 Auden 's literary executor and biographer Edward Mendelson and others interpret the poem as an allegory of the human body , whose characteristics correspond to those of the limestone landscape . The poet recognises that this landscape , like the body , is not witness to great historical events , but exists at a scale most suitable to humans . " Limestone " questions the valuation of that which exists on a scale different from the body — politics , the fascination with consciousness , and other abstractions . The poem 's ending lines , which justify the landscape in theological terms , are also a theological statement of the body 's sacred significance . The poem is thus an argument against Platonic and idealistic theologies in which the body is inherently fallen and inferior to the spirit . This interpretation is consistent with Auden 's many prose statements about the theological importance of the body . 
