are also a little more distant from one another than the narrator remembers them being in their youth. He may have desired a more intimate relationship than they now share, but they remain friends. The past gives way to the present and childhood innocence is lost. The poet notes that the next day’s dawn will wake the nearby township and people moving to work will be much rowdier and livelier than the peaceful, pastoral moment the walkers now experience with no one around except a few hovering birds. The looming future will take away the present, just as the now has dissolved much from the past. Haunting, bittersweet reflections of a fragile moment. Arthur Chappell