I'm so sorry...

Epitaph on a Tyrant
W. H. Auden

http://poetry.rapgenius.com/W-h-auden-epitaph-on-a-tyrant-annotated

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

Auden was a 20th century poet. His style was that of a modernist, but he wasn't known for his conforming to labels. His life was interrupted by WW2 and his writings were split before and after the war on either side of the Atlantic. 

This poem centralizes around the idea of how the tyrant interacts with the world around him which is a common subject of modernist poems. The process of tyranny appears to be mechanized. It isn't a series of human choices, but rather an equation that is followed.

In my analysis of this poem I feel that Auden, who survived WW2, is more than likely refer to Adolf Hitler. Hitler a very prevalent tyrant at the time. This is evident from the descriptions of the tyrant's actions. When things were good those clinging to power (senators) laughed along with him, but when Hitler's empire began to crumble the innocent felt the weight of his actions. The discussion of armed forces would also be a likely allusion to Hitler. The poetry of the Tyrant is the artful propaganda that allowed the tyrant presumably Hitler to rise to power on the backs of plebeians enjoying pretty pictures.