From "Today in Literature" we learn that on 20 May 1937 W. H. Auden's poem Spain was published in England, the proceeds from the sales went to the Spanish Medical Aid Committee, which supported the anti-Franco cause. On the same day, also in Spain, George Orwell was shot in the neck, also fighting for the Republicans.
By the way, W. H. Auden, one of the greatest twentieth-century English poets, died in Vienna in 1973.
In "Spain" he doesn't romanticize war and warfare warfare, but sees it as a necessity.
A few lines from Spain:
And the life, if it answers at all, replies from the heart
And the eyes and the lungs, from the shops and squares of the city:
"O no, I am not the Mover,
Not today, not to you. To you I'm the
"Yes-man, the bar-companion, the easily-duped:
I am whatever you do; I am your vow to be
Good, your humorous story;
I am your business voice; I am your marriage.
"What's your proposal? To build the Just City? I will,
I agree. Or is it the suicide pact, the romantic
Death? Very well, I accept, for
I am your choice, your decision: yes, I am Spain."
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