English coursework

Modern Poetry

Graham Handley has taught and lectured for the past thirty-five
years, and has examined at all levels from CSE to University
Honours Degree. He is the general editor of the Brodie's Notes
series and has written study guides in literature for Penguin,
Macmillan and Basil Blackwell. Anne Dangerfield has studied
modern poetry for a number of years.
Also available in Brodie's Notes:
English coursework: Conflict
English coursework: Childhood and Adolescence
English coursework: Modem Drama
English coursework: Poetry and Drama
English coursework: Prose
English coursework: Science Fiction
English coursework: The Short Story
English coursework: Women and Society
Brodie's Notes on

English coursework
Modern Poetry
Graham Handley, MA Ph.D. and Anne Dangerfield

Pan Books London, Sydney and Auckland

First published 1991 by
Pan Books Ltd, Cavaye Place, London SWIO gPG

9 8 ,6543 2 1
ISBN 978-0-333-58112-4 ISBN 978-1-349-13024-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-13024-5

© Macmlllan Publlsbers Limited1991

Reprint of the original edition 1991
ISBN 978-0-330-50342-6

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not,

by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out
or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent
in any form of binding or cover other than that in which
it is published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Modern Poetry

For Barbara and Denis

The following have been used in the compilation of this book:
Thomas Hardy Collected Poems (Macmillan)
Chosen Poems (Macmillan)
W. B. Yeats Selected Poems (Pan)
Wilfred Owen Collected Poems (Chatto & Windus)
T. S. Eliot Collected Poems (Faber and Faber)
Dylan Thomas Collected Poems (Dent)
John Betjeman Collected Poems (Murray)
W. H. Auden Collected Shorter Poems (Faber and Faber)
Philip Larkin Collected Poems (Faber and Faber and The Marvel
Press) 00
Charles Causley Collected Poems (Macmillan)
Secret Destinations (Macmillan)
Ted Hughes Selected Poems (Faber and Faber)
Sylvia Plath Collected Poems (Faber and Faber)
Seamus Heaney Death ofa Naturalist (Faber and Faber)
North (Faber and Faber)
Field Work (Faber and Faber)
Stevie Smith Collected Poems (Faber and Faber)
Edward Thomas Collected Poems (Faber and Faber)
D. H. Lawrence The Complete Poems (Heinemann)
Walter de la Mare Complete Poems (Faber and Faber)
Edwin Muir Selected Poems (Faber and Faber)
Louis McNeice Collected Poems (Faber and Faber)
Poets ofOur Time (ed. Finn) (Murray)
Ten Twentieth Century Poets (ed. Wollman, Harrap)
The Mersey Sound (Penguin)
Caribbean Poetry Now (Hodder and Stoughton)
Voices (Penguin)
The Penguin Book ofContemporary Verse (Penguin)
The Faber Book of 20th century Women's Poetry (Faber and Faber)
The Oxford Book ofModern Verse (ed. Larkin, Oxford University Press)
Contents

Preface by the general editor Vlll

Literary terms used in these Notes 1

Introduction 4
Thomas Hardy 11
W. B. Yeats 18
Wilfred Owen 24
T. S. Eliot 29
Dylan Thomas 38
John Betjeman 44
W. H. Auden 50
Philip Larkin 56
Charles Causley 64
Ted Hughes 70
Sylvia Plath 75
Seamus Heaney 82
Brief considerations
Edward Thomas 89, D. H. Lawrence 89, Walter de laMare 90,
Edwin Muir 91, Louis McNeice 92, Stevie Smith 92,
R. S. Thomas 93, ElizabethJennings 94, the Liverpool Poets 95,
Caribbean Poetry 97
General questions 100
Index of poets and poems 102
Preface by the general editor

The aims of this commentary are clearly set out in the Introduc-
tion. No study of modem poetry can be comprehensive, but the
principles of our commentary and the involvement of pupils in
it means that the ideas and approaches suggested may be
applied to any poet or groups of poets being studied for GCSE
and/or Advanced Level Literature. You can read this Brodie's
Not~ and work through the assignments and questions, or you
can turn to a section on a particular poet and concentrate on
that, or you can apply the principles to another poet you are
studying, getting assignments from your teacher or making up
your own. In order to help you, a list of the books used in this
Brodie) Note, and some others which may be useful to you, are
given before the Contents page of this book. Use, and choose;
poetry is a delight and a discovery. Make the most of it.
Graham Handley 1991

viii
Literary terms used in these notes

The terms listed below are commonly used in the evaluation and
critical appreciation of poetry. Poetry has its own specialized
vocabulary, but that vocabulary can in no sense be a substitute for
the response - emotional, imaginative and intellectual- of each
individual reader to the poem in hand. Definitions used here
must be regarded as aids in the setting forth of such responses,
but unless they are expanded by examples, the terms in them-
selves are valueless. When the poems referred to in this course-
work are read and re-read, it will be realized that the use of
particular defining words and phrases is a means of conveying a
balanced and serious appraisal of a poem.
Alliteration This is the repetition of the same first letter of several words
in a line or passage, often to produce a musical effect. Here is an
example from 'The Love SongofJ. Alfred Prufrock': When the wind
blows the water white and black.
Analogy This means similarity or agreement, and in literature this is an
argument or description which finds its parallel in another argument or
description. For example, the 'crested animal' in Edwin Muir's 'The
Combat' might stand as an analogy for pride, power and aggression in
man.
Assonance This is a common usage in modern poetry; the stressed
vowels agree or rhyme as, for example, in delight, eyes, guide, high, but
the consonants do not.
Ballads Ballads are distinguished from songs in that they normally have
a strong narrative element. Their main topics are frequently love and
war, while pathos and humour, particularly in eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century ballads, are a commonplace. The lines are short,
often in quatrains (see below), and have a rhythmic, musical quality.
Blank verse This verse is not in rhyme, and derives from the verse
employed by John Milton in Paradise Lost, his epic poem in twelve books
published in 1667. In his preface to the poem he describes it as 'English
Heroic verse, without Rime', earlier found in Elizabethan drama, and
used effectively by Shakespeare, largely in iambic pentanIeter (lines
having ten syllables). Many modern poets use blank verse with a varying
length ofline.
Consonance This is really consonant rhyme instead of vowel rhyme; in
pairs of words the final consonants agree but the vowels differ. You will
find the technique exemplified in the verse of Wilfred Owen, notably in
'Strange Meeting': 'escaped', 'scooped', 'groined' and 'groaned'.
English coursework: Modem Poetry
Couplet Two lines of verse, usually in the same metre and joined by
rhyme, which form a unit in themselves. An end-stopped line has a
logical pause at its close, while a run-on line is exactly what it says, the
sense running over to the succeeding line. Octosyllabic couplets are
rhyming lines having eight syllables; triplets are three successive lines
having the same rhyme. .
Epithet This is an adjectival word or phrase which expresses the
quality(ies) or attribute(s) of the thing or person it describes. Double-
barrelled epithets frequently occur in modern poetry (examples from
Walter de la Mare include hay-cropped, light-dissecting, green-pencilled
and ckiU-aired).
Free verse Much used in the twentieth century. It is verse which does
not obey the rules of metrical composition, but often makes great use
of cadences (i.e. particular rhythms). The term has its origin in the vers
libre written in France in the 188os. It meant then freedom from the
strict rules of French prosody (for example the counting of lines as
equal if they had the same number of syllables), and a corresponding
fluidity of form in which the poet was the more easily able to express
what he felt.
Iambic pentameter. See Blank verse above.
Images and imagery The representation of a thing with evocative,
usually metaphorical detail, though it need not be visual; it may appeal
to the senses, and be open to symbolic interpretation. For example, an
image of rain or cold might suggest illness or suffering or death.
Internal rhymes This is a device whereby the lines have words within
them which rhyme with those at the ends of the lines. They tend to
give a poem a particular rhythmic structure. Sometimes internal
rhymes are within the lines alone, and are not related to the endings of
the lines, for example in Auden's 'Look, stranger, on this island now',
where one line reads 'When the chalk wall falls to the foam and its tall
ledges .. .', where assonance, internal rhyme and a certain onomatopoeic
effect (see below) are intermingled.
Irony This is a statement which contradicts the actual attitude of the
speaker, or a situation that contrasts what is expected with what
occurs; it invariably has overtones of mockery. In modern poetry its
use is widespread, varying from light and sometimes flippant
treatment to tragic overtones.
And here we have that splendid family
I never ran to when I got depressed.
Lyric and lyrical A lyric poem is one composed to be sung or
appropriate for singing, and generally it expresses the personal
feeling of the writer, though obviously on occasions it is merely an
exercise involving (usually) the romantic treatment of a theme, most
commonly that oflove. Lyrical is a term which describes such poetry.
Metaphor See Simile below.
 Literary terms used in these notes

Onomatopoeia The use of words that imitate or directly echo the sound
of the thing described, for example in Auden's 'Look, stranger, on this
island now' where we find:
Oppose the pluck
And knock of the tide,
And the shingle scrambles after the suck-
ingsurf
Pathos This is the quality in writing (or speech or music) which excites
pity or sadness; it is not to be confused with batlws, which means an
anti-climax.
Pun This is the humorous use of a word to underline its different
meanings; it is the basis of most word-play. A simple example is found
in lines like:
The parson told the sexton, and
The sexton tolled the bell.
Quatrains This is simply a four-line verse often, though not necessarily,
with alternate lines rhyming, a good example beingJohn Be~eman's
'Death in Leamington'.
Satire This is verse (or prose) that ridicules a prevailing vice or folly, a
person or a thing held up to contempt by the author. The great masters
of satire in English poetry are Dryden and Pope.
Simile This is a comparison introduced by like or as, 'Flexing like the lens
of a mad eye', as distinct from a metaphor, which is a comparison, often
sustained, without formal introduction: 'The tent of the hills drummed
and strained its g;uyrope: As Aristotle observed, a command of
metaphor is 'the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies
an eye for resemblances', and such an eye, such an awareness, is
essential to a poet.
Sonnet This is a poem of fourteen lines, normally in iambic pentameter
(see blank verse above), divided into an octave and a sestet (eight and six
lines respectively). It is generally concerned with a single thougJ:tt or
feeling, in two aspects, as it were two paragraphs, on the same subject,
with divisions of thought as well as of rhyme. The sonnet form,
occasionally irregular or adapted, is to be found in this selection, e.g.
Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', but the great period of
the sonnet in English poetry is in the Elizabethan age - though Milton,
Wordsworth and Keats wrote sonnets of individual power and beauty.
Stanzas These are lines of verse so grouped that they make a form which
is usually repeated in the structure of the poem; this means that each
stanza or verse has a requisite numberoflines, the same numbers of feet
and stresses in corresponding lines, and a rhyme scheme. Small letters
of the alphabet are used throughout the Notes to indicate the rhyme
scheme in which the poem is written, for example abab is a stanza where
the first and third and the second and fourth lines rhyme, respectively.
Introduction

This book is an introduction to and a commentary on a selection

of twentieth-century poets who are studied in schools and col-
leges at GCSE and Advanced Level. It is hoped that it will prove
useful to teachers and pupils alike by focusing on the most
important aspects of the work of individual poets, indicating
their techniques and concerns, and encouraging participation in
the varied experiences that they offer.
For many students - and even some teachers - poetry is a
stumbling block: it often lacks the narrative frame of the novel
or story, or the sheer dramatic immediacy of a play or screen-
play. Poetry is experience highly charged, and sometimes finely
condensed: it often uses rhyme, rhythm, particular sound or
sense effects, regular or irregular verse forms, or a combination
of some or all of these. But sometimes it uses none of them, or
adapts, invents, experiments, produces effects by individualistic
utterance. In the twentieth century it has sometimes seemed to
be making its own laws: often the formality gives way to free
verse, with varying lengths of line. Sometimes the formal modes
of the past - the ballad, for example - are adapted, revised,
some would say rejuvenated.
The twentieth century has seen poetic experiment develop
into accepted practice, just as it has done in previous eras of
literature. The Elizabethan period tends to be dominated by the
sonnet, with Shakespeare's great sequence of the 1590S reflected
by his predecessors and contemporaries. This gives way to the
metaphysical poetry of the early seventeenth century: here John
Donne is the 'monarch of wit', as Carew styled him in a memor-
able elegy, with science, learning, audacity, hyperbole, sudden
and unexpected turns and twists, what Dr Johnson unkindly
called 'heterogeneous ideas yoked by violence together'. Typical
imagery is seen in Andrew Marvell's lines:
As lines so loves oblique may well
Themselves in every angle greet:
But ours so truly parallel,
Though infinite, can never meet.

4
 Introduction
The eighteenth century, even the late seventeenth, has the
heroic couplet as its measure, with Dryden and Pope the great
practitioners; in Dryden it is the natural balanced weapon of
satire:
A man so various that he seemed to be
Not one, but all mankind's epitome;
Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong,
Was everything by starts, and nothing long ...
Pope is satirical too, but his verse often has the added assur-
ance of rational statement, and convinces because of this:
True wit is nature to advantage dressed;
What oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed.
By the middle of the century Thomas Gray had elevated the
quatrain with alternate lines rhyming to an elegaic status:
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea;
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
The end of the eighteenth century marks the publication
(17g8) of the Lyrical Ballads of Wordsworth and Coleridge and
the beginning of what is known as the Romantic Movement in
England. Wordsworth's poetry formed a natural bridge between
the 'rational' poetry of the eighteenth century and the natural
poetry of, say, Keats and Coleridge. He chiefly employed simple
ballad language about common people, or the contemplation of
nature as religious and philosophical inspiration, as in the
superb blank verse lines of Tintern Abbey:
I have learned
To look on nature not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still sad music of humanity.
For Coleridge it meant that subtle use of ballad form in the
supernatural The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In addition to their
major long poems and dramas, Byron and Shelley wrote
exquisite lyrics, while Keats evoked the senses in his great odes
which themselves epitomize Romantic poetry of a strongly rom-
antic nature, rich in the experiences of the senses:

5
English coursework: Modern Poetry

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains

My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe wards had sunk.
This is the opening of the Ode to a Nightingale, where the poet
employs a complex verse form, but regular in terms of rhyme
and rhythm.' Tennyson is the natural heir of the Romantics in
his lyrical control, his use of myths and legends (notably Arthur-
ian), but he also gave to English poetry a differently-structured
four-line verse, that of In Memoriam (1850), his long verse tribute
to his friend Arthur Hallam, who had died in 1833 at the age of
twenty-one:
Dark house, by which once more I stand
Here in the long unlovely street,
Doors, where my heart was used to beat
So quickly, waiting for a hand.
But the essence of English poetry before the twentieth century
is its attention to form and the regularity of that chosen form,
certainly in shorter poems. Thus even a poet like Gerard Manley
Hopkins, who put into practice the idea of sprung rhythm, used
the sonnet, the short lyric and regular stanza forms. Most of
Hardy's poetry (see below) was written in the twentieth century
and employs conventional forms, though with great variety,
while the great poet of the First World War, Wilfred Owen, uses
assonance and consonance as a variant of straight rhyme, but
still sticks to the set forms that he has inherited.
The foregoing signposts are for students and teachers who
are interested in other areas of poetry as well as modern poetry,
and perhaps too with an examination in mind. They are an
introduction to the history and practice of English poetry.
This Brodie's Note concentrates on individual poets and a
brief selection of their poems. The poets have been selected
because they are important twentieth century poets on the one
hand, and because they are set by Examination Boards and thus
often taught in schools, on the other. The particular qualities of
each poet are indicated, and at the same time they are placed in
their individual context. There will often be some, reference to
the influences which shaped them as well as their main attitudes
and concerns. Each poet or group of poets has a short introduc-
tion, followed by some analysis of and commentary on each

6
 Introduction

selected poem: these will have an accompanying series of ques-

tions or assignments built into the section, so that teacher and/or
pupil can get the most from the sharp focus being provided.
When we read a poem we are soon in the position of respond-
ing to it: sometimes, initially, we do not like what we read. Poetry
is reasoned, imaginative, technical, often intellectual and inspir-
ational expression. It teaches us to think, and frequently it
makes us feel at the same time: if it fails to do so, it is not poetry
but cliched or diluted or commonplace expression. And as we
read we need to try to understand what the poet is saying. If he
writes about, say, a suffering or deprived child, is the poem
about this, and only this: or does it have a wider currency - that
is, is he making us think and feel about the many suffering
children in our own time, is he making a social and moral
comment, is he putting the situation in such a way that we are
deeply moved by the unbearable poignancy of it? If so, he is
enlarging our sympathies, educating our feelings, giving us
dimensions of thought and experience outside our own. This
book is intended to deepen your appreciation of poetry and
improve your ability to write about it. Modern poetry, as we have
said, experiments with form, develops its own forms, is full of
new ideas, approaches, techniques. It reflects twentieth-century
events (for example, war), technological advance, the problems
of contemporary men and women, their ways of life, and a host
of things which poets in earlier times knew nothing of. To read
modern poetry is therefore to be aware historically, socially,
morally and idealistically of the century in which we live.
Let us take a woman poet, like Sylvia Plath, when she gives us
a picture of herself and her baby in that finely evocative poem,
'Morning Song'. Read the poem. In what ways is she adopting an
unconventional or different attitude towards her experience? In
what ways do words like 'statue' and a phrase like 'draughty
museum' influence our response towards the poem? What do
you find either funny or sad in the poet's description of herself
as being 'cow-heavy and floral/In my Victorian nightgown'? Or
take another of her poems, 'Mushrooms'. Look up the title-word
in an Encyclopedia and check whether the factual details of the
poem are correct. After you have done this, read through the
poem once with the facts in your mind, then again to see if it is
only about mushrooms. What else is it about? What effect does
the personification have? ('Soft fists insist on .. .') Look again at

7
English coursework: Modern Poetry

this phrase. Why 'soft'? Is there such a thing as a 'soft' fist?

Notice that there is an internal rhyme within the line, rather
than just the more conventional rhyme at the end of the line
rhyming with another. Notice further how compact the poem is
(perhaps as compact and complete as the mushroom itself?).
If you concentrate on poetry you will discover how much it
yields up to disciplined and imaginative reading. A poem is a
work of art, a structure, carefully, relevantly put together in the
verbal sense. It may make an overall impact (we are perhaps
both optimistic and sad when we have read Charles Causley's
poem 'Timothy Winters!) but each of the parts which constitutes
the sum tells us something of the poet's intentions. Why is a
particular form used for the poem? (You might look again at
'Mushrooms'. Why are there three lines in each of the verses?)
The shape or form of the poem may reflect the subject. Take
this poem by Thomas Hardy:

Midnight on the Great Western

In the third-class seat sat the journeying boy,
And the roof-lamp's oily flame
Played down on his listless form and face,
Bewrapt past knowing to what he was going,
Or whence he came.
In the band of his hat the journeying boy
Had a ticket stuck; and a string
Around his neck bore the key of his box,
That twinkled gleams of the lamp's sad beams
Like a living thing.
What past can be yours, 0 journeying boy
Towards a world unknown,
Who calmly, as if incurious quite
On all at stake, can undertake
This plunge alone?
Knows your soul a sphere, 0 jOUJ:neying boy,
Our rude realms far above,
Whence with spacious vision you mark and mete
This region of sin that you find you in,
But are not of?
Examine the form, which is relatively straightforward - four
verses of five lines each, with the second and fifth lines in each

8
 Introduction

verse rhyming: each verse begins with a line ending in 1our-

neying boy'. Now look more closely: you will notice that the
fourth line in each verse has an internal rhyme, and that the first
two verses make statements, while the second two ask questions
(rhetorical questions which are not answered and are perhaps
unanswerable). Now if you look at the three longer lines in each
of the verses you will find that the rhythm of the lines captures, in
its reiterative monotony, the rhythm of the train. This is insis-
tent, and the last line of the poem, with its sudden, inverted
word-order, almost represents the train braking or slowing and
coming to a halt. What is the mood of the poem? It appears to be
one of sadness: the boy is isolated from his companions, the
ticket and the string seemingly making him a labelled parcel
instead of a living creature. The reflections seem to be more
alive than he is. The speculation about the past and the future
make him even more vulnerable and defenceless - his journey
has been decided for him. Look at words like 'unknown', 'stake'
and 'plunge', with their sense of fate. And look at 'calmly' and
'incurious' as well as 'listless', which surely indicate that the boy is
past caring what happens to him.
The comments above are on some of the parts which make up
the whole. Whereas most poems tell a story or present an experi-
ence, this one reaches no conclusion (not even the end of the
journey). The boy's next stage cannot be written about - it is
'unknown'. Yet in another sense the story is complete, for
although it is speculative about this boy, it encapsulates our
experience of life, the fact that we are journeying into the
unknown all the time, at the moment, as we write.
This book is a journey - for you, for us - into the experience
of poetry, a sharing with the poets as you read parts of their
journeys as recorded in their verse. Hardy died in 1928, at the
age of eighty-eight, but many would argue that he is a modem
poet, since the greatest part of his verse was written after the
death of his first wife in 1912. If you look again at the poem
above you will see that there are signs of datedness in Hardy's
use of language. Take, for instance, 'Bewrapt', which is an arch-
aic usage (i.e. one not employed today) for 'self-absorbed'.
There is the use of a phrase like 'rude realms', which is poetic
ostentation. What do you think it means? How would you define
it? You might link it with 'sphere' and say what that means too.
And in the penultimate line there is 'mete', another archaism.

9
English coursework: Modern Poetry

But whatever the datedness of certain phrases, you will see from
the foregoing that a good poem makes its impression through a
number of things; your task is to evaluate them.

10
Thomas Hardy

Hardy was born at Upper Bockhampton near Dorchester in

1840, the son of a stonemason who was also a church musician.
At sixteen he was articled to a local church architect, met Wil-
liam Barnes, the Dorset dialect poet, and then went to London
in 1862. He abandoned his Christian faith, returned to Dorches-
ter to work in 1867, and later met Emma Gifford, who was to
become his first wife. He wrote poetry from the beginning, but
became famous as a novelist in 1874 with the publication of Far
From the Madding Crowd. Between 1874 and 1895 he wrote
twelve major novels, but returned to poetry after the hostile
reception of Jude the Obscure in 1895. The death of Emma in
1912 inspired some of his greatest love poetry, written out of a
sense of guilt and loss. In February 1914 he married Florence
Dugdale, and he died in 1928.
Despite the date of his birth, Hardy is included in this study
because most of his best poetry was written in the twentieth
century, and it influenced important mid-century poets like
Betjeman and Larkin in their technique, themes and form. His
poems reflect many of the themes of his novels: a love of land-
scape and nature, the inevitability of destiny, man's relationship
with nature and the universe. His love poems are often sad,
sometimes tender or ironic, contemplating might-have-been
situations or nostalgic for lost love. Sometimes they are humor-
ous or laconic, sometimes they have lyrical description express-
ive of his love of nature or animals. In either case, the language
is commonplace, with occasional local usage: he employs archaic
words but generally keeps to everyday speech, so that they are
easily grasped and appreciated by a wide readership. He
deliberately avoids what he called 'the jewelled line'. He is
master of many different forms, mostly traditional but some-
times cunningly adapted. He experimented to the end, his
rhymes and rhythms having a relaxed, sincere and economic
dexterity. This is the major part of his immediate appeal. He
drew from life, from nature, from religion, philosophy, and
above all from his own vigorous and dynamic temperament.
Ezra Pound, American poet, and great friend of T. S. Eliot,

11
English coursework: Modern Poetry

commenting on the remarkable clarity of his verse, considered it

'the harvest of having written twenty novels first'.

Under the Waterfall

Published in 1914, this is one of Hardy's bitter-sweet love poems.
The speaker, a woman perhaps identifiable with Emma, refers
to the attempts made by husband and wife to recapture the
happiness of their first meeting and their early years of mar-
riage. The form is that of a dialogue, but the shape of the poem
with its long and short cadences suggests the cascades of the
waterfall, as do the sudden changes of rhythm. The keen sense
oflost love is expressed in the words:
The sweet sharp sense of a fugitive day
Fetched back from its thickening shroud of gray.
Love has gone - the imagery conveys that it and the happy day
by the waterfall are dead and buried. The setting is lyrically
described, the landscape having a timeless quality as compared
with the transitory nature of love. The tone is rich with alliter-
ation and internal rhymes, while the green of the leafy awning is
symbolic of youth and happiness. Water imagery is linked to
sexual imagery as the woman speaks of plunging arms into bowl
or stream. The lost glass has become a 'chalice', a holy vessel,
always sought but never found, the symbol of lost love. The
movement and sounds of the water have a musicality which
suggests the time-span, the journey that the man and woman
have made away from the sunshine and happiness of their early
love.
Now write an appreciation of this poem, bringing out its
technical and imaginative qualities in terms of mood and par-
ticularly in its choice of language.

The Voice
This poem has in the first three quatrains a lilting regularity of
form, but the last verse, though retaining the form outwardly
(for instance, in the abab rhyme scheme), is stark and insistent in
its realism, its sense of hopelessness. There appears to be a
strong autobiographical emotion in the poem, since Hardy's
wife Emma had died only weeks before it was written. It is a
 Thomas Hardy

remarkable poem for a man of seventy-two. The disembodied

voice is haunting, and this is emphasized by the repetitions in
the first line and throughout. The poet links past and present
through a series of plaintive questions, for he desperately wants
the voice to be real. The choice of particular words like 'listless-
ness', here meaning unknowing and uncaring, is cunningly
echoed in the sadness of 'wan wistlessness', one of Hardy's own
coinages. The final verse is terse and bleak (like the landscape),
full of wintry coldness and as empty as the poet's heart. It
marks the complete change from delusion and illusion to
reality. You might compare and contrast this poem with 'Under
the Waterfall', paying particular attention to language, atmos-
phere, the emotional content and the form. Consider the effect
here, for example, of the phrase 'faltering forward', which sug-
gests pathetic searching for the 'voice', and the gradual move-
ment towards death through this lonely autumn of his life.

Beeny Cliff
'Beeny Cliff is a typical example of Hardy's capacity for
reliving early experiences. The time is 1870 when he visited
Beeny Cliff with Emma, now seen in 1913, when Hardy has
lost her and is faced with the grim reality of life without her.
The five three-line verses are in a t:egular form, with a lyrical
free-flowing movement: the rhythm catches both that of the
ambling horse with its rider and the regular beat of the waves.
The imagery is vivid and visual, using colour and sound, while
the great solid shape of the cliff 'bulks' over all, emphasizing
the insignificance and transitory nature of the man and the
woman.
These brief comments should suffice to set off your own
appreciation. Now write a commentary on the poem, noting
particularly the repetition and the alliteration, as in the joyful
effect produced by the '1' sounds - 'laughed', 'light-heartedly',
'aloft' followed by the superb 'dear-sunned', a double-barrelled
coinage which heightens the effect. Make sure that you indicate
how the language of the poem reflects the course of the lovers'
relationship and the inevitability of change.
English coursework: Modern Poetry

The Oxen
In totally different vein is Hardy's often quoted poem 'The
Oxen'. His much-loved sister Mary had died in November 1915,
and when he wrote this he was remembering his Dorset family
heritage, the country tales and legends he heard as a child. The
superstition that the animals kneel to worship Christ on Christ-
mas Eve is expressed in terms of simplicity and beauty. The
gathering of the villagers 'in a flock' makes us think directly of
the animals themselves, and also of the shepherds on the hillside
at Bethlehem. The mute 'faith' of the oxen is echoed in the
unquestioning belief of the country folk. The nostalgic poet can
still feel a sense of wonder despite the fact that he himself has
lost the traditional Christian faith of his youth: he would have
liked to believe the reason for the oxen kneeling and indeed the
fact that they were doing so. Why does Hardy especially want
the supposition to be true? Do you find his treatment of the
subject sincere or condescending? (Quote in support of what
you say.) How does the use of direct speech add to the effect of
the poem? You may find it interesting to compare 'The Oxen'
with John Be~eman's poem 'Christmas'. Say clearly what differ-
ences and similarities you find (look at form, language, feeling,
for example).

The Choirmaster's Burial

The poem reflects Hardy's love of church music which had been
instilled into him by his father. He had played the fiddle as a
boy, and the narrative of the poem may derive from a story told
to Hardy as a child. The tone is both sympathetic and humor-
ous. Notice the verse form, different again from those we have
previously considered. It has a lilting, almost jaunty rhythm and
a lightness of touch, reminding us of Hardy's ability to set his
verse to the subject matter, a kind of natural harmony. The
choirmaster is recalled with obvious affection, while Hardy
gently pokes fun at the pompous vicar who must stick to the
church's ritual despite the expressed wish of the choirmaster
himself. The short, sharp phrases of the third verse suggest the
haste with which the burial is performed, while the fourth is a
justification of the choirmaster and his request, conveying at the
same time Hardy's appreciation of that element of country
 Thomas Hardy

superstition which is so much part of his life.

Now write an appreciation of this poem, bringing out its
musical quality (look particularly at the form, rhythm, and lan-
guage). How is this quality linked to Hardy's humour?

Faintheart in a Railway Train

This marks another instance of Hardy's range - the 'might-
have-been' which so fascinated him and which is seen in the
novels as well as the verse. The glimpse of the girl from the
train, the transitory nature of the experience, the failure to
change that experience, all these have a universality common to
us all. Many of Hardy's poems deal with trains and travelling,
the arrival of the railways from the mid-nineteenth century
onwards symbolizing the journey through life. Once past, the
moment, with all its possibilities, cannot be recaptured. There is
a further irony in that the girl concerned does not notice the
poet! Now, look closely at the form of the poem and its rhythms,
and show how Hardy exactly captures the movement of the
wheels of the train and the speed of the passing landscape - and
the passage of time. Is there any clumsiness in the poem? (Per-
haps this relates to an uneven movement, through braking, on
the part of the train.)

At the Railway Station, Upway

This is a linked poem. It is short, with a moving story told
superbly in the space of a few lines. It has the feel of a true
happening, something observed and treated with compassion
and imagination. There is even a kind of association between the
boy with the violin and the poet. Notice at once the cunning
difference in form between verses one and two. Both verses
contain irony and paradox. Can you spot this? The setting of the
railway station is one of joy and sorrow, meeting and parting,
journeys of hope or despair. The child is 'pitying' - he pities the
man, a reversal of the situation we might expect. The change of
rhyme and rhythm in verse two reflects the sudden explosion of
joy into the gloomy atmosphere. Notice how Hardy puts the
convict's song in musical form, and how the irony of its words is
emphasized by the oxymoron ( a deliberate contradiction used
for dramatic effect) of 'grimful glee', with its alliterative hard 'g'
English coursework: Modern Poetry

sounds. What is the effect of the repetition of the word 'smiled'?

Compare the two railway poems. Do they have anything
more in common than just location? Quote in support of what
you say.

Snow in the Suburbs

A relaxed and light-hearted poem: Hardy is writing in the, for
him, unusual urban setting, but still exercising his love of nature
and the acute observation he brings into play whenever he
contemplates it. The language is strongly visual, but above all it
captures the silence of the snow, as the poet's feeling drifts with
it. The description 'The palings are glued together like a wall' is
especially evocative. Notice the running alliteration of 'w' and 'f
sounds. There is some humour in the description of the spar-
row, and the final lines illustrate Hardy'S skilful economy of
language and style. Look, for example, at the smoothness of
'blanched slope'. Notice how the poet is able to create a complete
scene in three short verses. Now make a list of the effective
words in terms of rhythm, sound and visual quality, then quote
which images seem to you to reflect Hardy's technical evocation
of the scene.

The Bird Catcher's Boy

A ballad-form poem, a favourite mode with Hardy. It tells a
simple, poignant story, and is full of the bird observation he uses
so often (look at 'The Darkling Thrush', 'The Blinded Bird', and
'Weathers'). The plight of the caged birds is movingly described:
the boy also is given a deprived context as he gropes through
'dark stairs' and 'the long passage where hang the caged choirs'.
We sense the boy's fear, but there is a certain musicality present
as he runs his fingers over the wires of the cages. The birds are
silent at night, but the boy makes music for them, and for
himself, as a comfort in his sadness. Long after the boy has gone
the birds sing in their captivity, like the exiled Israelites of Psalm
137 (verses 1-4). Why is the season of 'Christmastide' par-
ticularly ironic? Notice once more how Hardy uses music. What
is the effect of 'lyres'? You perhaps need to know that 'Durdle
Door' is an unusual-shaped rock at Lulworth Cove on the Dorset
coast.

16
 Thomas Hardy

Above we have given a very brief commentary on this moving

poem. Now tell the story in your own words, bringing out
clearly what happened to the boy. Try to say why.

Questions and assignments on Thomas Hardy

1 Hardy's love of his native landscape and of nature is evident
in his verse. Demonstrate this by reference and quotation, using
any two or three poems.
I 'Sad, sentimental, sincere.' How far do these words define
Hardy's poetry?
3 Write a detailed appreciation of any Hardy poem you know
well. (Refer to the form, theme or themes, narrative content
where appropriate, imagery, sight, sound, descriptive quality,
simplicity or complexity.)
w. B. Yeats

William Butler Yeats was born near Dublin in 1865, the son of
a distinguished artist. He once said, generalizing about 'the
poet': 'His life is an experiment in living, and those who come
after have a right to know it.' His own early life was an experi-
ment, with little formal education: he absorbed the history and
mythology of Ireland from listening to the peasants of Sligo.
In 1889 he published his first volume of poems and met the
love of his life, the passionate Irish revolutionary, Maud
Gonne. She married Sean MacBride, a fellow revolutionary, in
1903. MacBride was one of those executed in the Easter
Uprising of 1916 in Ireland, an event which provoked Yeats to
write one of the poems included in the brief selection here. He
continued to bring out books of verse regularly, was awarded
the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, edited The Oxford Book
of Modem Verse in 1936, and died in 1939. Auden's elegy on his
death in that year celebrates his achievement as a poet.
Here we are merely selecting a handful of his poems to
indicate his range, his concerns, his techniques, and to show his
influence on much modern poetry, particularly in his use of
symbol, his practised range of reference and colloquial express-
iveness at times. Yeats deliberately uses particular and personal
images and symbols, e.g. the gyre and the heart as 'a foul
rag-and-bone shop', sometimes effectively obscuring his mean-
ing though not his music. He was greatly drawn towards the
writings of William Blake, and defined his own matter when
writing about him: 'A symbol is indeed the only expression of
some invisible essence, a transparent lamp about a spiritual
flame.' His symbols, like all symbols, stand for outward and
inward things, feelings, ideas. In addition, he was interested in
magic and the occult and 'automatic' writing. He drew upon
the legends and myths of Ireland in his early poems. As he put
it himself, 'I had made a new religion, almost an infallible
church, of poetic tradition .. .' He also became absorbed in the
theatre, and then turned to his country and its problems, and
finally to himself, though often linking this study to the theme
of Ireland. He uses traditional forms in a new way, laced with
symbols and personal associations, as in 'Sailing to Byzantium'

18
 W.B. Yeats
which, apart from anything else, is about the state of his own
soul.

When You Are Old

The poem has a precise symmetry which mirrors, technically,
the symmetrical beauty of the 'beloved', and it owes its inception
to a sonnet by Ronsard (1578), the opening of which has been
rendered into English (from the French) by Humbert Wolfe:
When you are old, at evening candle-lit
Beside the fire bending to your wool,
Read out my verse and murmur, 'Ronsard writ
This praise for me when I was beautiful.'
It will be apparent that Yeats is here indebted, but that his
treatment is an individual one. It has been held by some that the
initially loving quality of the poem is replaced by a touch of
arrogance, for the beauty of the beloved has faded, and remains
only in the poet's words. However, the tone comes into sharp
focus with the term 'pilgrim soul', the implication being that only
one man has loved the spiritual quality which informed her
physical beauty. The third verse appears to mean that the poet
'fled' into the world of the imagination, losing himself in mys-
ticism, speculation, with the loved one consigned to an old age
consoled only by the memory of beauty and love. This is one
interpretation, but there are obviously others of this controlled
and tender poem, with its sadly ironic look into the future.
Now look closely at the form of this poem, and at the treat-
ment. Write a paragraph arguing that the poem tells us as much
about the poet as it does about the woman. What does it tell you
about the poet?

The Wild Swans at Coole

Yeats considers the changes in his own life since his visit to Coole
Park some nineteen years previously. Coole Park was the home
of Lady Gregory, his great friend. When he first stayed at Coole
he was grieving because Maud Gonne didn't love him. The
opening verse is superbly descriptive of the tranquillity of
nature, the second with the movements of the birds perhaps
paralleling the flight of the imagination. This sets up the train of

19
English coursework: Modern Poetry

reminiscence. Then he focuses on the habits of the swans, the

fine 'Companionable streams' expressing the warmth he envies.
This is further exemplified in the phrase 'Their hearts have not
grown old'. The last verse is a little enigmatic, but there is the
terrible sensation of loss, almost as if the swans are passing away
from his life to be enjoyed by others - perhaps a glance at the
fact that youth and the experience of love have passed away too.
The six-line verses with alternate lines rhyming, each verse
climaxed by a couplet, have a mournful lyricism.
The poem was published in 1919, after the Easter Uprising
and the death of Maud Gonne's husband. So much has hap-
pened, and you might note the phrase 'lover by lover', which is
expressive of the poet's envy of the swans, as they have mated
and known the consummation of love, unlike the poet, whose
love is still out of reach. Bearing this in mind, indicate what the
word 'companionable' tells us about the poet. Again, write a
paragraph bringing out what you think is the main subject and
theme of the poem.

Easter 1916
Here the subtly varied short lines, with assonance and con-
sonance and repetition, are a personal narrative of the Dublin
rebellion of Easter 1916. The first part covers the poet's own
recollections of the men who subsequently became martyrs, his
casual acquaintance with them, his using them as foils for his
own wit; but at the end of this section the line that is to become a
refrain - 'A terrible beauty is born' - puts into perspective in a
superb paradox the nature of their dying and the memory of
their death. Friends, the 'young and beautiful' Maud Gonne,
and enemies are included in his survey in the second part of this
moving and beautiful poem, which is alternately colloquial and
elevated as befits the facts and the idealism involved. The superb
third part has the stone - permanence, Ireland, death - as its
central symbol, and this is contrasted with a series of images
involving changes in life. This symbol leads us into the fourth
and final section, which becomes a debate in the poet's mind
between the rights and wrongs of using personal feelings in a
cause and thus becoming blind to human feeling in its
immediacy and warmth.
Some gloss is perhaps necessary to a full understanding of the

20
 W.B. Yeats

poem. The reference to 'motley', a traditional fool's

particoloured dress, is a cynical comment on life. The various
characters in the tragedy who were imprisoned or executed are
mentioned, perhaps most unkindly Maud Gonne's husband as a
'lout'. Interesting too is 'Enchanted to a stone', which is linked to
'a stone of the heart' in the next verse, with its suggestion of
complete belief in the cause and the fact of sacrifice for that
cause (,needless death'). We register the complexity of Yeats's
own reactions, but 'Wherever green is worn' sounds the patriotic
note, and in fact the unending nature of the conflict.

Assignment
Find out as much as you can about the political situation in
Ireland then, and indicate how well you think Yeats captures the
mood of events and their aftermath.

Sailing To Byzantium
This poem was written in 1926, and Yeats referred to it as a
poem 'about the state of my soul'. He knew much about the
Byzantine civilization through reading, and the poem is what he
called 'the search for the spiritual life thro,ugh a journey to the
city'. Remember that it was written at the age of sixty-one, and
you will realize that it is a remarkable projection both of the
imagination and the intellect, with maturity of vision and an
exquisite awareness of form. Again there is the fine balance
between the colloquial and the elevated, and the four verses, the
ottava rima (i.e. verses consisting of eight ten-syllabled lines, the
first six rhyming alternately, then lines 7 and 8 rhyming
together - as for example in Byron's DonJuan), are a condensa-
tion of wisdom, aesthetic appreciation and, above all, humanity
and a degree of self-recognition.
But there is much more to the poem than that. The opening
line is a reference to the inadequacy of Ireland, and the evoca-
tive lines which follow suggest both the vigour and the transitor-
iness of youth, while double-barrelled phrases like 'mackerel-
crowded' conjure Irish scenes which haunt Yeats's verse. The
theme is that great art has survived, that the spirit ('Soul clap its
hands') will survive the flesh. The running metaphor of the
ocean ('I have sailed the seas') represents the journey of the

III
English coursework: Modem Poetry

imagination to the past, a past visited by Yeats in fact and of

course in his reading.
Try the following. First, respond to the musicality, the sound,
the rhythms of the poem on your own personal level. Poetry can
move you emotionally without your understanding it completely.
What kind of mood is conveyed by this poem? On the face of it
this is a complex poem. Now write a summary of it in about 150
words, saying clearly what the particular images and symbols
mean. By all means use the commentary given above, but
include anything else that you find which you feel to be impor-
tant, e.g. explain what is meant by 'that sensual music'.

The Circus Animals' Desertion

Here Yeats reverts to the past, asking: 'What can I but
enumerate old themes?' His enumeration in this poem is superb
- a meticulous control of the stanza form, and some telling
self-analysis. The first verse looks at his early work, then in the
second at his use of myth and legend to emphasize his own love.
The next two deal with his plays, while the last speaks of where
he has finally come to - 'the foul rag-and-bone shop of the
heart'.
Here we have a succession of symbols, with the 'circus animals'
of the title perhaps being associated with drawings made by his
brother Jack. They symbolize his early fascination with heroes of
traditional stature, hence 'stilted', with a reference to Cuchullain
(a heroic figure in Irish mythology). The poem is powerfully
esoteric, 'old themes' perhaps emphasizing Yeats's capacity in his
early verses to write chivalrously before the sadness of his per-
sonal love. This look back, however, includes the play which
Yeats wrote for Maud Gonne, The Countess Cathleen, where the
Countess herself is in some \\T.ays an interpretation of Maud's
character. He also mentions another play and by analogy his
association with the Abbey Theatre. There is a terrible despair
and self-recognition in the last verse of this, one of his last,
poems. In what ways do you feel that Yeats makes you aware of
this?

22
 W.B. Yeats

Questions and assignments on Yeats

1 Write about Yeats's use of the past in any of his poems.
Guideline note. You have a free choice of poem, but bring in
personal experience as well as the use of culture, art, reading,
images and symbols used as definition, metrical and poetic
treatment and the distinctive attitude or perspective with respect
to the past.
Il; Write a detailed appreciation of the form (the structure of the
verses) in either 'Sailing to Byzantium' or 'The Circus Animals'
Desertion' .
3 Write an appreciation of Yeats's lyrical or musical qualities, or
both, in any two of his poems.
4 Compare Yeats's use of allusion, quotation, cultural reference
in anyone of his poems with that ofT. S. Eliot in anyone of his.
Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen, arguably the greatest of war, or more correcdy

anti-war, poets, was born in Shropshire in 1893. The family
moved to Birkenhead in his childhood, but returned to
Shrewsbury later. He taught English and acted as a tutor before
enlisting in 1915. He was commissioned in the Manchester
Regiment in 1916 and was sent to the Front in France at the end
of the same year. After periods at home, he returned to the
front and, paradoxically, was awarded the Military Cross despite
his own rejection of the war. He was killed in action shordy
before the Armistice in November 1918. His poetry showed a
dramatic leap forward in his recording of the horrors of the war
which killed him. As he observed in his brief preface to his verse,
'My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the
pity.'
We are going to look at a few poems which exemplify this pity
and also show Owen's technical achievements, chief among
which must be numbered the use of assonant and consonant
rhyme. The first consists of the vowel sounds rhyming without
the consonants, the second the consonants without the vowels.

Strange Meeting
We notice at once the consonance in the first four lines, which
end with 'escaped', 'scooped', groined', and 'groaned', so that the
couplets are enhanced by the sound. Owen also includes internal
rhyme, giving the poem a kind of heavy musicality ('Lifting
distressful hands, as if to bless'). There are many other
examples, and you should read through the poem carefully,
recording as you do the many different technical skills he
employs (assonance, consonance, internal rhyme, for example).
Briefly, the subject is an after-death meeting between two
enemies - enemies because they have been on the opposite sides
in war. Each is a mirror image ofthe other, and as you read on
you will see that the word 'pity' is central to our understanding
ofthe poem, and that the real subject is the futility of killing. But
there are a number of subjects related to it, and your close
reading will find them.
 Wilfred Owen

Read imaginatively and write concisely about what you dis-

cover in this poem. For instance, write about 150 words on the
sound and the atmospheric effects of the verse. Note par-
ticularly the use of repetition, the visual quality (are the speakers
in Hell and in a mine? Certainly there are suggestions of a
mining disaster, as well as the overriding disaster and degrad-
ation of war). Say what you make of the ending of the poem and,
before that, what you think the poet is saying about the future,
after the war? In other words, include in your appreciation not
only the technical achievements but also the imaginative quality
of the poem.

Anthem for Doomed Youth

'Anthem for Doomed Youth' shows Owen writing in a different
form, but obviously with the same or similar concerns in mind.
The form derives from the Shakespearean sonnet, fourteen
lines climaxing in a rhyming couplet. Again we are aware of the
sound and sense effects (Owen gready admired the poetry of
John Keats), and of the reactions which are set up in the reader.
Look closely. 'The 'passing-bells', for example, evoke the church
bells ringing out (perhaps in celebration of a victory?), and the
catde-bells which enable their whereabouts to be discovered, and
the tolling of the funeral bell which signifies death - here mass
death, like that of catde in a slaughter-house. You will see from
this single concentration just how rich and associative Owen's
text is. You might look at the irony of the tide: the dictionary
definition of 'Anthem' is 'a song or hymn of praise or gladness'.
Suddenly the music is subsumed in the distorted music of war,
the guns and rifles of destruction. Note the sound effects, the
alliteration and onomatopeia which convey the 'monstrous
anger' (you might concentrate on the att noise and the running s s).
Look at the second part of the octave (the first eight lines). Say in
what ways you feel that the Christian imagery underlines the
horror that Owen is representing; you might consider the reiter-
ation of 'bells' here and of 'choirs', as well as the Last Post being
sounded by the bugles - the ultimate salute to mass death.
Notice too how the sestet (the last six lines) begins again with a
question, a question that cannot be answered. The focus on
'boys' and 'girls' - the choirboys who grow up perhaps to be the
next generation of cannon-fodder, and the 'girls' who will be (or
English coursework: Modem Poetry

are) the sweethearts of those who die - is certainly ironic. The

language is superbly condensed; note the associations and pun
of 'pallor' and 'pall', the 'flowers' given to those who go away,
and the flowers on graves or the wreaths which mark their
non-return. Note also the last line with its image of death - the
end of the day, the end of life, the 'drawing-down of blinds' in
respect for the dead, the last a symbol too of the eyelids being
closed over the eyes. All these spell out the finality of war.
As Owen says, the 'Poetry is in the Pity'. Perhaps we should
add that it is also in the anger at the practised hypocrisy. The
tone of the poem is in the title: at the suggestion of Siegfried
Sassoon, a fellow poet who threw away his medal in disgust at
the human carnage, Owen altered 'dead' to 'doomed'. It
emphasizes his mood.
Now write an appreciation of this poem, bringing out the
various qualities which make it at once a moving experience and
a stimulating one too. (Make sure you comment on Owen's main
techniques here.)

Dulce Et Decorum Est

One of Owen's greatest poems is 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' (part of
the Latin phrase which in full means 'it is sweet and proper to
die for one's country'). Owen is concerned with the terrible
reality of that dying and with exposing 'The old Lie', for such
deaths are degrading and bitter, not noble. He stresses this by an
unequivocal description of men returning from the front to
'rest' (obviously they will be going back again) and being subjec-
ted to a gas attack. The first stanza consists of eight lines with
alternate lines rhyming. The description is vivid and direct: they
are 'blood-shod' and 'lame', 'blind', 'drunk with fatigue'. The
sudden transition into stanza two reflects the suddenness of the
attack and the helplessness of the man who cannot put on his gas
mask: the 'green sea', with its fearful image of drowning, leads
to the climactic two lines which are separated from the previous
six - just as the man is separated from his comrades by agonizing
death. (Note the effect achieved by the use of 'guttering' - the
light of life, the candle, is being put out.) The third stanza has
twelve lines, the length reflecting the intolerable struggling
nature of the man's death. Owen's realism is frightening. He
does not spare the reader. He supplies all the ghastly details,

116
 Wilfred Owen

then ends with the patriotic quotation which supplies the poem's
tide. The effect is powerful indeed. Notice the double-barrelled
'froth-corrupted', the 'sores on innocent tongues' (which suggest
the incidence of venereal disease among the soldiers), and par-
ticularly the reference to 'children' - for many of those who
fought in the First World War were boys. And notice the
boldness of 'The old Lie'. Owen was a brave man in action, but
perhaps a braver one in his passionate rejection of the obscenity
of war.
Now write an assignment on the nature of the language in
this poem. Pay particular attention to the effect of colour,
sound, sight, and the involvement of the senses. Say what you
find most moving in this poem and why.

Futility
This poem further underlines Owen's feelings, its apparent
simplicity and its brevity perhaps indicating the short span oflife
of those who die in war. There are two seven-line verses, so that
the line total is equivalent to that of a sonnet, though, of course,
a sonnet usually takes the form of eight lines then six. The
soldier is dead, and the analogy is with sleep. The simple,
natural life of the soldier's past is evoked, a rural life built
around the seasonal shifts. The use of the word 'unsown' refers
to the seeds of his past life, but the loaded nature of the word
connects with the present - he will never sow again. Notice in
this first verse the incidence of assonance and consonance, con-
veying a musicality which makes the poem a brief dirge. The
second verse continues the analogy of sowing, but harks back to
the beginning of time when the earth was first formed. Did the
'sunbeams toil' to bring life to the world, to make Man, only that
he should be killed so senselessly? Note the use of double-
barrelled words again - 'dear-achieved' and 'Full-nerved' - and
the fact that three unanswerable questions are asked. One feels
that it is 'futile' to ask the questions; in a sense, by killing, man
has destroyed himself and his inheritance. Again, look at the
effect of the consonance and assonance in this verse.

You have now read four poems by Wilfred Owen, but it may be
that you are undertaking project work which has to do with war
in general and with war poets in particular. You might like to
English coursework: Modem Poetry

seek out poems from a good war anthology (like Up The Line to
Death) and compare them with the poems by Owen we have
studied above. When Owen was in hospital at Craiglockhart, he
met Siegfried Sassoon, who was to reject the war himself: you
might read one or two of his poems, or perhaps some by another
poet who was killed, Isaac Rosenberg. Or you could look at some
of the prose written about that war, and see again if the attitudes
are comparable to those held by the poets. Relevant reading
here would be Goodbye to All That (1929) by Robert Graves, or
Death of a Hero (1930) by Richard Aldington, or, from the other
side, All Quiet on the 'Western Front (1929) by Erich Maria
Remarque.

Questions and assignments on Wilfred Owen

1 Write about any two of Owen's poems, bringing out his main
concerns and techniques. Guideline notes: Here you have a free
choice, but make sure that you refer to assonance, consonance,
the overall form of the poem, the pity, realism, humanity,
compassion, vivid language, and the use of the senses.
I Compare anyone of Owen's poems you have read with
another First World War poem, bringing out the differences of
technical and emotional emphasis.
3 In what ways is Owen's poetry like no other poetry you have
read? Point out the differences, and say whether or not you
appreciate Owen's verse and why.
4 Search out a poet who wrote about war other than the 1914-
18 war, and give an account of anyone or two of his poems.

18
T. S. Eliot

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St Louis, Missouri, in 1888,

the sixth and youngest child of parents who were comfortably
off and who were strict Unitarians (a religious group who deny
the Trinity and reject any kind of dogma or religious ritual). He
went to Harvard to study philosophy, turning to mysticism and
the works of Dante as his interests deepened. He then travelled
to Europe, staying in Paris: he was greatly influenced by the
French symbolist poets of the late nineteenth century (Mallarme
and Rimbaud in particular), and began to write experimental
poems himself. He settled in England, taught briefly, worked for
Lloyds Bank and then joined the publishers Faber and Gwyther,
soon to become Faber and Faber.
His early poems were published in 1919, and these were fol-
lowed by The Waste Land (1922), The Hollow Men (1925) and
Ash-Wednesday (1930). He rejected the faith of his childhood and
was received into the Anglican church in 1927. Four Quartets was
published in its entirety in 1944. As publisher, Eliot encouraged
a number of younger poets, and in addition to his own poetry he
wrote some important critical essays and plays: of the latter the
most celebrated are Murder in the Cathedral (1935) about the
killing of Thomas a Becket, and The Family Reunion (1939). In
1948 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. He died in
196 5.
Here we are concerned with a few of his poems. He brought a
strongly individual style into English poetry, with varied stresses
in the lines; he adapted the blank verse of the great Elizabethan
and Jacobean dramatists he so admired, particularly in The Waste
Land (see below). We have already noted the influence of the
Symbolists and of Dante, but the great contemporary influence
was his friend and co-American, Ezra Pound, who cut and
otherwise rigorously edited Eliot's first draft of The Waste Land
into the form in which it was published. Eliot, always interested
in philosophy, his studies embracing the Hindu and Buddhist
religions, became increasingly religious himself, absorbing mys-
tical ideas from a variety of sources into his work - a work that is
informed with a width and depth of reading and scholarship.
Although this means his poetry is permeated with unfamiliar

29
English coursework: Modern Poetry

allusions and images, it is also enlivened with contemporary

cliche, direct language of the kind we all use, popular songs,
lyricism and sensuality. It is therefore possible to feel his poems
without fully understanding them.

TheJoumey of the Magi

The background to our first selection (one of the Ariel poems) is
the firmness of Eliot's faith and the superb imaginative associa-
tion with the Three Wise Men. We see them as flesh-and-blood
people - weary of discomfort, taken for a ride by the locals, who
overcharge them, wistfully recalling the comforts of home. The
details are vivid, and the language -'galled', 'sore-footed', 'cur-
sing and grumbling' - is both colloquial and colourful. The
repetition of the word 'and' conveys the monotony of the journey;
'hard' reinforces this, and is a comment on the nature of the
physical and emotional experience. The modern colloquial
speech accompanies the Wise Men's selective memories, with the
result that both trivial and significant happenings are woven into
the narrative, and become part of the imaginative structure of the
poem. Here the final section is the most moving, for the birth of
Christ presages the death of the old way oflife. The last line of the
poem suggests that, because of this, the old King - representative
of the old ways - feels redundant and wishes for a natural death.
Is he also wistfully wishing that Christ had never been born?
Through his multiple associations Eliot elicits a number of
responses in the reader. For example, the lines 'A cold coming ...
dead of winter' are in the quotation marks of speech, but they are
also in borrowed speech, for they are a beautifully balanced para-
phrase of a paragraph from one of the sermons of Lancelot
Andrewes (1555-1626), Bishop of Winchester, a man Eliot
greatly admired. This is an allusion, and the allusive nature of
much of Eliot's verse through quotation, association and echo, for
example, is pronounced. There are of course other allusions: the
'Six hands' evokes the later 'dicing' for the garments of Christ at
the foot of the Cross, while the 'pieces of silver' anticipate the
betrayal of Christ by Judas for thirty pieces of silver. There is too
the subtle use of the word 'alien', here ironic because although
they are the speaker's own people they become 'foreign' because
they are clinging to a way of life which the old King realizes is
over.
 T. S. Eliot

We wrote in the Introduction that good or great poetry often

has a universality which transcends the particular subject.
Looking at this poem, do you think that it represents disillusion-
ment with life in general? (Eliot makes clear his own disillusion-
ment with contemporary life in The Waste Land.) Now write an
appreciation of the poem, bringing out its individual quality, its
structure, its theme(s), its difference from any other poetry
written in a previous period which you have read. How is this
poem truly 'modem'? The poem is itself an introduction to Eliot.

The Hollow Men

Now read 'The Hollow Men' (it is in Eliot's Selected Poems). This is
a depressing poem in which the author creates an atmosphere of
negation, of aridity. There is a range of references (the art and
practice of aUwion again). The motto at the head of the poem
comes from Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness, which
deals with corruption, evil, one of the major themes of the
poem. The literary and historical references - to the Gun-
powder Plot of 1605, to Shakespeare'sJuliw Caesar (IV, 2 - 'But
hollow men, like horses hot at hand') - are mingled, as we have
come to expect, with colloquial ones too, like the traditional 'A
penny for the Old Guy'. Remember that effigies of Guy Fawkes
are 'hollow men' since they are (or used to be) filled with straw.
From l. 31 onwards there is another 'hollow' image, that of the
scarecrow, erected merely to scare birds but also part of the fear
motif which runs throughout the poem. Dante and his Divine
Comedy also inform the poem, with the hollow men
approximating to his lost souls in Hell. But from Part IlIon, the
hollow men appear to be mankind in general.
Eyes feature prominently in the poem, accompanied by mys-
tical religious associations. In Part V there is a further use of
religious terminology (the ending of the Lord's Prayer), while
the children's song, 'Here we go round the Mulberry Bush',
reflects Eliot's constant ability to adapt and change, with the
substitution of 'prickly pear' (a cactus) stressing the desolation
and aridity. Would the effect have been so powerful if he had
quoted a more sophisticated song? Why did he use a nursery
rhyme, do you think? The last lines, 'This is the way the world
ends .. .', convey the hopelessness, the disillusion which is
present throughout.
English coursework: Modem Poetry

Now read the poem very carefully, paying strict attention to

detail and mood, then compare it with the previous one, saying
(a) what they have in common (allusions, theme) and (b) where
they differ (form and structure, verse, divisions). Although this
is a difficult poem, because of the range of allusion, you might
indicate what you find simple and clear about it. Look, for
example, at the use of conventional English verse forms, as well
as the employment of repetition, song (with refrain) and any
other usages which seem to you recognizably in a main tradition
of verse. What about the rhythms? Lyric? Incantation?

The Love Song of]. Alfred Prufrock

You have now examined two Eliot poems in detail, and should
appreciate, in part at least, in what ways he changed and
influenced the development of English poetry. At this stage
make a list of his main qualities: then read 'The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock'. You will immediately recognize the now com-
mon colloquial and allusive usage, the employment of a refrain
(which a song would have anyway). There are a number of
stanzas or verses, none completely regular, but each having a
shape and form flexible enough to echo the mood of Prufrock
himself. Note the subjective first-person narrative again,
together with the use of repetition, which is an unobtrusive way
here of showing the monotony of the life which is being des-
cribed.
The language, more particularly the imagery, is arresting,
sudden, modern, making use of a range of suggestion - take
'etherized' (put under the influence of ether, a liquid used as an
anaesthetic), an unpoetic word which directly establishes the
atmosphere of the poem. The 'sawdust restaurants' evoke
cheapness and sordidness, while the superb personification of
'The yellow fog' has sensual and cat-like associations. (Note
Eliot's unusual use of fog here. It is more commonly seen as
unfriendly and threatening, but here it is cosy and protective;
Prufrock can hide in it.) Prufrock feels himself inadequate to
social occasions, and more particularly to the proposal which
would be complete commitment: this trapped feeling is seen in
the idea of 'sprawling on a pin ... wriggling on the wall' in which
he becomes an insect, pinned down by conversations and social
conventions with which he is unable to cope. Likewise, the crab
 T. S. Eliot

image, 'Scuttling across the floors of silent seas', is again express-

ive of the wish to escape, the vision of a completely different
experience which would make no social demands or expose the
feelings, but would just mean primitive survival. And note how
the sound sensually conveys the movement of the crab (and
Prufrock).
Poetry is a process of discovery and recognition: now that you
are becoming familiar with Eliot's techniques and concerns, you
might consider the effect of (a) the biblical and religious refer-
ences and (b) the literary references. Write a paragraph of
10-15 lines on each, saying what they reveal of the thoughts
and feelings, the character, of Prufrock. If you can work out the
theme of the poem, the vacillation and lack of decision in the
character described, and consider particularly the various
images that are used (some of which, but not all, are indicated
above), this should help you to define the nature of the man.
Make a list of suitable quotations which you feel would support
your statements.

Portrait of a Lady
This may be regarded as a companion piece to 'Prufrock' in
terms of similarity of theme and of treatment. It is possibly
autobiographical, or at least the basis is the poet's friendship
with a woman, apparently older, arising from shared cultural
interests, notably music. The title derives from the novel by
Henry James published in 1881. Here in the poem the young
man attempts to end the relationship with the 'lady', saying that
he has to go abroad. But his conscience makes him aware of
what he has done. Looking at the allusive qualities, we note that
the motto is from Marlowe (Eliot is greatly interested in the
writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries), its theme of
corruption and deception being picked up in the poem as indif-
ference and rejection. Everything has been carefully prepared
by the lady. The 'atmosphere of Juliet'S tomb' invokes Shakes-
peare's play and tragic young love, an effective contrast with this
mannered, cultivated relationship, with its superficial, subjective
and self-indulgent conversations. Unusual words like 'velleities'
(light inclinations) and the French word cauchemar (meaning
nightmare) are indicators of the affection which is present in the
relationship and the exchanges. But notice that music, which is a

88
English coursework: Modem Poetry

shared interest, is used as an index to the man's reactions to the

situation; this is balanced by the lady's reflex of twisting the lilac
stalks. The irony is that she holds natural not artificial life in her
hands. The friendship does not develop according to her plans.
Look at the departure of the man, 'I take my hat ... .' and try
the following: (a) Explain what is meant by this verse. Why is the
poet in the park? What does this verse tell you about him? There
are 15 lines in this section. What effects are produced by the
rhyme and the rhythm? (b) Write a paraphrase (i.e., in your own
words) of Section III of the poem. What seem to you the saddest
lines and why? Look closely at the final verse. What do you think
the poet means by the two questions? Try to explain as fully as
possible what you feel the man is thinking about.

The Waste Land

The Waste Land is arguably the most important of Eliot's poems
and certainly the one which most influenced his contemporaries,
as well as the poets who followed him. Remember that it is
written after the First World War (1914-18), so that it is express-
ive of the terrible sense of waste, the loss of a generation. Eliot
sees this as related to the pattern of history, so that the poem,
like so much of Eliot's poetry, is about both the present and the
past, about our twentieth century civilization and other civiliza-
tions and their cumulative effects.
Brian Southam, in A Student's Guide to the Selected Poems of T. s..
Eliot, has succinctly summarized the theme of the poem as 'the
salvation of the Waste Land, not as a certainty but as a possi-
bility: of emotional, spiritual and intellectual vitality to be
regained'. Christian and pagan references are interwoven with
references to nature, and certain symbols emerge which are
connected with growth and potency. Particular references are to
the Fisher King, whose land is 'waste', and to the search for the
Holy Grail, the cup holding Christ's blood, and thus a symbol of
spiritual truth. Eliot draws upon Frazer's The Golden Bough, that
wide-ranging summary of primitive mythology which is linked
to the main theme of bringing about the return of fertility.
Southam also notes the tremendous impact on Eliot of James
Joyce's Ulysses, which was published in 1922, and Eliot's gener-
ously acknowledged debt to the great Irish writer who had
succeeded in stressing through myth 'a continuous parallel
 T. S. Eliot

between contemporaneity and antiquity'. This is at the heart of

The Waste Land, as you will see from your reading of the poem.
Make sure that you look at Eliot's own notes to the poem, but
respond to the verse sequences for what they are - personal,
allusive, emotional, intellectual and fascinating comments on life
throughout all time, a continuum of running connections
between the past and the present. Don't be put off by references
which are difficult. Enjoy the mood and feel of the poem.
First read 'The Burial of the Dead', and then pick out (a) the
religious references, and say what effect they have on the tone
and theme of the poem so far and later; and (b) the various
literary references. The opening of this first section, for
example, refers to the spring. What is unusual about the
emphasis? You might compare it in mood and suggestiveness with
the opening of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, from which it is
drawn and adapted. As you read here and on, note the mixture
of allusive and colloquial writing. Estimate the effect of the
quotations (here in German). Is Eliot being merely ostentatious,
or is he writing deliberately in context: are you put off by it, or
does it make you want to search out the truth, as the poet is
searching out the truth in his poem? Given the time at which
Eliot is writing, can you see the relevance of the poem to his
time? With Eliot, every word is specific. Go back to those
opening lines. You will notice that five of them end in -ing. This
verbal form (as in sleeping, running, crying) gives the effect of
something going on, continuing. After this comes the colloquial,
conversational tone, and you will observe that once again the
first-person narrative is used - this is one of the many voices that
Eliot employs in The Waste Land.
Notice how this first section moves easily through the first four
verse paragraphs. How would you describe the theme of the
second paragraph, from 'What are the roots ... Oed' und leer das
MeeT' ('Empty and desolate the sea'). What is the relationship of
paragraph 3 to paragraph 4 - is there a common theme or is
Eliot using contrast? In what ways are these sections concerned
with death? (Remember the title of this first part of the poem.)
List the number of deaths that are mentioned here, or the
number of associations with death ('death had undone so many
... dead sound ... That corpse', for example). Finally, when you
have read through the first seventy-six lines of the poem, having
used Eliot's notes and looked at the comments made here, say

35
English coursework: Modern Poetry

what you believe he is trying to tell us in this first section. How

successful do you think he is?
Part II, the next hundred lines, gives us lush description of an
arid and sterile (waste) life. (See if you can find technical and
imaginative associations in this section with 'Prufrock' and 'Port-
rait of a Lady'.) The Antony and Cleopatra derivations at the
beginning set up a kind of moral death: there is too much - so
much so that the sense is 'drowned'. The emphasis on boredom
is also redolent of death. Notice the cunning interaction of the
direct speech and the thoughts of the listener: what is the signifi-
cance of 'Those are pearls that were his eyes'? (Look back to the
same line in Part I, line 48.) The sudden transition to the
'Shakespearian Rag' reflects a mindless easy rhythmic rhyming
which really means nothing - escaping the boredom, passing the
time, but it also picks up Ariel's dirge (,Those are pearls' from
The Tempest) which is quoted above. The game of chess, here a
seduction scene (and boredom), is followed by the pub scene,
which is also concerned with sex, with having a 'good time', but
since the returning husband is being 'demobbed' one is aware of
the contemporary reference to the waste land after the First
World War. This lower class life is as frustrating as the upper
class one at the beginning of the section: both are forms of living
death, of 'waste'.
'The Fire Sermon', Part III, frequently carries echoes from
the previous sections. The Spenserian lines from Prothalamion
give a contemporary reference here to underline the modern
moral waste land, the water equated with lust, suggested in the
half-quote from Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress' (1. 196), as well
as in the contemporary reference to Mrs Porter (the character in
a coarse song of the time). The modern sounds of the chase - of
lust - are reinforced by classical references, and perhaps there is
the suggestion of homosexual lust in 'Mr Eugenides'. The typist
and her seduction - more moral death - reflect the other-class
seduction of Part II. Note the parody (of Goldsmith's song) and
the fact that the verse changes cunningly (1. 266). The theme of
passion, lust, runs throughout, ending with Buddha's Fire Ser-
mon on the idea of moral regeneration through a rejection of
the sins of the flesh.
Part IV is exactly what it says it is, death by drowning. But the
water suggestion here is significant: it is at once a saving from
the sins of the flesh, and a symbol of the search for the waters of
 T. S. Eliot

regeneration which will cure the evils of the waste land. Finally
we have Part V - the journey, which has traversed anguish, is
associated with Christ (note the recurrent image of the rock-
Christ is often referred to in this way), the drawing near to the
Chapel Perilous of the Grail Legend. Finally the rain comes, the
journey is over. The key words are 'give', 'surrender', 'control-
ling' - an initiation into that higher love which transcends all
those temptations to the flesh in the waste land.

Questions and assignments on T. S. Eliot

1 Which section of The Waste Land appeals to you most and
why?
I Show in what ways the Parts of The Waste Land are connected,
e.g., by similar themes, imagery, and techniques.
3 Write a general appreciation of The Waste Land in about 300-
400 words. (You might mention Eliot's main techniques, for
instance his allusive use ofliterary references and quotations, his
ability to change mood and verse form, his use of emphasis,
blank verse, lyric, foreign phrases, music, philosophy and wide
cultural associations, myths, the elevated and the colloquial
styles, monologue, dialogue, first-person narrative and
repetition. There are others. Make sure that you bring out the
themes of the poem and contemporary references which seem
important.)

37
Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas was born in 1914 in Swansea, both his parents

coming from rural farming stock. They were Welsh-speaking
and, though Dylan was never taught Welsh and never spoke it,
his whole upbringing was steeped in Welsh culture, traditions
and the memories of Welshness inherited from his parents, and
his verse has many of the rhythms of the sing-song Welsh
tongue. He was brought up in urban surroundings but he had a
great love for the countryside and a permanent affinity with it.
He loved the sea and spent many hours on the sea-shore near
Mumbles Head; the sea recurs as fact and symbol in his poetry
and his prose. Welsh background influences are evident in the
frequent religious references in his writing, often condemnatory
or critical of chapel puritanism and narrowness found in the
small towns. He was a n!bellious child, a hard-drinking youth
and a wild, bombastic and sometimes drunken man - an enfant
terrible constantly at war with himself.
He worked as a junior reporter on the South Wales Daily Post
(1931), experiences which he recalled and embellished in A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (1940). He went to London
regularly, and published his first work, I8 Poems, in 1934. In
1936 he met his future wife Caitlin - they married the following
year - and they moved in 1938 to Laugharne in West Wales
where they led a precarious existence, often in poverty and in
due course with three young children to support. Between 1940
and 1945 Thomas worked for film companies as a script writer,
and in this wartime period gave broadcast talks and poetry
readings for the BBC; when the Third Programme (now Radio
3) began, his distinctive voice became very well known. Much
heavy drinking, poverty, and the emotional traumas of his mar-
riage, undermined Thomas's health. He wrote very little poetry
during these years. However, the illness and death of his father
in December 1952 seems to have spurred Thomas to new
heights of creativity. He began to write his poetic play, Under
Milk Wood, and his Collected Poems were published in November
of that year. He died the following year, and Under Milk Wood
and Adventures in the Skin Trade were published posthumously.
Dylan Thomas's poetry shows his love of language, of the
 Dylan Thomas

sounds and music of words, of the Celtic influences which help

shape the rhetoric and eloquence of his verse. He uses, how-
ever, controlled structures, enjoying the discipline of set forms.
His themes are often on a grand scale, covering life, death,
love, and sexuality. We have noted already the love of land-
scape and the sea, and images derived from them, but there is
also the cunning use of cliche and common phrases, altered to
produce startling effects. Obscurity and excitement go together
in his verse, and throughout there is a strong sense of religious
awareness which transcends narrow Christian conceptions. His
friend Vernon Watkins, himself a poet, wrote: 'If he was, as I
believe, religious and Christian, he doesn't need my advocacy,
and if he wasn't, he doesn't want it.' Perhaps the last word must
rest with Thomas himself. Writing in the Introductory Note to
his Collected Poems (1952), he asserts, 'These poems, with all
their crudities, doubts and confusions, are written for the love
of Man and in Praise of God, and I'd be a damn fool if they
weren't.'

And Death Shall Have No Dominion

A close look at a few poems will show his main concerns and
techniques. 'And Death Shall Have No Dominion' (1933) is a
positive, optimistic poem celebrating the continuity of the life
cycle, seen in the employment of the title line regularly
throughout. This emphasizes the poet's conviction. Now look
closely at each verse, and work out the pattern of rhyme and
half-rhyme: it will show you the consistent attention that
Thomas pays to the structure, the form of his work. Notice that
in the third line of verse one Thomas alters two familiar
phrases to give an unexpected twist - 'the man in the wind and
the west moon'. What other poetic techniques do you notice in
this verse?
Now look closely at verses two and three. What effect does
Thomas achieve by using images of torture in lines four and
five of verse two, and how does the unicorn fit into his theme?
(Remember that the unicorn is both the bringer of evil and that
it is seen more favourably as having magical and curative
powers.) In verse three notice the transference of the word
'nails' (note carefully the effect achieved in lines six and seven).
Now write an appreciation of this poem, in about 150 words.

39
English coursework: Modem Poetry

Pay particular attention to the form, the themes, the images, the
rhyme and rhythm, and mention anything else which you find
unusual, interesting or stimulating in the poem.

The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower
This is one of the Eighteen Poems in Thomas's first volume. Its
themes are life, death, sexuality: it presents the poet's view of
Creation and there is a strongly religious tone in the poem. The
energy that drives the universe drives the poet also. The four
five-line verses are climaxed by a rhyming couplet, as if Thomas
has written an extended sonnet. There are repeated phrases
used for emphasis, with rhymes and half-rhymes in a regular
pattern. The variants used with 'And I am dumb' form a refrain,
while the rhythmic movement is accentuated by the use of words
like 'force', 'drive', 'blast' and 'destroyer'. In the first verse you
might ponder on the use of parallel and contrasting words, and
on the theme they underline, the differences and the similarities
in man and nature. Note the change in imagery from the first to
the second verse. What is it that the two verses have in common?
And what is the particular strength of the refrain lines?
This poem is a good example of Thomas's ability to write on
more than one level. Individual words like 'quick' in the third
verse are played on with a terrible associative power - 'quick-
sand' looks forward to the 'quick' lime used by the hangman.
Here the word, though not used, is in our minds, particularly in
its other meaning of 'alive' as opposed to dead. In what way does
the fourth verse emphasize the theme? Look at the use of evoca-
tive words like 'leech' and 'mouth', where sustenance and
destruction are cleverly suggested. The couplet is also finely
economical in its suggestive power, for the 'tomb' implies that
the bed of love is also its grave, with the play on 'sheet' (shroud)
and on 'crooked' (perhaps bent by time) showing how closely
constructed the poem is, with a system of imaginative cross-
reference. Like much of Thomas's poetry, the sheer force and
musicality of the words suggests comparison with the poetry of
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89), whose impact on Thomas
seems to have been great.
 Dylan Thomas

The Hunchback in the Park

Written in 1941, this is another poem of childhood recall, for
Thomas spent hours in Cwymdonkin Park, and the hunchback
is seen through the eyes of the poet who was then one of the
'wild boys innocent as strawberries'. Yet there are cunning asso-
ciations between poet and hunchback, with the poet as a lonely
figure striving for perfection ('Made ... A woman figure without
fault'). The directness of the language here and its economy are
telling, contrasting with some of Thomas's more lush and rheto-
rical work. But we are still in the presence of an insistent verbal
music. You might ponder the associations of the word 'lock' in
verse one, or the appropriateness of the colloquial 'mister': 'prop-
ped' seems to suggest frailty. Read the whole poem through and
write down the number of visual descriptions in it. You might
consider first the overall picture referred to above and then look
at the detail in verses three to seven. You might ponder too the
sound effects of 'the Sunday sombre bell' and 'the loud zoo of the
willow groves'. The staccato pattern of the rhythm in each verse
contributes to the movements of the scene and the repetitive
monotony of the 'mister's' life. It also makes for an inherent
sadness despite the poet's zestful hindsight. The man is lonely,
isolated and rejected, and you might consider what effect the
dog/kennel comparisons have on our response to his condition.
When you have looked at the poem again, write about 100
words on the form of the poem, and say whether you think the
form fits the subject. Make sure that you bring out the theme of
the poem.

FemHill
Fern Hill was where Thomas spent many happy holidays as a
child. It belonged to his aunt Ann Jones, who is celebrated in
'After The Funeral'. This poem, written in 1945, is in praise of
childhood, its un-selfconscious joy and innocence (note the con-
stant repetition of 'green' - symbol of youth, growth, inno-
cence). It presents the poet's childish fantasies (,lordly', 'prince')
and his vivid imagination, seen in the superb line in verse three
('As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away'). The
world created from memory is larger than life-size as the child
saw it then: the spirit of nostalgia colours the long happy
English coursework: Modern Poetry

summers when the sun shone and the boy ruled in his own
world of simple country pleasures. The language is immediate
and evocative: it is breathless with remembered experience, a
reliving achieved through the use of long, unpunctuated,
excited sentences. Note the combination of vivid, observant
images - the child living for the moment - and the dreamlike
quality - the imagination of the young mind. This quality is
enhanced by the repetition of simple words like 'And', 'All' and
'About' which suggest the wonder of the child telling the story.
The poem is at once visual and full of the music of sounds: the
running eloquence includes the use of religious words to
emphasize the depth of the feelings involved. Yet underlying all
this is the spontaneity and joy of the child, with the irony of the
adult's awareness - all this was transitory. There is too a con-
sciousness of death - 'Time held me green and dyingfThough I
sang in my chains like the sea.' This is one of Thomas's great
poems, and you should be able to indicate the qualities which
make it so.
(a) Pick out and explain the effect of six phrases which seem to
you important to our appreciation of the poem. (b) You will
notice that the verses are regular, but that they are constructed
without an obvious use of rhyme. Work out what effect is
achieved by the use of short and long(er) lines, and also how
much half-rhyme and sound associations there are. (c) Write an
appreciation in about 200 words of this poem, bringing out its
main theme.

Do not go gentle into that good night

This poem was written by Thomas as his father was near death
in 1957. He loved and respected his father, though he was a little
in awe of his severe manner. The theme is evident - do not
surrender easily to death. The imperative use of the title line
which alternates as refrain with 'Rage, rage against the dying of
the light' shows the passion which informs the poem. The latter
is a villanelle, five verses of three lines each and a four-line verse
which rounds off the poem with a rhyming couplet. Note that
only two rhymes are used throughout in what is generally a form
of light verse, though Thomas employs it here obviously to
soften pain, something advocated by a poet he greatly admired,
John Donne. Note here the simplicity of the language, the use of

42
 Dylan Thomas

direct, hard words ('burn and rave', 'rage'). Verse four, with its
repetitions and invocations, is particularly effective (Thomas's
father was nearly blind). You might consider the effective use
too of the colloquial 'good night', here an understatement of the
finality of death. But although this is a personal death, note that
a number of analogies are used to show how the different types of
men respond to death by fighting. And notice how in the final
verse Thomas packs contradictions - 'Curse', 'bless', 'pray' - to
provoke the passion of resistance.
Trace the main idea in each of verses two to five. Link this idea
to the choice of man Thomas has made in each case.

Questions and assignments on Dylan Thomas

I Thomas has been described as a poet 'impure and unsimple'.
How far would you agree or disagree with this statement? You
may refer to any two or three of the poems discussed here, or to
any other poem or poems by Thomas that you have read.
a Indicate the part played by Welsh scenes, sea or landscape in
any two or three of Thomas's poems. Guideline note: Consider
the use of childhood reminiscence, musical and rhythmic
qualities, repetition, colour words, sound, and sensual effects.
3 Examine Thomas's treatment of the universal themes of life
and death in any two or three of his poems.
4 Write a close appreciation of any two poems by Thomas which
show his sense of structure or the individual imagery which he
employs.
5 Compare any two of Thomas's poems with two by any other
modem poet who writes of either childhood or nature or death.

43
John Betjeman

John Betieman was born in Highgate in 1906, the son of a

merchant family of Dutch extraction. He was educated at Marl-
borough and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was friendly
with W.H. Auden and Louis MacNeice. He began writing poetry
as a child, and his first book of poems was published in 1932. He
had a passion for Victorian architecture and championed the
preservation of Victorian churches, pubs and railway stations,
notably St Pancras. Betieman became a national figure through
his many television appearances in the 1960s. He was knighted
in 1969, and appointed Poet Laureate in 1972, a post he held
until his death in 1984.
Betieman was a rarity, a popular poet. His verse has an unmis-
takable style, instantly recognizable. He was totally English, and
quite oblivious of changing fashions in poetry, preferring to
employ traditional rhymes, rhythms, and figurative language:
occasionally he uses blank verse, especially in his Cornish poems
and throughout Summoned by Bells. His poems are witty and
satirical but rarely cruel: he has a lightness of touch and a facility
to entertain, often through the use of colloquial speech and
descriptions of commonplace situations with which his readers
can easily identify. We note the influence of earlier poets (Ten-
nyson and Kipling, among others), while some of his poems are
parodies and pastiches. 'Huxley Hall' parodies Tennyson's
'Locksley Hall' for example, while the humorous narrative poem
'A Shropshire Lad' borrows its title from A. E. Housman's
sequence of the same name. Betieman draws on childhood remi-
niscences, not always happy, as we see from his verse auto-
biography, Summoned by Bells. Running through much of his
poetry is a sense of fear, particularly of death, instilled in the
infant John by a 'hateful nurse who smelt of soap'.
He had a great love of the sea and of landscape, especially the
Cornish coast, and images derived from these associations recur
in the poems. He loved place names too and wrote 'Dorset' in
imitation of a poem by Thomas Hardy. Betieman was an Angli-
can Christian with a love of churches and traditional forms of
worship, especially hymns. His poem 'Hymn' is an affectionate
parody, while much of his verse has church themes and settings.

44
 John Beyeman

Yet in many of his poems there is the underlying apprehension

that his faith may ultimately be proved false. His view of life is
compassionate but hardly comprehensive. The product of a
privileged environment, he has little understanding of the work-
ing classes about whom he sometimes writes. His humour is
gentle if a little snobbish; though highly rated by his fellow poet
Philip Larkin, he lacks the range or force of originality which we
recognize in a poet of the first rank.

Upper Lambourne
'Upper Lambourne' is a poem of four verses with six lines in
each, with the second, fourth and sixth lines rhyming. It is
simple and steeped in nostalgia. The first verse is wholly descrip-
tive, and Be~eman uses the repetitive phrases which will be used
again later. In this verse they suggest movement - 'Up the ash
tree/Up the ivy' - and a sense of continuity. We also feel an air of
sadness (seen in 'neglected elder' with its sorrowful vowel
sounds). As you read the poem notice how this sad imagery
accumulates, and how it is related to the subject of the poem.
The two central verses deal with the horse-racing traditions of
the place, its past and present glories. The symbol of death in
the churchyard is contrasted with the strong, physical life of the
stables. The repetition of 'leathery' in the third verse is par-
ticularly effective, conveying the textures of limbs, skin and
clothing of the jockeys and stable lads. There is much use of
alliteration (the s sounds) and internal rhymes. The final verse
returns to the ageless and unchanging nature of the landscape,
with the sarsen (sandstone) stones standing like a memorial to
much earlier achievements.
Now write about 100 words in appreciation of this poem,
bringing out clearly the theme and the main techniques
employed. Add what you can to the commentary printed above.

Trebetherick
'Trebetherick' is one of Be~eman's poems of reminiscence, here
recalling happy days spent on the Cornish coast. There are four
verses, each having ten lines: the first six lines have alternate
lines rhyming, while the last four, also with the same rhyme
scheme, form a refrain. This tight construction gives the poem a

45
English coursework: Modern Poetry

strong rhythmic sense, and there is a lyrical quality throughout

which heightens the feeling ofjoy and exultation in Nature and in
the sea. Betjeman uses internal rhymes and alliteration to great
effect with, for instance, the's' sounds in verse one and the sound
of the 'squelch of the bladderwrack' (a kind of sea-weed). Make a
list of the words and images which seem to you particularly
important in conveying the atmosphere of the experience, its sights
and sounds. The sea-imagery is strongly convincing, whether in
peaceful or turbulent mood. Note the word-picture of 'yellow
foam-flakes drift/In trembling sponges on the ledge'. The des-
cription of the storm in verse three is filled with powerful music
changing to an almost childlike excitement and innocence as
'Waves full of treasure then were roaring up the beach'. The
prayer at the end of the poem is for Betjeman's children, that they
in their turn may know the same feelings of unspoilt happiness.
How do you feel that Betjeman expresses his nostalgia here? How
does he show us, underneath the joy, the awareness of the
underlying primitive nature of the Cornish coast?

Death in Leamington
This poem consists of eight short verses (quatrains) with an abcb
rhyme scheme: the theme baldly stated is death and its loneliness.
Here Leamington Spa is no longer the fashionable watering place
of the Edwardian era, also beloved by the poet: the old lady's
death is perhaps the symbol of that decayed way of life. The
sadness of the solitary death is conveyed through the muted
vowel sounds throughout, but particularly in 'Nurse was alone
with her own little soul'. There is a fine sense of contrast, the
silence with the brisk matter-of-fact routine attitude of the nurse.
The latter is given a capital letter, recalling the 'Nurse' of child-
hood, with the terrible irony that the old lady is probably in her
second childhood. The old lady'S death is seen in terms of the
decaying, untended nature of the house and its decoration, while
the finality of death is emphasized by the last line of the poem,
'Turned down the gas in the hall.' The flame and warmth of life
have already been extinguished in the bedroom.
Now write an assignment of up to 150 words, showing how
Betjeman uses contrast in this poem: silence, activity, death,
house, things, persons, words like 'lonely', 'unstirred', 'moved'
and 'tiptoeing', and any others you find.
 John Beyeman

Middlesex
This poem consists of four nine-line stanzas, each containing
eight short and one longer line. It is a good illustration of
Betjeman's ability to be funny and sympathetic, nostalgic and
lyrical. Notice at once the Tennysonian echoes - Elaine is the
original lily maid of Astolat who features largely in Tennyson's
epic sequence on the Arthurian Legends, The Idylls of the King -
but her life is humdrum. In Betjeman's scale, she is lower
middle-class, 'With a thousand Ta's and Pardon's' giving her a
colloquial authenticity. Although the humour is gentle and often
affectionate, running through the poem is a sense of condescen-
sion, of the poet's innate snobbery: the nostalgia which he
expresses in the later verses makes us aware that the world for
which he yearns is different from that of Elaine and her like, not
only in terms of social behaviour and class. Now read on in the
poem and, using note form, show how Betjeman's humour,
whether witty or ironic, is expressed here (pick out phrases,
images, rhythms, alliteration for instance).
The first two verses set the poem firmly in the locality - that of
the London suburbs upon which the urban sprawl is rapidly
encroaching. The reference to the classical Elysium (Paradise) is
balanced by a welter of period (1950S) references, name-brands
from fashion to shampoo. Betjeman's wit and ingenious
rhyming enhances the sense of period (,bobby-soxer', 'Innoxa')
and the sense of conformity in fashion. In the third verse the
mood changes, as the poem moves from the built-up suburbs to
the open spaces of the poet's youth, recalled nostalgically with
regret at their disappearance. The descriptive lines have a grace-
ful, lyrical quality - notice the 'a' and '1' sounds in 'cedar shaded
palings' and 'Low laburnum-leaned-on railings', and how this
extended, hyphenated line emphasizes the sense of loss. Point-
ing a sharp contrast between past and present, the final verse
transports us back to late Victorian times, with Betjeman refer-
ring to the classic, The Diary of a Nobody, to stress the eccentric
individuality of its characters by comparison with the bland
ordinariness of the consumers and commuters of the 1950s. The
final line is a lament for their Victorian predecessors, dead and
buried and neglected in London's great cemeteries.
Now try the following assignment. In Betjeman's poetry one
of the pre-eminent qualities is the sense of place. Write an

47
English coursework: Modem Poetry

appreciation of 'Middlesex', bringing out that sense of place by

suitable quotation and reference.

Pot Pourri from a Surrey Garden and A Subaltern's Love Song

One of Beyeman's most endearing qualities is his ability to laugh
at himself, or at least to laugh at the person he affects to be in
some of his poems. In these two good examples he uses the
authorial 'I' with rare humour. In the first, notice the wonderful
rhythmic flair, the long and short lines contrasting, the observa-
tion of details, scene setting and the atmosphere of suburban
life, with the theme of little-man-Ioves-big-sports-girl raising a
smile in the reader. As ever there is a superb sense of period, of
place, of audacious coinages ('Licensed now for embracement')
and the running self-mockery referred to earlier. Of course it is
a fiction, but there is a sense of personal identification as well.
The theme of big sports girl and her desirability is present in the
second poem too. Note here the insistent refrain line, at the
beginning of three of the verses, and its climactic use at the end
of the poem, the internal rhymes, the period sense of place and
old-fashioned courtship, the wonderful 'ands' which build up to
the engagement. Here the quatrains are in pairs of rhyming
couplets.

Questions and assignments on John Betjeman

I Look at any two Beyeman poems of your choice, and show
how they reflect his Anglican sympathies or his concern with
tradition.
s The themes of childhood and personal experience are
present in much of Beyeman's verse. Write an appreciation of
any two poems which demonstrate this.
3 Write about Beyeman's presentation oflandscape and/or
seascape in any of his poems, bringing out clearly the techniques
he employs. Guideline notes - free choice of poems, but refer to
colloquial usages, rhyme (and internal rhyme where
appropriate), rhythm(s), assonance, alliteration, sounds of
words and phrases, individual coinages, word-pictures, above all
the sense of place (and period) and the emotions which inform
it, plus any other factor which contributes to our appreciation.
 John Beyeman

4 By referring to any two of Betjeman's poems, indicate the

types of humour he employs in his verse.
5 Compare any two of Betjeman's poems with two by either
Hardy or Larkin, bringing out clearly the differences.

49
w. H. Auden

W. H. Auden's works reflect a wide learning and contain a range

of reference from the esoteric to the private joke. He was a
genuine eccentric, in his later years pottering about in slippers
and dressing-gown, enjoying his wine and crosswords, always
paying meticulous attention to time. He was both serious and
irreverent, and to appreciate his poems we have to respond to
his mood, his concerns, and often the tantalizing acrostics of his
language. No critical commentary on Auden's works can pro-
vide all the answers - only an invitation to participate in the
enjoyment of intellectual exercise afforded by a poet of sen-
sitivity and compassion.
Wystan Hugh Auden was born in 1907, the son of a York
doctor. In 1925 he went to Christ Church, Oxford, acquiring
there the appreciation of Old and Middle English which is
evident in the rhythms and constructions of much of his own
verse. There too he was subjected to the wave of reaction which
followed the publication of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922).
The latter poet, who was working for Faber and Faber, initially
rejected Auden's work, but later published his Poems in 1930.
1935 brought multiple activities in life and literature - for
example, marriage to Erika Mann, daughter of the great Ger-
man writer Thomas Mann. Auden, branded a left-wing intel-
lectual by so many of his contemporaries, here displayed a
paradoxical sense of chivalry, for he did not know the lady and
married her in order to provide her with a passport so that she
could escape from Nazi Germany. Early in 1939 Auden and his
friend, the important novelist Christopher Isherwood, left Eng-
land and subsequently settled in the United States. Another Time
came out in 1940, dedicated to Chester Kallman, the American,
with whom Auden was to spend the rest of his life.
For the Time Being was published in America in 1944 and in
England the following year; it contained 'The Sea and the Mir-
ror', while his Collected Poetry (published in America) appeared in
1945. In the following year he became an American citizen. In
1965 another volume of poems, About the House, containing
'Thanksgiving for a Habitat', was published. The last phase of
Auden's life showed an even greater increase in output, and the
 W.H.Auden

collected Academic Graffiti were written between 1952 and 1970.

City Without Walls appeared in 1967, Epistle to a Godson in 1969,
and Thank You, Fog, the posthumous volume, in 1974, the year
after the poet's death.
The early Auden was an intellectually angry young man,
aware of the menaces of his time but rational and scientific in his
interests as well as literary. The abiding influence of his doctor
father is apparent in his early work, and linked with this is his
absorption of basic psychology, the theories of which were to
inform his verse. His geological interests are often evident, but
there is an allusiveness and obscurity about some of his early
writing which makes him 'difficult' for the student. Auden has a
fine sense of the sound of his own verse, from the sonorous
quality of 'The Wanderer' to the softness of 'Lullaby' ('Lay your
sleeping head, my love').
These early poems have a satirical flavour, with slanted irony
at the nature of the bourgeois society and its attitudes, and part
of Auden's method is that of deliberate ambiguity. This area of
double interpretation, of a poet existing on more than one level,
is testimony both to his intellect and to his astute organization of
word resonance and association. In his early work too he estab-
lishes his own variants of the sonnet. Auden used song - popular
and blues, for example - throughout his writing career. You
might compare him with Yeats and Eliot in his use of colloquial
and allusive language and in the verse forms he uses.

o what is that sound?

This poem, first published in 1932, is a 'ballad', each verse
containing a dialogue, in the form of question and answer,
between an unidentified traitor and the betrayed. An atmos-
phere of timeless menace is conveyed, made more sinister by the
repetition, the apparent innocence of the feminine rhymes (e.g.
'wheeling/kneeling') and the )olly' galloping metre. The ballads
of old celebrated the traditions and legends of time past, but
here there is a frightening realism (see the final verse) which
gives the whole poem an ironic quality. There is the terrifying
implication of determined rape and pillage, and one is
reminded that, at the time this poem was written, both Mussolini
and Hitler were building up their reigns of tyranny.
This is a typical early Auden poem, and you might contrast it
English coursework: Modern Poetry

with any other ballad which we have discussed here (a Charles

Causley poem, for example). Bring out the differences and
similarities, and note in this poem the sounds (echoing the title)
of certain words, like 'drumming, drumming'. The use of 'dear'
is ironic, in view of what happens, while 'manoeuvres' is typical
of the time, the word used to define the blackmail of dictators
about to attack. You might ponder too on Auden's choice of
'doctor', 'parson', 'farmer'; between them, they encompass
healing (health), religion (the spiritual element of life) and
feeding/clothing (survival). If you capture all three, you have
everything necessary. The final verse, with the emphasis on 'it's',
has a terrible impersonality which dehumanizes the situation in
a frightening way.

As I walked out one evening

First published in the New Statesman in 1938, a folksong ballad
form is employed again; there are splendid contrasts of past and
present, of plenty and of the changes wrought by time. The tone
is as clipped and yet as wide-ranging and enigmatic as usual.
The idea of past and present, or of seeing one thing in terms of
another, is shown in the first verse, while the second speaks of a
timeless love, emphasized to distortion in verse three, which has
all the exaggeration of the popular song with its 'I'll always love
you' theme, which turns time and morality upside down. The
pattern of terrestrial and cosmic change, which has a kind of
reversed nursery rhyme tone to it, is continued in verses four
and five. The first cynical note is struck in verse six, which
stresses that time measures love as it measures all things, while
verse seven, with its heavy, surrealistic personification, further
underlines that love is a 'snatched' rather than a permanent
thing. The next three verses focus on modern life - headaches,
changes in nature, dances, worry - and the brimming river (life
at the full) has become the dirty water of the basin, or sordid,
habitual reality. The tenth verse opens with the widest natural
imagery in contrast to the constricted nature of life - 'glaciers'
'desert', 'lane' - but the nightmare reversal of the nursery rhyme
continues, with all the simple morality of such tales and songs
turned upside down. Doom, nightmare doom, is sounded in the
next two verses, with the implication that life is twisted and
tortured, and that love is lust rather than purity. The last verse
 W.H.Auden

returns to the river which, like life, flows on.

Now look carefully at the images and suggestions in this
poem. Show how Auden combines various levels of language in
it to produce particular effects of fear, or irony, of cynicism.
What do you think Auden is'saying about human nature and its
limitations in this poem? And why do you think he has chosen
this simple ballad form? Again, you could usefully compare this
with another song or ballad poem by another modern writer.

Roman Wall blues

This appeared first as part of a radio script in 1937 on Hadrian's
Wall. It is an evocation of place, loneliness, the slow passage of
time, a comment on human nature and its changelessness
throughout history. The seven rhyming couplets are conversa-
tional and colloquial in tone, further evidence of Auden's ability
to use a variety of forms. The focus is on the lot of the soldier,
which is much the same in any time or place. The poem is
interestingly done as a monologue, with reference to Roman
Tungria (modern-day Belgium), and then-current references to
the practice of Christianity. There is also a colloquial flavour
about the writing, which is relaxed, natural, lacking only the
habitual obscenities which would make it completely realistic.
You might note the word 'blues'. Look it up, and see how it
applies both here and to any other of Auden's poems, either
those discussed in this commentary or any others that you have
read.

Lullaby 'Lay your sleeping head, my love'

A beautiful lyric, the high-water mark of Auden's early achieve-
ment, first published in New Writing in 1937. It is written in the
form of four ten-line verses, with rhymes and half-rhymes
abounding and together forming the elements of its title. The
first verse explores the night of happiness spent together, but
built into the lyrical expression of this happiness is the recogni-
tion of the changes wrought by life, and of the transitory nature
of experience. The second verse is itself transitional, for it moves
from the contemplation of sensual love to the nature of spiritual
love, a love which transcends the human and is concerned with
the ecstasy of spiritual knowledge. Contrasts and parallels are

53
English coursework: Modern Poetry

used here to emphasize the analogous aspects of such a love.

The third verse deals with the present - its completeness and
beauty, the forces which seek to undermine it, the value the
lovers should place upon it.
The theme of love runs through the final verse, with the
recurrence to the sensual and the spiritual seen as coherent,
related parts of essential life experience. The poem is rich in
alliteration, assonance and consonance, all of which contribute
to the lyrical quality. There is an underlying seriousness running
through the whole poem which makes it somewhat untypical of
the lyrical form; but what it shares with many fine lyrics is the
fact that it is general and particular, personal and universal in its
application.
You will note such things as the transferred epithet of 'faith-
less' (it is here linked to 'arm', yet it is not the arm which is
'faithlesss' but the heart), which is quietly ironic and underlines
the unromantic nature of the poem. Notice that love of the
spiritual, of God, is seen in terms of physical love ('carnal
ecstasy'), while the reference to 'On the stroke of midnight pass'
is a favourite Auden device - the use of story or legend, here to
reinforce the inevitability of change, as in the story of Cinderella.
Although the language is at times difficult, the gist of the poem
seems clear.
Now compare it with any other love poem discussed in these
pages, and say in what ways it differs from that poem.

Musee des Beaux Arts

First published in 1939, the poem takes the form of two stanzas,
the first easy and conversational in tone, perhaps deceptively
casual, just as life is casual for some and significant for others. It
is in two parts, approximating to the sonnet form, though
Auden has extended the conventional fourteen lines to twenty-
one. The first thirteen lines consist of a statement about the
relative importance and unimportance of things occurring at the
same time, and asserts that the classical painters have succeeded
in capturing this. The final eight lines (equivalent to the sestet of
a sonnet) qualify this by a consideration of Brueghel's painting
of Icarus, who tried to fly with waxen wings, which melted in the
heat of the sun and sent him plunging to his death. Note the
difference in form between the two parts of this poem: the first

54
 W.H.Auden

drifting along, almost prosaically, with varying lengths of line -

as spontaneous as the pattern of one's own thoughts. The
second part is much more tightly written, with a formal rhyme
scheme and a recognizable shape. It is as if, when the poet looks
at the painting of Icarus, the colour, form and perspectives of
the picture clarify and formulate his own wandering thoughts
on the Old Masters. This is typical of Auden, who can be decep-
tively simple. Look for signs of the complexity of his themes and
thought processes in subtle changes in structure, tempo or
emphasis.
Although the emphasis is on 'The Old Masters', the acknow-
ledged classical painters, there are Christian references built
into the poem in the interest of perspective, as in the reference
to the miraculous birth. Just as the painter paints a picture, so
Auden creates a series of word pictures, like the horse scratching
'its innocent behind on a tree'. The verbal is here comple-
menting the visual in terms of representation. The classical myth
of Icarus, son of Daedalus, is seen as part of a fuller scene with
particular associations. The ending of the poem - the finality of
the painting - contains some wonderfully simple language.

Questions and assignments on W. H. Auden

1 With reference to any two poems by Auden, bring out his
main technical and imaginative concerns. Guideline notes: Include
some or all of the following with relevant quotations: use of
variety of forms: ballad/song, stanzas, colloquial language, range
of reference (including myth/story), religious mystical content,
experiment, adaptation, repetition, sometimes musical quality,
obscurity, economy, learning, and intellectual discipline.
I By an examination of any poem by Auden, indicate his
capacity to involve the reader intellectually and emotionally.
3 Show the range of contemporary reference in any two or
three of Auden's poems.
4 Write an appreciation of any poem by Auden, bringing out its
individual quality.
5 Compare Auden's use of ballad/song with that of any other
modem poet, e.g. Charles Causley.

55
Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin was born in Coventry in 1922, and in 1930 entered

King Henry VIII School, which was a direct-grant grammar
school. In 1940 he went to Stjohn's College, Oxford, where he
read English. This was early in the Second World War, and he
was able to complete his degree (he took first class honours) in
1943, since he failed a medical for service in the armed forces.
While at Oxford he became great friends with Kingsley Amis,
who helped to shape his literary aims.
He began to publish occasional verse, and then a sequence of
thirty poems in The North Ship (1945). In 1946 he published his
first novel Jill and this was followed by another in 1947, A Girl in
Winter. In 1950 he joined the library staff of Queen's University,
Belfast, and in 1951 he published, at his own expense, XX Poems.
Although this made little mark, in 1955 the Marvell Press pub-
lished The Less Deceived, which included several poems from XX
Poems.
At about the same time he was appointed Librarian to the
University of Hull, where he remained for the rest of his work-
ing life. Though his publications were sparse - The Whitsun
Weddings did not appear until 1964 - Larkin's fame increased,
and he was associated with the Movement Poets (such as Thorn
Gunn, Donald Davie and Kingsley Amis) , who generally
favoured direct expression, often commonplace, without orna-
mentation or obscure cultural references or any of the rhetoric
which characterized the work of their predecessors (like the lush
language of Dylan Thomas, for example). They were reasonable
and for the most part could be easily understood.
His literary output has not been great. A student of jazz
throughout his life, he published a number of reviews in All
What Jazz (1970). His next book of poems was High Windows
(1974). He was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for poetry in
1965, and was honoured by a number of universities. Through-
out his life - he died in 1985 - he turned his back on publicity.
He was a private man in a world which courts public display. His
poems, one feels, embody his views, but it would be dangerous
to read them as slabs of autobiography. He adopts voices and
stances, tells stories, comments on society, fears death. He does
 Philip Larkin

not, like many poets of the twentieth century, load his verses
with learning and reference so that his readers need to be
cultured and cultivated in order to appreciate what he is saying.
He admired poets as various as W. B. Yeats, Thomas Hardy, and
Sir John Betjeman. He used symbolism sparingly, traditional
forms innovatively; his language ranged from crude and explicit
vulgarity, through cliche and colloquialism to mystical and vis-
ionary elevation. His poems are conversational, confiding,
lyrical, generally ironic, embodying repeated themes. Like
Auden, his verse is often deceptively 'simple', for close analysis
reveals a great variety of form and masterly craftsmanship. And
note the subtlety of his titles. He brought to twentieth-century
poetry an individual voice and a sharp awareness of his times.

At Grass
In 'At Grass', there are five six-line verses, with conventional and
consonant rhyme, beautifully descriptive, with a lyrical move-
ment not dissimilar from the movement of the horses. The
language is simple and sensitive (note the use of 'distresses' in
line 3 and the 'seeming' of line 5 in the first verse). There is a
good sense of contrast, 'anonymous' being picked up by 'their
names were artificed' in verse two. The theme is of change,
difference, age, the poet reaching out beyond the horses and
making a comment on the nature of life. Verses two and three
are a vivid evocation of the atmosphere of race and racecourse,
with the final lines of the third verse capturing the final cheer of
the crowd and transferring it to the fact of the result of the race
in the paper. Verse four opens with fact and imagination ('mem-
ories' ... 'flies') and the brilliant suggestion of change and loss by
the use of the positive 'all stole away', which carries the impli-
cation that the horses have been deserted. The further impli-
cation is that fame is temporary, unlasting. But there is also the
suggestion that they have found a kind of peace away from the
crowds, for the 'meadows' are 'un molesting'. The irony deepens
- 'their names live' - and the image of them having 'slipped their
names' suggests that they have finally slipped their leashes - the
training and racing that gave them fame is now no more. No one
is interested; they are merely cared for with the minimum of
attention. The poem is about the racehorses, but it is also by
analogy a poignant poem about the nature of old age.

57
English coursework: Modern Poetry

Now that you have read this early Larkin poem, write an
appreciation of it in about 100-150 words. Look closely at the
kind of language used - 'To fable them', 'classic Junes' - and give
your appreciation a title that reflects the main concerns of the
poem.

Toads
One of Larkin's most celebrated poems, written in nine quatrains
with alternate lines of consonance and with additional occasional
rhyming sequences built into it. The initial equation of the 'toad'
with work is audacious, unexpected, outspoken. The implication
is of something cold-blooded which dictates a pattern of exist-
ence. The tone is one of frustration and rebellion, the questions
calling for a positive answer or rejection. The effect in verse one is
immediate, while in verse two the bitterness of having to have
such a commitment makes itself felt. In verse three Larkin begins
to build up the idea of escape from work by citing examples of
people who 'live on their wits' - a range of con-men who survive.
Note, as so often in Larkin, the choice of the unexpected in
'Losels, loblolly-men' balanced by the more acceptably anti-social
'louts'. The language generally is typical too - colloquial, fluent,
even commonplace. In verse four there is the gypsy life as
attraction, and this is continued in verse five. With verse six comes
recognition of his own inability to rebel against the system, the
coarse 'Stuff your pension!' being balanced by a literary reference
(reasonably unusual in Larkin). The last three verses acknow-
ledge a kind of abject conformity within himself, so that he knows
he will never be able to talk himself into achieving success -
financial, personal, sexual - and that he is one of those grey,
ordinary people who must stay within the system. The last verse
shows the nature of the compromise. You have work and escape
from work, in other words leisure, freedom, imagination. One
balances the other, may even lead to a fuller appreciation of the
other.
In some ways, this poem is the story of all our lives, the rebellion
that we feel at particular periods and the attendant frustration
too. Write an appreciation of 'Toads', bringing out the colloquial
quality of the verse, and say whether you think it is successfully
blended with the unusual words and their emphasis. Or write a
justification of the title of the poem in about 75-100 words.
 Philip Larkin

MrBleaney
The form of this poem, as so often in Larkin, reflects clever
usage in an apparently casual and conversational mode. There
are seven verses of four lines each - quatrains - with alternate
lines rhyming. The form is that of the traditional ballad which
tells a story. The story poem is a favourite Larkin device and the
story-line runs fluently from one verse into another. One tech-
nical aspect is the use of spoken words set against unspoken
thoughts: this provides a fine, natural contrast. Larkin is
exploring non-communication, for the unsaid words are them-
selves a silent commentary on what the landlady is saying. The
poet captures her tone exactly. The pathos arises from the
lonely life, both the poet's and Mr Bleaney's (though remember
that the poet may be affecting his). The new lodger has points of
contact with the old - and the 'one hired box' has ominous
overtones of death, the death-in-life of this kind of existence,
and the coffin.
The first verse points to the vulnerability of Mr Bleaney,
moved from his job and then from his 'home', with the curtains a
symbolic comment on the fragility of life. 'Tussocky' indicates
the lack of care now that Bleaney has gone, while 'building land'
expresses the threat of further urban expansion with its con-
comitant impersonality. Stark description at the end of the
second verse merges into the fact that he is taking Mr Bleaney's
place in the third. Typically Larkin are the slangy turns of
phrase ('stub my fags'). Verse four is expressive of irritation, the
noise of the radio )abbering', though this may also refer to the
landlady, for she tells him all about Mr Bleaney's habits. These
emphasize the pathos of Bleaney's existence - his trying to win
money so that he can rise above all this, his holiday monotony
(the poet has his full picture in the 'frame'). But the poet pon-
ders on whether his own thoughts and feelings were common to
Mr Bleaney, whether he accepted his way oflife, realized that he
was trapped, discovered nothing better in life, knew that he had
to go on as he was. The throw-away fact that the poet doesn't
know, can't know, heightens the pathos ofloneliness, and estab-
lishes a kinship between him and Mr Bleaney: it is sad, muted, a
blending of compassion and cynicism. The simplicity of the
language echoes the simple and inescapable situation.
This is a moving and upsetting poem, like so much of what

59
English coursework: Modern Poetry

Larkin writes. Show how Larkin creates atmosphere in this

poem by paying close attention to particular details. How would
you describe this atmosphere? You might consider, for example,
the number of references which date the poem, and you could
also bring out the associations of 'the Bodies' and 'the four
aways', with their emphasis on monotonous work and a kind of
despair about ever escaping from a constrained life.

An Arundel Tomb
The poem has seven verses of six lines each and since, in a
strange way, it is a poem of celebration, it has a lyrical tone.
There is a regular rhyme scheme. The observation is keen -
'proper habits' is the outline of the earl's and countess's bodies
and sculpted dress, while the idiosyncratic touch is the position
of the 'little dogs'. The poet is initially concerned with the style -
'pre-baroque', which is plain - until he notices that the sculptor
has modelled the pair holding hands. Perhaps it was done
because when they posed for him before death they actually were
holding hands, or maybe - while he was waiting for the long
inscription to be carved - the inspiration for this intimate detail
came to him. The fourth and fifth verses are remarkable in their
compression and associations. The second line of the fourth has
the fine paradox of 'stationary voyage', since they journey'
through time but of course are tied to place in this effigy of
death. The changes which are brought about by time are
recorded: they are 'damaged' by the air, their tenants die in their
turn, and new generations, unable to read the inscriptions, just
look at them; there is snow, light reflects on the tomb, birds sing
above them (note the associations of 'litter') and people visit the
tomb. 'Washing' is good, since it is an attempt to decipher their
identity. The second to the fourth lines of the sixth verse are a
little obscure, though they perhaps record the manner of death
in our own time, the smoke from crematoria as distinct from the
physical representations on a tomb. The pair are 'untruth'
because they are not like that in death, and were only 'momently'
like it in life. The sculptor has been 'true' to what they were, but
the simple idea of their love is preserved, and this is something
we would wish preserved in them and in ourselves. It is sym-
bolized in the empty gauntlet and in hand holding hand. They-
and we - don't survive but their gesture, their attitude,

60
 Philip Larkin

symbolizes that what will survive is love, which transcends change.

Now try the following assignment. Read this poem through
carefully: examine the form of the poem, and compare it with
any of Larkin's other poems you have read (you need not limit
yourself to any of the poems examined above). Say where it
differs from them - and focus particularly on form and theme. We
think, too, that you may find that there is a difference in tone.

The Whitsun Weddings

This poem has eight ten-line verses with a regular rhyme
scheme and rhythm which cleverly correspond to the rhythm of
the train. The second line in each verse is shorter, as if to allow
for the natural flow and pick-up of speed after a stop. This
poem conveys the experiences of a particular journey: it
depends for its effects on a relaxed flow, factual description,
sudden arresting images, with the poet as observer recording
the 'weddings' and the places they pass through. The opening of
the poem is chatty and conversational, with the train leaving the
town (Hull). The environs are indicated, with the last line of the
first verse an exquisite description, an economic appraisal of
perspective. From the train compartment we see a series of
word-pictures. The poem is full of atmosphere (inner and outer
heat), and the beginning of the journey is irradiated by flashes of
imagination. The fine economy is evident in the second verse
('tall' heat for instance conveying its encompassing nature), with
another series of word-pictures. Particularly evocative are 'stop-
ping', 'industrial froth', and 'short-shadowed'. There are combi-
nations of nature and urban associations, as in 'acres of
dismanded cars'. The first two verses are end-stopped, since this
is factual description though imaginatively done. But since the
evidence of the weddings is a kind of continuum from station to
station, the verses begin to flow into one another. In the third
the atmosphere changes: looking out on the sun the poet has
ignored the shade - the covered platforms. The word-pictures
continue to be vivid and economical (,parodies of fashion' -
exaggerated imitations of what is supposed to be fashionable),
but there is a light irony running through the descriptions from
now on. Larkin's is a keen eye - he captures the momentary
awkwardness of behaviour ('All posed irresolutely'). His curio-
sity engaged, the poet examines the groups, cramming in sight

61
English coursework: Modern Poetry

and sound pictures. He imagines the places where receptions

(probably too grand a word) have been held. Particularly good is
the focus on parents, fathers who have got their daughters off
their hands and no longer have the expense of keeping them,
while mothers are seen as sharing 'a happy funeral'. This is the
sadness of losing their sons or daughters, with the happiness, the
joy of the occasion, marriage. The 'religious wounding' is a
reference to the wedding-night ritual of the bride losing her
virginity to the groom. There follow more descriptions, accom-
panied by a cynical, low-key tone ('A dozen marriages got under
way'). The factual reportage is of new lives together. In the
seventh verse the irrevocable nature of what has been done is
stressed. And gradually as the journey continues the poet begins
to concentrate on his destination. The last line of this verse is a
superb description in which nature (mail equals food for the
mind) and the urban spread of London are connected. The
main theme of the poem is found from the middle of the last
verse onwards: the idea is of 'this frail ... coincidence' bringing
together those who are married and who are beginning the
experience of 'being changed' with the poet's contemplation of
them and of life. These insights provide him with the idea of the
poem as well as increased awareness. The final image, which
conveys perfectly the sense of falling as the train begins to slow
at the end of a journey, looks back to the opening line of the last
verse ('aimed' ... 'arrow-shower') - the spreading of the mar-
riages, their fertilization (sexual consummation) and the fertiliz-
ation of the imagination which produces the poem. The ending
is another example of Larkin's sudden and unexpected use of
symbolism.

Questions and assignments on Philip Larkin

1 Compare and contrast any two Larkin poems, bringing out
the similarities and differences (do not use 'An Arundel Tomb').
Guideline notes for 'Toads' and 'Mr Bleaney'. (a) Say if the form in
each poem is exactly the same in detail- ballad - rhyme-
rhythm - statements and themes - attitudes of poet (b) look at
the language used in each case - images - vocabulary-
colloquial- atmospheric (c) Conclusion - realistic - sad - cynical
- pathetic - individual voice -loneliness and isolation - dated
references.
 Philip Larkin

2 Write a detailed appreciation ofthe title poem in The Whitsun

Weddings.
3 Give an account of Larkin's treatment of death in anyone or
two of his poems.
4 What do Larkin's titles tell you about (a) the poem and (b) his
attitude and techniques?
Charles Causley

Charles Causley was born in 1917 in Launceston in Cornwall,

and most of his life has been spent in the area. As a young child
he was taken to Teignmouth to see the house where the Rom-
antic poet John Keats had nursed his dying younger brother.
The boy's imagination was fired by the blood-red River Teign,
stained by the red Devon soil, and years later he was to trans-
form the experience into his poem, 'Keats at Teignmouth'. At
the age of 16 he left school to work for a builder. He played the
piano in a local dance-band; you will see the influence of popu-
lar songs in his poetry. Hejoined the Navy, serving for six years
during the Second World War (1939-45). During this period he
began to write poetry in which seafaring images and naval jar-
gon feature prominently. Personal experience is evident: he was
deeply affected by the death of a companion from Launceston
who had joined up with him. His first volume of poetry was
published in 1951, and he has since published his Collected Poems
(1975) and other volumes, including stories for children,
anthologies of children's poetry and two verse plays. The
ploughman poet John Clare (1793-1864) inspired Causley, who
especially admired Clare's simplicity, his identification with a
particular landscape, and his innocence (innocence and its
betrayal is one of Causley's main themes).
When he left the navy Causley returned to Launceston to
become a teacher: through this he developed a strong affinity
with and understanding of children. He has taken up writer's
courses both here and abroad. In Secret Destinations, the autobio-
graphical content reflects his travels.
Causley's poetry is largely in ballad form, with great simplicity
of style and rhythm and a strong musical sense. He takes great
pride in his Cornish roots, and much of his poetry emphasizes
this sense of belonging. He conveys his enthusiasm, and also his
compassion and his humour, in an economical way: yet his
language is rich in metaphor, and many of the ballads show the
poet's overriding wish to communicate positively with his
readers, to speak for them as well as to them. Here he is following
the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca. He wrote an elegy for
Lorca, and the influence of Lorca's imagery is seen in another
 Charles Causley

elegy Causley wrote for the poet Louis MacNeice, 'Death of a

Poet'.
Religious imagery is also present in Causley's poetry. Much of
this is concerned with the theme of loss of innocence. But there
are biblical themes linked with allegory (truths about human life
through symbolic fictional figures), as in 'Three Nests' and 'Bal-
lad of the Bread Man'. Causley has said of his own poems: 'Only
one thing is certain, that, unlike arithmetic, the correct answers
may all be right yet all be different.'

Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience

(The title is taken from William Blake's great sequence, largely
in the same style, of the 1780s.) The ballad form is appropriately
short and simple. These are quatrains with simple rhyme and
rhythm, the second and fourth lines rhyming. The poem shows
Causley's concern for the loss of innocence as well as his strong
affinity with the sea and all things nautical. As the story pro-
gresses, so our sense of foreboding increases. The sailor in the
fourth verse with his 'red tongue' is a slightly sinister as well as a
jolly figure, for his kiss is 'strong as death' and hints that he will
not return alive. It is for his funeral that the 'volley on the bright
air' sounds in the penultimate verse. As the sailor's life is lost, so
is the child's innocence, and the final verse indicates this, for the
boy no longer wants 'Children's toys'. Note how Causley uses
colour words to evoke the solemn return of the ship - 'steel' (cold
and grey), 'white quay', 'grey ship'. There is a contrast between
the 'white quay' in the first verse, which is full of brightness and
anticipation - linked as it is with 'silver penny' and 'apricot tree'
- and the usage in verse seven, where the same words, together
with 'steel morning' and 'grey ship', suggest cold sadness. That
sadness increases in verse eight, as the ship sails slowly with her
once-bright and beautiful 'flashing' rigging now shot to pieces,
while the gaping hole in her side has the effect of a human
wound.
Now write a short appreciation of the poem (about 100
words) bringing out particularly the growing-up process in life,
with its anticipations, changes and disappointments.
English coursework: Modem Poetry

Cowboy Song
This is in a longer ballad style with eight-line verses but the same
insistent rhythm. This rhythm and the musicality give the effect
of a song, sung by a cowboy playing a guitar, as well as conveying
the rhythm of clopping hooves. It is in fact an elegy; the young
cowboy is dead and his ghost is revisiting those places he knew
during his short life. Many of Causley's poems deal with youth
cut down in its prime. The language has strong visual qualities
and there is a sustained use of alliteration, with internal as well
as external rhyming. 'Silver' is an unusual but effective adjective
to describe melons: notice the musical swing of running internal
rhymes in a line like 'Wheat is as sweet as an angel's feet'. As you
read through this poem, make yourself aware of the poet's use
of images and descriptive phrases: choose four or five of these
and indicate why they are effective, vivid, evocative. Look, for
instance, at 'bone-orchard', a striking image of the cemetery
whose 'harvest' is dead bodies. Notice how Causley uses words in
unusual ways, for example 'marmalade moon' and 'pickled stars
in their little jam-jars', a phrase which suggests the unchanging
nature of the constellations, but also their deadness, like his own.
The third verse describes the bemused reaction of the townsfolk
as the spirit walks 'six inches off the ground', while in the next
stanza Causley employs some of his loved nautical images. Do
you think that they are out of place in a poem about a cowboy?
The final verse brings home to us the sadness of the young
man's untimely death. Notice the cynical line 'Though I sharpen
(make sharp) my eyes with a lover's lies'. The death/funereal
imagery is very strong. The lilies which lighten his shirt are
funereal ones. Notice how the repetition of the letter '1' adds to
the sense of heaviness in the verse. The suit of wood is his coffin,
and the brass plate is screwed on to it.
Now study the whole poem, and write a short appreciation in
about 150 words to show how Causley combines humour, sad-
ness, and irony.

The Dancers
This poem is from Causley's 1984 collection, Secret Destinations,
and was written during his stay in Australia. Its main features
are a strong primitive rhythm, and a feeling of heat and menace.

66
 Charles Causley

It takes the form of a sixteen-line stanza and a single line refrain.

The poem has distinct echoes of Longfellow's 'Hiawatha'. Do
you think that this form is an effective way of expressing the
primitive subject, as well as the shape and rhythm of the danc-
ing? Although the performance takes place in the sophisticated
and urban surroundings of the 'Gallery of Art' (note the ironic
use of capital letters), it is apparent that the young dancers
coming 'out of forty thousand years of dreamtime' have no
concern with their modern surroundings. Note that 'dreamtime'
is the golden age of the past in the mythology of the Australian
aboriginal peoples. The second and third verses present images
of primitive dignity, as well as a strong sense of sound - 'an
insect buzz of music' and a 'high nasal whine'. The colours are
hot and strong - 'brown saffron ochre' and 'teeth a yellow shine'.
Notice how the shape of the verses in conjunction with their
rhythm gives a strong sense of the sinuous movements of the
dancers, a snake-like effect which is heightened by the hissing
refrain. Verse four increases the tempo of the dance: the beauty
and simplicity of their motion give the dancers an animal yet
almost supernatural quality:
Each a demon
Each an angel
Each a God without a name.
The final verse brings us back sharply from aboriginal mystery
to present-day reality.
Now write an appreciation of this poem in about 150 words,
bringing out particularly Causley's use of music, rhythm, and his
sense of the primitive force of the dancers.

Timothy Winters
A humorous, affectionate and moving portrait of a boy who
might well have been one of Causley's pupils. There is a love and
understanding of children, seen in the compassionate tone for
the boy's circumstances which informs the poem throughout.
There is a ballad-like rhythm, with alternate lines rhyming: the
imagery is simple but direct. The 'football pool' of the boy's eyes
suggests both innocence in their wideness and anticipation
which is rarely fulfilled. Also, as with much of the imagery in this
poem, it has an energetic robust quality that underlines the
English coursework: Modern Poetry
deprived boy's natural sturdiness and determination. He is not a
winner. The wartime images of 'bombs', 'splinters' and 'blitz'
reflect the battle of life and perhaps the anarchic and violent
nature which may 'explode' in the deprived child. His life is
hard, but in spite of everything he shows, at times, a disregard
for convention and discipline and a strong survival instinct:
So Timothy Winters drinks his cup
And slowly goes on growing up.
The first line here has strong religious associations (see Matthew
xxvi, 39). The boy gets on with his life, unaware that it is
anything other than the norm, yet we know that he must drain
his cup to the dregs. Ironically, his is the loudest response to the
prayers for unfortunates, for he 'roars "Amen"I'
Now choose Causley's descriptions which you think best
illustrate (a) his humour and (b) his sensitivity in this portrait of
Timothy Winters. Notice how he uses capital letters to underline
the Welfare State and Morning Prayers. Why do you think he
does this? 'Helves' is a Cornish dialect word describing the
frightened call of a cow separated from its calf; Causley is
poking gentle fun at the schoolmaster. The final verse is a
defiant statement of the enduring, tough nature of the boy.
Notice the repetition of the short, sharp 'Amens' (so be it). The
boy does not complain, he simply accepts things and the will of
God. The final line, in italics, shows the poet's direct address to
God, bringing this one special boy to his notice. But Timothy's
unconscious need is symbolic of all those deprived children like
him.

The Seasons in North Cornwall

A lyrical poem, expressing the poet's love for his home county
and for the changing face of nature. He uses place names to give
greater range, and once more the sea imagery is well in evi-
dence. Note the interesting opening line. The 'green fuses' sug-
gest beautifully the explosive, exciting, almost dangerous quality
of spring in all its greenness and sudden power. (You might look
at Dylan Thomas's use of the phrase - see p. 40.) Do you think
that Causley and Thomas are concerned with the same things in
their respective poems? Compare the verse forms, the images
and themes, and say where they are similar and where they

68
 Charles Causley

differ. Here in Causley's poem there is a vivid personification of

summer, while the way in which the sounds of the last two verses
suggest the increase of the wind and the worsening of the
weather as winter approaches and finally all is stilled by snow is
done with a skilful economy of words. Note particularly the
nouns, adjectives, and verbs used to describe the different
seasons; they vividly and dramatically convey the character of
each.

Questions and assignments on Charles Causley

1 'A poem should touch us at many points of our lives.' What
range of response do you feel that Causley's poetry arouses in
us?
t One of the recurring themes in Causley's verse is innocence
and the loss of innocence. By a close look at two or three poems,
show how Causley treats this theme.
3 In what ways do you feel that Causley's poetry is religious
and/or allegorical? Refer to two or three poems in your answer.
4 Causley uses traditional forms of verse: in what ways would
you say that his verse is modern? You might include the
following in your answer, together with anything else you have
spotted: colloquial language, song (modern, traditional,
updated), particular imagery (of war, the sea, etc.), varied
rhythms, fluent and free movements of verse, individual tone,
regional and religious references, etc.
5 Compare any two of Causley's poems with any by Eliot
(perhaps on religious themes) or by Auden (use of ballad and
song) or Hardy (the importance of place).

69
Ted Hughes

Ted Hughes was born in Yorkshire in 1930, and the wildlife of

the moors fascinated him: he spent much of his time exploring
it, and much of his later life writing about it. The elements and
hard conditions also exerted their influence upon him. He was
educated at the grammar school in Mexborough, and later won
a scholarship to Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read
English and Anthropology. In 1956 he married Sylvia Plath,
later to become an important poet herself (see PP.75-81) before
her early death in 1963. His first two books of verse, The Hawk in
the Rain and Lupercal, established him as a major poet. He is now
Poet Laureate.
Hughes's poetry is strongly individualistic, and this rests at
once on the power of the language and, frequently, the violence
of the content: it is emotional, is often informed with anger and,
as we might expect, much of it is concerned with nature, with
animals, with survival. His respect and admiration for the
natural world is very evident, particularly in his earlier verse.
His revelations of natural forces, for they amount to that,
inevitably convey a kind of primitive power, which sits uneasily
beside our civilized veneer. His verse confronts us with our own
feelings, responses, repressions and suppressions. But we
should remember that the poet himself denies much of the
violence we feel in his verse: he has said, 'My poems are not
about violence but vitality.' He goes on to assert that animals are
more disciplined in fact than their human counterparts, and
that they accept their environment rather than rebelling against
it. The individual quality of the poems will be seen if we examine
a few of them.

The Horses
The poem recalls the experience of suddenly coming across the
beasts which are as still and silent as statues. The watcher sees
the scene as taking on a mystical quality when the sun 'erupts'
and the whole scene is dramatically transformed. The reaction is
felt in the poet's 'fever of a dream' and his going into the woods.
When he goes past the horses again they are still silent and
 Ted Hughes

motionless. It is their tranquil acceptance that seems to have

disconcerted the poet. However, their patience and seeming
acceptance of all that happens in nature moves the writer to a
kind of optimism - perhaps in the light of this experience he will
be able to come to terms with the 'eruptions' of life; to endure as
the horses endure.
Now look closely at the form of the poem: notice the two-line
verses, if they can be called that, the relaxed style which con-
trasts so dramatically with the experience of the poet, which is
tense. What is the significance of the single line 'I turned'? What
makes this a poem, and not just a series of impressions or
statements? (Pay particular attention to the language. "¥ou might
write about the effects of colour, and the u~ of 'cast' and
'Megalith-still'.)

The Thought-fox
Take a close look at this poem of six verses - quatrains - with a
variant rhyme scheme and a cunning use of assonance and
consonance. The narrative is clear. The poet is alone, it is mid-
night, and he becomes aware of a presence, seen all the way
through the poem as a fox. In reality, of course, the fox is a
creature of the poet's imagination, the subject of the poem
which is in his mind (just as the fox is in its natural habitat). The
freedom and flexibility of the verses evoke the movements of the
fox and, one feels, of poetic inspiration. The final verse conjures
both the fox entering the hole, and the inspiration for the
writing and completion of the poem entering the poet's head.
The main aspect of the poem is its intense vividness. There are
wonderful runs of alliteration (take the first line of verse one, for
example) and transferred epithets, as in the third line where 'the
clock's loneliness' epitomizes that of the poet and the fox. Note
that the word 'loneliness' is repeated in verse two, thus fixing
attention on man and fox each in their separate locations, while
the third verse paints the passage of the fox vividly, capturing
the rhythm of its movements - tentative, investigative. The focus
on the eyes indicates the sharpness both of the fox's eyes and of
the poet's eyes of the imagination. The repetition of 'now' again
emphasizes the movement and the intensity of the poet's
creativity.
Now write an appreciation of the poem, looking at the last
English coursework: Modern Poetry

three verses and linking them with the commentary above on

the first three. You might, for example, link 'prints' with the last
line of the poem. What is the effect of the word 'lame' and what
is it describing? How does 'greenness' suggest what may hap-
pen? (Think of the associations of a green light for 'go'.) Then
make sure you record the impact of the last verse - the comple-
tion of the poem, the full realization of the fox's life and pur-
pose. Finally, what does the use of assonance and consonance
contribute to our appreciation of the poem?

Wind
Similar in outward form, but different in its imaginative focus, is
'Wind'. Here the house, which has been battered by the wind, is
seen metaphorically as a ship at sea suffering the gales. The
wind is so strong that everything surrounding the house, for
example the woods and hills, appears to be moving - words like
'crashing', 'stampeding' and 'floundering' underline the primi-
tive power of the wind with their insistent personification. The
vividness which characterizes Hughes's poetry is evident in the
second verse, where the colour effects are superb and are cap-
ped by the searing sharpness of 'Blade-light' and the unusual
perspective and movement of 'Flexing like the lens of a mad
eye'. Again you will notice the effect of assonance, consonance
and half-rhyme throughout the quatrains, and the tremendous
sound which captures the force of the wind and its movement.
Now pick out the images which seem to you to convey the
atmosphere of the poem. How would you describe that atmos-
phere? Look at Hughes' techniques. The vividness is certainly
present, and the images you have selected will reinforce this.
When does the poem begin to change? You might consider the
last two verses in particular and say how effective the outside-
inside contrast is. What is particularly good about the image of
the goblet, for instance, and the idea of the stones crying out?
Probe the various references to eyes, lens, windows. What is the
poet doing by such references?

Assignment
Write a comparison of this poem with 'The Thought-Fox', saying
what they have in common technically and where they differ.
 Ted Hughes

Six Young Men

'Six Young Men' underlines the variety in Hughes' verse, his
capacity to move us by the quality of his concentration and the
inspiration he derives from it. Thus this poem starts from the
simple beginning of the permanence of the photograph as dis-
tinct from the transitory nature of life. The five nine-line verses
are the frame, so to speak, which encapsulates the poetic
photograph. There is the now-familiar mixture of assonance,
consonance and rhyme, again varied within the outer frame. A
terrible irony embraces the poem. The photograph captures
each man as he was at that particular moment (and each is
individualized through gesture, appearance, reflex), but the
last line of the verse conveys the terrible finality of death -
significantly its last word is 'dead'. The poet goes back in time
and imagination to the place, the surroundings where the
photograph was taken, recording the changelessness of the
scene which contrasts with the completely changed young men
- 'their faces are four decades under the ground'. The third
verse recapitulates the individual deaths as far as they are
known, again ending with finality, this time in the use of the
word 'killed'. The fourth verse is given over to ironic contem-
plation of the photograph as contrasted with the fates of the
posers, while the fifth explores the dead and alive paradox -
they live in the frame but have been dead for forty years.
There is a brilliant pun on 'exposure' - the flash bulb of the
camera exposed them, but they were also exposed, and killed,
by the greater flash of war. In the photograph, the six men are
'real' for all time.

Assignment
Write an appreciation of this poem, showing how Hughes suc-
cessfully handles the longer verse form. Why do you think he
chose this form? Select six or seven phrases from this poem,
and say how they contribute greatly to our appreciation of it.
(You might consider, for example, 'a rumouring of air' and
'smoking blood').

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English coursework: Modern Poetry

Thrushes
This poem epitomizes Hughes's absorbed observation of nature.
Notice how in the first verse the comparison with a machine
enhances the idea of the sheer efficiency, ruthlessness and con-
centration on what has to be done and only what has to be done.
There are three eight-line verses, again with varied length of
line and rhymes. The first line arrests us immediately because of
the use of the word 'attent' - an archaic term, which suggests a
combination of 'intent' and 'waiting'. Look at the single word
effects in the fourth line which reflect the suddenness of the
action - and its completeness too. As you read the poem look at
the particular emphases which connect with, say, the more
indolent aspects of humanity ('yawning stares. No sighs or head-
scratchings'). What is the point of the question in the second
verse? Hughes uses the word 'single-minded' (with 'skulls') in the
first line, but is there another layer of meaning? And what does
the analogy with and description of the shark suggest? The third
verse concentrates on man.
Now write an appreciation of the third verse, saying in what
way Hughes is indicating the different capacities of man, his
imagination, his practical activity and his feelings.

Questions and assignments on Ted Hughes

1 Write an appreciation of any two of Hughes'S poems,
bringing out clearly his observations of nature.
I Show how Hughes creates a particular atmosphere in anyone
of his poems. You have a free choice, but 'Wind' would be a
good example. Guideline notes: Mention the imagery, his similes
are very effective; the sound effects of particular words-
'brunt', 'dented', 'drummed' which convey the force of the wind;
danger and fear and how they are conveyed; the clever use of
contrast; and the effect on nature.
S What are the main ingredients of a poem by Ted Hughes?
Look closely at the nature of the language and the main
techniques he employs.
4 Compare a nature poem by Ted Hughes with one either by
Thomas Hardy or D. H. Lawrence.

74
Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath was born in Boston on 27 October 1932, both her

parents being of German extraction. They impressed upon Syl-
via and her younger brother Warren the need for hard work
and self-sufficiency: high standards were set in the family. Sylvia
was deeply attached to her mother, and throughout life wrote
regular letters to her recounting her achievements and failures.
But it was her father's death in 1940 which had a tremendous
effect on her. This is reflected in her verse.
She began writing at the age of seven, and her talent
developed through High School and subsequently at Smith Col-
lege, to which she had won a scholarship in 1950. In August
1953 she made her first suicide attempt, and afterwards spent
five months in a private nursing home. When she returned to
college she wrote a thesis on Dostoevsky's use of 'doubles' (split
personalities), and at the same time sat entrance examinations
for both Oxford and Cambridge (both accepted her). She went
to Cambridge on a Fulbright scholarship in September 1955. In
February 1956 she met Ted Hughes, and in June they were
married. They went to America in June 1957, Sylvia taking up
an appointment at Smith College. In 1959 she and her husband
returned to England, where their first daughter Frieda was born
in 1960. In November her collection of poems The Colussus was
published. There followed a period of mounting tension and
depression: she continued to write prolifically, but her marriage
ended in separation in September 1962, shortly after the birth
of a second child, Nicholas. In December 1962 she moved back
to London from Devon, and on 11 February 1963, during one
of the worst English winters of the century, she committed
suicide by gassing herself.
Her poetry largely reflects the nature of the woman. She was
clever, ambitious and creative, but driven by inner conflicts and
torment. She- was obsessed by suicide, felt betrayed and aban-
doned by her father's death. This probably coloured her views
of men in general, and she tended to live her relationships with
them in extremes of either puritanism or sexuality. Such con-
tradictions appear often in her poetry, and the images are illus-
trative of them. Death, destruction, brutality, traps and snares

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English coursework: Modern Poetry

are typical. Sun and moon appear as contradictory yet comple-

mentary symbols, while the moon's particular influence on
women's lives is stressed, together with its 'magical' qualities.
Water imagery is sometimes reflective, as in a pool, sometimes
destructive, as in references to drowning (see 'Words'); it is often
linked with mirrors (as in 'Mirror'). Plath's use of hospital
imagery dates back to her student days when she- witnessed
operations with a trainee doctor at Harvard Medical School, but
it also underlines her own experiences while undergoing medi-
cal and mental treatment.
She greatly admired Dylan Thomas and like him used the
villanelle (q.v. P.42) in her early poems written before the first
suicide attempt. In later work her style is often lyrical and
controlled. The lines are short, without obvious rhyme but with
strong rhythmic effects, as in 'Ariel'.

Suicide off Egg Rock

This immediately evokes her preoccupation with suicide. The
shape of the poem, verses of thirteen, then seven, then three
lines, finally reduced to one line, illustrates the inexorable move-
ment from life to death: the finality of death is found in the last
short lyrical line. The first verse expresses the overpowering
heat and the sharp visual effect of the landscape. Notice how she
uses everyday things like 'hotdogs', 'gas tanks' and 'factory
stacks' to convey the continuity of life around the man who is
about to die. These commonplaces will remain - impersonal,
unaware, uncaring, after the death. There is a strong sound as
well as visual quality to the poem - the blood beating, drumming
in the man's ears is expressed with irony, since we know that the
'I am' will soon be no longer. The children and the dog are quite
innocent, oblivious of the suicide's intention. Notice the words
used to describe the sea with its 'combers', followed by the
wonderfully strong and rhythmic or' sounds in the 'spindrift'
sequence. The man is 'stone-dear and 'blindfold' to all around
him. He has only his sense of failure and his single-minded aim:
he visualizes his dead body brought in by the tide. The phrase
'vaulted brainchamber' lends the skull a dignity which it will not
have in reality. It will become carrion, like the dead fish. Bearing
in mind that the man is planning suicide, and looking closely at
the imagery, how do you interpret these lines?
 Sylvia Plath

The words in his book wormed off the pages.

Everything glittered like blank paper.
Say whether you find these lines effective. The last sound that
the man hears is of the 'forgetful surf. This returns us to the
idea that no one will mourn his physical death nor the death of
his creative powers. An edge of self-pity is evident in the poem.
Now look at Sylvia Plath's use of language here: write a short
paragraph showing how it emphasizes the bleak nature of the
subject.

MomingSong
One of seven poems written in February 1961 while Sylvia Plath
was in hospital for an appendectomy, the poem consists of six
verses, each of three lines, and the use of alternate long and
short lines gives the piece a rhythmic, rocking quality which
illustrates the interdependence between mother and baby, and
the way in which one responds to the other. The poem is an
individual mixture of tenderness and realism - there is even a
distancing from the experience built into it ironically.
The 'fat gold watch' of the first stanza symbolizes time, the
beginning and continuation of the baby's life, but it also looks
back to the rhythmic sexual lovemaking which set its time going,
and the tick of the heart-beat. Note the play on the word 'bald'
and the sense of isolation conveyed by it. In verse two the baby is
referred to as a 'statue' in a 'museum' where voices 'echo', all
indicative of distance and detachment. In this and the next two
verses the sense of detachment - combined with awe and bewil-
derment - continues, though in verse four the maternal bond
becomes evident. Even the tiniest sound, like the 'moth-breath'
of the baby, is audible to the half-sleeping mother. Note the
superb aural and visual quality of these lines, with the breath
'flickering' like a moth round a flame. The mother getting up to
feed her baby is vividly conjured. Still heavy after childbirth
(and of course with milk), she is unglamorous and half-asleep.
Her heavy, awkward movements are conveyed by the punctu-
ation which stutters the lines. Notice the effect of the animal
imagery. The final verse is striking. As dawn breaks the per-
sonified window 'swallows' the stars as the child swallows the
milk. The baby's cry - its creative voice paralleling the mother's
creative voice (here in the poem) - rises up clear, strong, pure.

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English coursework: Modern Poetry

Now consider the mother's attitude to the baby: do you find it

sympathetic, detached, uncertain, or a combination of these?
Write a short paragraph giving your views and quoting from the
poem (for example, 'I'm no more your mother .. .').

Daddy
This poem appears to present Sylvia Plath's paranoia about her
father, with her feelings of betrayal and her need for revenge. It
has a relentless, unforgiving, driving rhythm, a fantasy with
extreme images which are dreamlike and surreal. The sixteen
verses, each with five lines, have their intense rhythms height-
ened by the use of repetition and refrain lines suggesting a
macabre kind of child's rhyme. The title is after all a child's
word, and the use of German emphasizes the remembrance of
childhood in her family as her parents were German-speaking.
The opening lines are repetitive and powerful. The father is a
'black shoe', imprisoning his daughter and keeping her from the
air and light, so that she is 'poor and white', trampled upon,
totally dominated, like a creature living underground. Note the
recurrent black imagery, often used by the poet in the context of
her father. The second stanza describes her need to rid herself
of the ghost of the father who abandoned her by dying. Notice
the grotesque images of death. The 'grey toe' refers to the
incident which precipitated her father's death. He stubbed his
toe, which became discoloured and gross; this led to the amput-
ation of the leg and subsequently to the blood clot which killed
him. She visualizes her father as drowned. Note the familiar
German phrase 'Ach du' which playfully echoes the 'Achoo!' at
the end of verse one. This emphasizes the child's-eye view which
is contrasted with the extreme passion of the woman's feelings.
Ancestry, identity and origin now become central in the
development of the poem, together with the image of war: here
the reference is not only to the Second World War, but also to
the personal conflict between father and daughter. She fan-
tasizes that she is Jewish, one of the persecuted race, sent in a
train to an infamous Nazi concentration camp. In surreal images
she presents her father as a Nazi, brutal and black with swastika
and jackboots. Note the repetitions and the masochistic internal
rhyming of 'boot' and 'brute', the rhythms and sounds like kicks.
Some of the visual images are terrifying, like 'Bit my pretty red
 Sylvia Plath

heart in two'. The poet describes her failed suicide; the insistent
repetition of 'black' emphasizes her frantic efforts to rid herself of
her father's image. The Nazi, now Hitler-like imagery, reappears
as she describes 'A man in black with a Mein Kampf look'. The
imagery startles, not only because of the repetition but the range.
The poem concludes with the bloodthirsty vampire images, the
final line a mixture of violence and triumph.
Some of the techniques are indicated above. Now write a full
appreciation of the poem, bringing in the main aspects discussed
here, but mentioning others which you consider important. You
might explain the effectiveness of, for example, 'Marble-heavy, a
bag full of God' and the comparison with the Frisco seal, the 'barb
wire snare' and the 'Tarot pack'. You might consider too the
sweeping nature of the images of German military might, and
then examine in some detail the implications of the last part of the
poem. Is she referring to an adult relationship, marriage for
example, in which another 'man in black' has replaced her father?
Or is the 'model' in her mind (perhaps a mind fatally split)?

Ariel
'Ariel' at one level describes an exciting ride on horseback, but it is
packed with symbolism, imagery and paradox. Ariel, Shakes-
peare's free spirit from The Tempest, symbolizes the spirit of
poetry. An ariel is also a type of gazelle, and the word has Jewish
connotations with the city of Jerusalem and the sacred flame
referred to by Old Testament prophets. On a more prosaic level,
Ariel was an elderly slow horse on whose back the poet learned to
ride, so that the title is ironically humorous as well.
The structure suggests speed, excitement and lightness. Short
sharp sentences create strong animal and sexual rhythms. The
horse is a symbol of freedom and power, and the poet sees these
in creative terms as well as those of movement. The poem is a
headlong rush from the complete stillness of its opening- 'stasis
in darkness' - 'to its climax as the rider becomes one with the
arrow, symbolizing swiftness and firmness of purpose, with the
dew deliberately moving towards the sun which will consume it.
Here is the paradox of creation and destruction, as horse and
rider plunge into the dawn, 'the cauldron of the morning'.
Now look carefully at the texture and sounds of the language,
and particularly the poet's use of colour. How does she achieve a

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English coursework: Modern Poetry

particular kind of atmosphere? How would you describe that

atmosphere? Look at the individual words and say what they
contribute to your appreciation of the poem - for instance, 'tor',
'lioness', 'Pivot' and the significance of 'Godiva'.

Edge
This was one of Sylvia Plath's last poems, written only days
before her suicide, when she was literally on the 'edge' of death.
When you read this poem you get the impression that she was
actually looking at a stone figure, perhaps a carved figure on a
grave with the small figures of children and pitchers. She begins
with the figure itself and imagines the woman whom it repre-
sents. This death and all death appear as the one state of perfec-
tion, of composure, an art form in itself. The format is spare and
simple, with ten two-line verses of short sentences. There is an
air of fulfilment and finality and the image of the Greek statue
(note the association with 'Morning Song') suggests calmness
and acceptance of the inevitable. Words like 'perfected' and
'accomplishment' contribute to this, as do the soothing sounds of
the vowels in 'Flows in the scrolls of her toga'. The fourth verse
expresses the woman's relief at finding rest in death after her
(presumably troubled) journey in life. Verse five, with its poig-
nant images of dead children, is an allusion to Cleopatra using
an asp (serpent) - she took her own life, and the subject of this
poem is suicide. Here the woman has repossessed in death the
children she bore in life, taking them back into her body 'as
petals 10f a rose close when the garden/Stiffens'. The last word
is particularly effective. Perhaps the garden imagery represents
paradise, the woman's yearning for lost innocence. Notice the
stark contrast between the 'bleeding' flowers and the purity of
the Greek statue. The final lines are an invocation to the moon,
mother goddess and embodiment of the female psyche: but she
is cold, uncaring, dressed in funereal 'blacks', 'used to this sort of
thing'. The overall effect left with the reader is that this is the
final statement of the poet's art.

Questions and assignments on Sylvia Plath

1 'Sylvia Plath's poetry reflects her obsession with suicide and
her capacity for self-pity.' Discuss this in a short essay of about

80
 Sylvia Plath

300 words, bringing in quotations from poems you have read,

and saying whether you agree or disagree with the statement.
It How could you tell that the writer of these poems was a
woman? By reference to any two or three poems, give reasons
for your answer.
3 Compare and contrast any two of Sylvia Plath's poems,
indicating what they have in common. (As a guide, you should
refer to images, rhythm, particular vocabulary, verse form-
lyrical or otherwise, repetition, sound and colour effects and,
certainly, theme or themes.)

81
Seamus Heaney

Seamus Justin Heaney was born in April 1939 at Mossbawn in

County Derry, Northern Ireland. He was the eldest of nine
children in a farming family, his father being both farmer and
cattle-dealer. The Heaneys were Catholics in a mainly Protestant
area, and at his primary school Seamus mixed with children of
both faiths. He won a scholarship to St Columb's College in
Londonderry, and later gained a place at Queen's University,
Belfast. Here he read English and took a first class honours
degree in 1961.
In his early twenties he belonged to a group of poets presided
over by Philip Hobsbaum, a lecturer at Queen's and a devotee of
the 1950S Movement school of poetry (see the introduction to
Philip Larkin on P.56). In 1962 Heaney became a teacher at St
Thomas's secondary school, Belfast, and then at St Joseph's
College, where he taught from 1963-66, when he was appointed
to a lectureship at Queen's. In the same year his first volume of
poetry, Death ofa Naturalist, was published.
Heaney's early poetry is characterized by a strong affinity with
the land and the people who live and work on it. He shows a great
feeling for the sound of words and often, as in the case of 'Death
of a Naturalist', uses concentrated vowel sounds to convey power-
ful visual and aural effects. He employs internal rhymes and half
rhymes; the structure of the poems varies, often with the lines
running one into another to emphasize the continuity and
timelessness of his theme. The verse is strongly physical;
although his language is rich in texture his usage is direct and
economical. In later works we are made aware of the divisions and
conflicts, both political and historical, in Heaney's Irish back-
ground, and in North (1975) he uses ancient legends and myths to
emphasize contemporary themes. The later poems show indica-
tions of a darker more brooding interpretation of cultural issues.
It should be stressed that we are always aware of the Celtic
influences on his work.
 Seamus Heaney

Digging
This is a poem about continuity, tradition, hard physical toil.
The short stanza with which the poem begins, and the two
similar short stanzas in the middle and at the end of the poem
are 'asides' - the poet's comments to himself and to his readers,
informing and affirming. The opening lines are suggestive of
power and latent violence, with the use of short, thick words -
'thumb', 'squat', 'snug', 'gun' (the last two being almost the same
word in reverse)· Perhaps he is implying that his work as a poet
has its own kind of force, just as his father and grandfather had
power over the earth. As he observes his father, the poet is
aware of sound and movement, the 'rasping' and the 'straining
rump'. It is an affectionate warm description of the working
man: there are strong nostalgic echoes too ('comes up twenty
years away'). As you read the poem notice these and make
yourself aware of how Heaney conveys his childhood memories
and a sense of continuity. He excites our sense of touch, as the
spade slices into the ground, and we see its 'bright edge' and feel
the 'cool hardness' of the new potatoes. You will recognize the
son's pride in his father and his grandfather and in their crafts-
manship. The words used suggest precisely the action of the
turf-cutters, 'nicking and slicing': their movements are precise
and rhythmic, there is a timelessness about their actions as they
dig deeper 'going down, down for the good turf, digging deep
into the soil of their environment and their traditions to find the
best parts of their inheritance. In the penultimate verse the
language is very sensual- the 'cold smell of potato mould' and the
'squelch and slap of soggy peat'. Remembering these experi-
ences, the poet regrets that he cannot continue in the physical
tradition. Instead he will use his writer's skill to 'dig' beneath the
surface and unearth his best work.
Now choose those images which you think best describe the
physical working aspects of the poem: write about 100 words
explaining how Heaney makes his subject real by his use of
language.

Antaeus and Hercules and Antaeus

Heaney has two related poems which begin and end the first
part of North (the selection where Heaney relates present-day
English coursework: Modern Poetry

Northern Ireland to the history and myths of Northern Europe

over the past two thousand years). Antaeus was a giant, the son
of Poseidon the sea god and Gaia the goddess of the earth. He
symbolizes the primitive, the earth force, the man of instinct,
rightful possessor of his land. He is 'Girdered with root and
rock' and sure of his invincibility. His survival depends on his
staying close to his native environment. Notice the imagery that
Heaney uses, strong physical images of mother and child,
suggesting the giant's attachment to his surroundings. The
arrival of Hercules is anticipated and Antaeus' unfortunate
downfall is hinted at in the last two verses. When you have
looked at the legend and read both poems, show how Heaney
links the two through the story, and also how he illustrates the
present in terms of the past. Do you feel that the poet's
sympathies lie with Antaeus or with Hercules? Quote from the
poem or cite evidence from it to support what you say.
In 'Hercules and Antaeus' we see the aggressor, confident and
rational: Hercules enters Antaeus' territory in order to defeat
him. He is full of ambition and thoughts of success, Hush with
his previous" victories. His intelligence is 'a spur of light'
'graiping' Antaeus 'out of his element'. Ironically, the giant's
elevation is his downfall. (A 'graip' is an old word meaning a
prong used for lifting dung.) By his downfall Antaeus 'has
bequeathed it all to elegists', that is, to the myth-makers. Balor,
Byrhtnoth and Sitting Bull are all examples of dead heroes
whose memory is kept alive in legend. Hercules raises the body
of Antaeus 'high as a profiled ridge'. In both poems Heaney
makes use of powerful landscape imagery. Antaeus, symbol of
an ancient power, becomes 'the sleeping giant' - the Celtic
promise of one who will some day awaken and lead his people to
their rightful inheritance. This romantic concept is brutally
dismissed in the final line as a vain hope - 'pap [mushy food for
invalids and babies] for the dispossessed'.
Now write an appreciation of either of these poems, saying in
100 words what you find most impressive about them.

Badgers
On the surface 'Badgers' is a poem about badgers in a garden at
night and the emotions aroused in their observers. At a deeper
level Heaney explores the almost mystical quality of the
 Seamus Heaney

situation, refers to the ever-present threat of violence, and asks

the rhetorical questions, 'How do we relate to life? What are the
dangers in not accepting things as they are?' As you read and
examine 'Badgers', ask yourself how the poet answers his own
questions, and write a short analysis of his view of life in this
poem.
The verses are of uneven length, with no obvious rhyme. The
vowel sounds in the first verse ('i' sounds) and the alliterative's'
sounds ('sensing', 'some soft returning') suggest the mysterious
quality of the badgers' visit. Notice how Heaney uses 'half-lit'
with whiskey, a kinder expression than the colloquial 'half-cut'.
It describes that near drunken state which is part of the slightly
unreal feeling in the garden where the badger 'glimmered' in
the twilight. Verse two puts this sense of ghostliness into
immediate perspective, and reminds us how close Heaney
always is to the incidence of violence and death in Northern
Ireland. His own relatives and close friends had been victims of
terrorism (see 'The Strand at Lough Beg'). His language is
correspondingly forceful and expressive: note the use of the
words 'shattered boy' and 'between the cradle and the explosion'
which echo the vulnerability and innocence of the young, an
appropriate connection with the badger. Heaney feels honoured
that the badgers have decided to return to his garden. (Note that
'duntings' are firm but dull-sounding blows.) With sudden
clarity in verse five the poet sees the badger for what it is - a
member of the pig family, shorn of its romantic or fanciful
associations, with its 'sturdy dirty body/and interloping grovel'.
The reality of this last verse is in complete contrast to the
mystical quality of the first.
Now compare this poem with any other poem about wildlife
(use one by Heaney if you wish).

Death of a Naturalist
The title poem of Heaney's first published collection, with a
strange savage irony in this title. Read it carefully and then
consider what the title means - does it have more than one
meaning? The poem consists of two long stanzas, full of atmos-
pheric sounds and smells. The language is deliberately chosen
for maximum effect: every word in the first few lines is heavy
with the feel of oppressive heat and rotting foliage. Notice
English coursework: Modem Poetry

'festered', evocative of disease, then 'sweltered' and the 'puni-

shing sun', and the bluebottles weaving 'a strong gauze of sound
around the smell'. All our senses are being challenged to
respond. The description of the frogspawn is physically sick-
ening - 'warm thick slobber' and 'clotted water', almost a con-
tradiction in terms though we know what the poet means. What
effect do the vowel sounds have if you read the poem aloud?
The language changes with the boy taking the jam-jars full of
frogspawn to school: Heaney presents us with a secure and cosy
classroom in which the teacher encourages the boy's interest in
the tadpoles, as he waits for the 'fattening dots' to burst into
'nimble' swimmers. Here the lightness of the 'i' sounds contrasts
with the heavy thick images of the earlier lines. This lightness is
continued in the teacher's explanation to her pupils of the
'Daddy' and 'Mammy' frogs, comfortable and reassuring ideas
for the young children to relate to.
In the second verse the boy is away on his own: the fields are
'hot' and 'rank'. Heaney describes the encounter with the adult
frogs - the adult world - in short thick sentences (note the
preponderance of consonants) of offensive-sounding words: the
vowel sounds are oppressive in their intensity, 'slap', 'plop',
'obscene threats'. They are the 'great slime kings' out for
revenge on the child who has stolen their eggs in his jam-jar.
The final image of the spawn as a kind of animated quicksand
leaves us in no doubt about the traumatic experience suffered by
the child.
Now look at the two verses and explain the difference in the
boy's feelings before and after the spawn develops into frogs.
What do you think the poem tells us about the experience of
growing up, and the consequent loss of innocence?

A Constable Calls
Heaney has taken here an ordinary incident recalled from child-
hood and written a poem about confrontation. This is between
authority, repression and their representatives on the one hand
and those like Heaney's family, who live and work on the land:
this is where their roots are, but their lives are lived in expecta-
tion of a visit from the forces of law and order. There are nine
verses of equal length in the poem: they have regular heavy
rhythms, like the constable himself. It opens with the bicycle

86
 Seamus Heaney

inanimate, passive but somehow menacing, with weapon associa-

tions in 'rubber', 'fat black', 'gleaming' and 'cocked' like a gun.
This close-textured writing - we shall notice it later in the word
'assumed' - is a feature of Heaney's verse. As you study the
poem you will notice other references to weapons or things that
suggest violence. Make a list of images, noting the particular
significance of each.
The constable is seen through the child's eyes as threatening,
ponderous authority. Which words and images suggest the
heaviness to you?
Now show how the constable appears to the boy. Use
material in the poem and write about 100 words. One line of
turnips was not recorded in the statement which the farmer had
to send in. This, of little real significance, seems a crime to the
boy. His 'Small guilts' (small from the adult viewpoint of the poet
writing in the present, but not to the boy) make him imagine the
horrors of a police cell. The use of the word 'assumed' is accur-
ate. It shows how the child takes on his family's guilt for the
dishonesty, but it can also mean that he takes the situation for
granted. Notice also the 'domesday book' - this shows the irony
of the poet emphasizing how important the events were to the
child, but it also implies that the Irish farmers and small land-
owners are repressed and bled dry by the authorities. The final
verse brings us back to images of menace, the shadow in the
window, the 'snapping' carrier spring which might be a man-
trap, and the tick of the departing bicycle, just like the ticking of
a bomb. Heaney brings his poem right back to the present with
an awareness that repression, authority and violence are never
far from his thoughts.

Questions and assignments on Seamus Heaney

I Many of Heaney's poems are about tradition and continuity,
the interrelationship of people with their environment: show
how important Heaney considers this by reference to any two
poems. (Guideline notes for 'Digging' and 'Badgers': Family focus
-looking back - security - pride - awareness of inheritance-
land - physical work - hence closeness awareness of change (in
himself). Then look at presentation of nature - badgers-
romance and reality - what they represent - constant analogy
with present violence - the past linked to the present - thoughts
English coursework: Modern Poetry

that occur about life and nature.)

2 How far do you find the fact that Heaney is Irish important to
our appreciation of his poetry?
3 Choose anyone or two poems by Heaney you have studied,
and write a detailed appreciation of it/them.
4 Compare anyone of Heaney's poems with another poem
which has a similar theme or treatment (for instance, a poem by
Ted Hughes or Yeats).

88
Brief considerations

Edward Thomas (1878-1917)

Older than most of the First World War poets, he was educated
at Lincoln College, Oxford, and became a literary hack writer.
But the war ironically provided him with an opportunity to
release his genuine love for nature, brought him under the
influence of the American nature poet Robert Frost (1874-
1963), and finally killed him. His poems are expressive of his
love of nature. There is every likelihood that if he had lived he
would have moved forward to develop new techniques and to
write of nature in new ways.

The Manor Farm

Representative of his style, it is a simple, descriptive poem, full
of delicate touches of observation, written in blank verse, with
some consonance, mildly alliterative: there is personification of
the seasons, and an identification with place. The poem is a
succession of direct word-pictures, sympathetic, kindly in mood.
Notice the use of 'wagging', which reflects the minuteness of
Thomas's observation. The traditions and associations of place
are captured, symbolizing the rural way of life in England.
Now write an appreciation of this poem or compare it with
another poem about nature written by a twentieth century poet.

D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930)
Lawrence is primarily thought of as a great and innovatory
novelist. Brought up in a mining family near Nottingham,
devoted to his mother whom he immortalized as Mrs Morel in
Sons and Lovers (1913), Lawrence was a good playwright and an
excellent poet. His is _a strongly individual style, and he is
especially the poet of nature, a talent reflected in the detailed
and symbolic descriptions in his novels. Always serious, ques-
tioning, seeking out the heart or instinct of things, the spirit
which he called 'the flame forever flowing', Lawrence has left us
much vivid poetry. Read 'Snake' and you will see how strongly
English coursework: Modem Poetry

individualistic he is. Notice the relaxed conversational tone, as if

he is telling the reader a story. Notice the perspective - not just
straight description, but a superawareness, the mixed feelings of
fear and guilt which characterize the writing, and at the same
time a reverential appraisal of the snake, one of the 'lords of
creation'. Now look particularly at the technique: the free verse
flows and undulates on the tide of emotion, its movements
approximating to those of the snake. When you have read the
poem through, write down what you feel is most individual and
vivid about it - quote the lines which give you the most pleasure,
and say why. Then compare this with any other twentieth cen-
tury poem about a creature.

Walter de la Mare (1873-1956)

Walter de la Mare was born in Kent and educated at St Paul's
Cathedral Choir School in London. Contemporary with the
Georgian poets (those writing in the reign of George V 1910-
1936), e.g. Rupert Brooke, John Drinkwater) he developed his
own techniques, using traditional forms but with his own indivi-
dual twists and turns. He treats of the fabulous, the fairy story,
the nightmare - subjects that require the ability to create atmos-
phere. He has what has been called an 'elfin fancy': he can write
about the supernatural and can persuade the reader to respond
to the life of the spirit as though it was concrete. His lyrics are
haunting, in the double sense of the word. He clearly delights in
the worlds he is creating: as he said, 'All lyrical poetry beats with
the heart.' His world is imbued with fantasy, love of nature, love
of childhood, his creations taking on a life of their own.

The Listeners
In this poem the lines and rhymes flow into one another, so that
there is a strong rhythmic effect not unlike an incantation. The
Traveller speaks from the world of men, but only ghosts are
present to hear his voice, and they cannot reply. The alliterative
and musical effects throughout contribute to the mystery, to the
silence that generates fear. There is a fine use of the negative
('no one descended ... No head'), almost as if nothingness is a
physical presence. Silence is the key to the poem, but it is a
silence filled with presence: the house is uninhabited only in the

go
 Brief considerations

sense that man no longer lives there, for his ghosts assuredly do.
There is a brilliant personification, in the last two lines, of
Silence, who establishes complete rule in the absence of men.
Note the technical deftness in this poem. For example, some
lines are like a ballad-form (the poem does tell a story, even if it
is a puzzling, unusual one), while others are longer, more liquid.
Silence is emphasized by sound, emptiness is emphasized by
crowding, for instance of echoes. Note too the running echo in
the poem through the choice of words: this enhances the atmos-
phere of silence, which is filled by the Traveller's voice and the
champing of the horse or the sound of its hooves on the stone.
Now write an appreciation of the poem, bringing out the
atmosphere and the techniques used to establish it, or compare
this poem - or any other of de la Mare's poems - with a poem by
another twentieth century writer who is adept at creating a
particular atmosphere.

Edwin Muir (1887-1959)

Edwin Muir was raised in the Orkneys, then moved to Glasgow
to try to achieve recognition as a writer. His verse appears
traditional in form, but has a unique flavour. His natural sub-
jects are the legends and folklore of his native region, seen and
expressed with a mystical and penetrating vividness. His fables
are mixed with personal experience and, like Yeats, he has a
private mythology, a genuine and deep love of the past recalled
from the pastoral scenes of his childhood.

The Combat
A small masterpiece which captures the perennial struggle
between the strong and the weak, it can be read on at least two
levels, and can be seen as an allegory of human nature - each of
us is the 'crested animal' and at the same time a 'soft round
beast'. The essential combat is both within man and outside him,
in society, in nations, in the political, moral and spiritual worlds
in which we live. But you will note the strong fable/myth ele-
ments in the poem: one is reminded of David and Goliath, St
George and the Dragon, or Christian and Apollyon in The Pil-
grim's Progress.
Now bring out what are for you the individual qualities of
English coursework: Modern Poetry

this poem. Look at the structure and note its regularity - does
this represent the recurring nature of the struggle between
Good and Evil, 'The Combat'? Quote in support.

Louis McNeice (1907-63)

Louis McNeice taught classics at Bedford College, London,
though he originally came from Ireland. We have selected him
from among the Thirties poets because he remains in some ways
the most accessible and can be easily understood in most of his
shorter poems, though interested students will also study his
contemporaries, such as C. Day Lewis and Stephen Spender.
'The Sunlight on the Garden' crystallizes the uncertainty of the
period, the fear of the war which was to come in 1939. Notice
the short lyrical treatment despite that fear, the cunning internal
rhyme ('The sunlight on the garden/Hardens and grows cold')
which is repeated in the third and fourth lines. The poem is at
once descriptive and contemplative; the common scene is linked
to a kind of common wisdom, seen at the end of the first verse.
We note that freedom is constricted - we are all conditioned by
outside events. The tone is confiding and contains a stoical
acceptance. McNeice is recognizably the heir of T. S. Eliot; for
instance, 'We are dying, Egypt, dying' is an allusion in the Eliot
manner to Antony and Cleopatra, the end of Egyptian civilization
perhaps paralleled by the end of our own. Can you trace any
other parallels with Eliot?
Now write an appreciation of this poem, paying particular
attention to its form, the language and techniques employed and
its theme. Do you find it optimistic or pessimistic? Why?

Stevie Smith (1902-1971)

Though born in Hull, she lived with an aunt in Palmers Green,
North London, for most of her life. She began her writing
career as a novelist, but turned to verse and produced, despite
the use of traditional forms (at times), highly idiosyncratic
poems which have a sickly, witty flavour. Beneath this there is
often pathos and loneliness. She is adept at using cliche to good
effect, invents fantasy stories and incidents and, at other times,
takes incidents from life and flavours them with her own indivi-
dual treatment. She is both experimental in verse form and the

92
 Brief considerations

mistress of the laconic statement or understatement. Take the

six-line poem 'The Murderer', which says so much in a throwa-
way tone:
She was not like other girls - rather diffident,
And that was how she had an accident
i.e. she was killed because she did not respond.

Not Waving but Drowning

This focuses on another kind of accident, though the impli-
cations are in fact much broader. In simple terms - 'It must have
been too cold for him his heart gave way' - this is a commentary
on an inability to cope with life or aspects of life. It therefore
carries the uncomfortable association for all of us that we need
help, support, even when it is not apparent.
Now look closely at some of Stevie Smith's other poems and
say what you find humorous or sad about them. Notice how she
often conveys serious themes in a form and language which is
apparently light-hearted. Why do you think she does this? Does
it work?

R. S. Thomas (1913-
Born in Cardiff and ordained in 1936, he has published poetry
regularly since 1946. His main concerns are rooted in the lives of
the rural communities of Wales, with bleak landscapes, the pre-
carious survival level, the poverty both physical and spiritual of
deprived lives. At the same time he is concerned with the
encroachment of 'civilization' and its corrupting influence. He is
intent on simple living himself, thought he has allowed that he
may be irrational in some of his views. As Benedict Nightingale
has said, 'his poetry is a shoal of metaphors from the woods and
the hills'.

The Labourer
This is a representative poem. What looks like blank verse is in
fact a cunning mixture of half-rhyme, assonance and con-
sonance. The poem presents the unchanging and tough nature
of man as well as the nature of 'the spruce birds'. The final lines

93
English coursework: Modern Poetry

of the poem show how close the poet's identification with nature
is, and also invites comparison between the raw peasant, almost
primitive in his way of life, and the educated man with his
religion and his clinging to ideals.
Now write an appreciation of this poem. Look closely at the
sound of the language and say how particular sounds (like the d
sound, for example) reflect the hard way of life which is being
described. There is some vivid language in the poem. Quote
those words that show how close the analogy between man and
nature is.

Elizabeth Jennings (1926-

Born in Boston, Lincolnshire, educated at St Anne's College,
Oxford, she had a number ofjobs - in a library, working also for
a publisher and in advertising - and began to publish her collec-
tions of poems from 1953 onwards. Her subjects often deal with
breakdown and hospital experiences, and you might compare
the strongly individual quality of her writing with some of Sylvia
Plath's poetry. She is especially good on suffering and loneliness.

One Flesh
Perhaps her most representative poem, the title is ironic (as you
will see if you study the poem carefully), and the contemplation
of the parents and the changes which age and experience bring
is informed with this irony, which in turn is informed with
compassion. The three regular verses encapsulate the regularity
of passionless, ageing lives - the rule of habit as distinct from the
earlier rule of feeling, the passion which produced the child.
The main quality of the poem is its perspective on change, but
the skilled technique enables the poet to use a variant form in
the third verse, where the rhyming couplet which concludes the
first two gives way to a continuation of the alternate line
rhyming, ending with an unanswerable question.
Now look closely at this poem: in about 100 words write
about the theme, and comment on three or four particular
choices of word or image.

94
 Brief considerations

The Liverpool Poets

Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten came together
in the 1960s during the heyday of the Beatles. Their aim was to
produce poetry which was as appealing and as accessible as pop
music. They performed their work in public for audiences.
They sought to rid poetry of its 'mystique' and they wrote in a
style and idiom which is at once funny, irreverent and exuber-
ant. Many of the subjects are derived from aspects of Liverpool
life, but they are concerned with pacifism (see McGough's 'A
Square Dance' and Patten's 'Sleep Now'), social protest, and a
general debunking of things academic. Sometimes the poems
are about love, seen from both a romantic and a realistic point of
view. A major characteristic is the use of free verse forms, often
with little or no punctuation. The Liverpool poets were part of
the Underground Movement of the 1960s and '70S, which also
encompassed the Caribbean poetry movement (see below,
p. 97). They no longer command an important place in contem-
porary poetry because they were very much a product of their
own time, but the individual poets are still writing and perform-
ing their work.

Adrian Henri
He was born in Birkenhead in 1932 and spent much of his early
life in North Wales. He studied Fine Art at Durham University,
graduating in 1955, after which he worked as a scenic artist at
the Liverpool Playhouse and did various teaching jobs. In 1961
he met Roger McGough and Brian Patten, and as a result
became interested in poetry as a performance art. He worked
with pop groups, and many of his poems are based on pop and
folk songs or are dedicated to musicians. Since 1970 he has been
a freelance poet and painter: his paintings have been widely
exhibited. His own drawings illustrate Collected Poems, published
in 1986. He now lives and works in Liverpool.

Love from Arthur Rainbow

A wry little poem, a modern fairy story in verse, Henri uses
quatrains with alternate lines rhyming in a classic ballad style.
The poem is full of irony but there is romance too:

95
English coursework: Modern Poetry

There were angels in all the shopwindows

And kisses not rain coming down.
Notice the rainbow references, which symbolize romantic
idealism, unobtainable in reality, with the word echoed in the
name of the poet/lover. At the end of the princess's rainbow lies
disillusion and, as with much of Henri's poetry, there is an
underlying cynicism.

BatPoem
This is from the same collection, Tonight at Noon and takes its
theme from the popular TV series first shown in the 1960s and
its rhythm from the programme's theme song. It is a bitingly
ironic comment on the Vietnam War, nominally glorifying the
American action but leaving us in no doubt about the poet's
hatred of war. It captures the humour and excitement of the
Batman programmes and the devotion they inspired in fans, like
the poet, for example, wanting to meet his hero in Liverpool.
Ostensibly light in touch, the poem has a serious inner core of
pacifism.
Now compare and contrast the two poems. Which did you
find the more enjoyable and why? Pick out quotations which
illustrate what you say, and pay detailed attention to the lan-
guage and the rhythms of the verse.

Roger McGough
He was born in Liverpool in 1937. He was educated at St Mary's
College and Hull University, after which he spent some time
teaching. He was a member of the pop group 'The Scaffold',
another of whose members was Paul McCartney's brother. He
has written many volumes of poetry, including popular and
funny poems for children, as well as stage and television scripts.
He regularly reads his own poems to audiences.

Let Me Die a Young Man's Death

This is a typically humorous and optimistic poem, rhythmic,
musical, written to be read aloud. Notice the repetition and
rhymes and the absence of punctuation which allows the poem

96
 Brief considerations

to flow freely. McGough uses the device of combining two words

into one (inbetween' and 'holywater'), while the internal rhymes
are full of wit and irony. He surprises us with words like
'tumour' and 'insides'. What effect do you think is achieved by
the repeated 'death' in the first and last verses? In verse three
the poet fantasizes on the theme of Hollywood gangster films,
and in verse four on the dream of everlasting virility. (The
Cavern was the Liverpool Club in which the Beatles were dis-
covered.)
Now write a short appreciation of this poem. Consider Roger
McGough's use of humour in this poem. Make sure that you
refer to sound and structure, use of words charged with mean-
ing, wit, irony, religious references. Write about 100 words.

Brian Patten
Born in Liverpool in 1946, he is the youngest of the three poets.
At fifteen he began publishing Underdog, a magazine devoted to
the work of the Underground poets who include Henri and
McGough. He has written several volumes of poetry for both
adults and children, as well as children's stories and plays.

After Breakfast
A sad, reflective poem about a lonely man in a flat. He imagines
the empty lives of others who have used the room and how they
have felt at breakfast time. He wishes that he could share his
own breakfast, and his life, longing for the security of family life
yet knowing that there is nothing waiting for him except the
rain. Notice the shape of the poem, with its long and short lines.
Does this form contribute to your understanding of the man and
his feelings? How does the mood change in the second verse?
You might find it interesting to compare this poem with 'Mr
Bleaney' by Philip Larkin. Although Brian Patten is writing
about loneliness and disillusion, the poem is not entirely sad.
How does he introduce some optimism and a lighter note? Now
write about this in not more than 100 words, and use quotations
to illustrate what you say.

97
English coursework: Modern Poetry

Caribbean Poetry
The voice of Black British Poetry by writers from the Caribbean
was first heard in the 1970s: it has since grown both in volume
and popularity. It expresses the feelings of people who want
increasingly to make a particular contribution to British cultural
life, and to do so in their own chosen idiom. These writers have
enriched our language with their distinctive characteristics. The
poetry often has the strong sensual rhythms of Caribbean music,
Rastafarian sound and reggae and rap. It has a tradition of
performance poets who read their own work before an audi-
ence, often with musical backing. Well known among these are
Linton Kwesi Johnson and Benjamin Zephaniah. The poems
reflect colourful West Indian dialect, and rhythms charged with
movement and excitement. Many themes are ethnic, often
covering Caribbean history or folklore. Others derive from
childhood experience, love, death, religion, magic or cricket.
Whatever the theme, the writing has an immediacy which goes
far beyond race, location and language patterns.

James Berry
He was born in Jamaica in 1924. He came to Britain from the
USA in 1948, and until 1977 was employed as a telephonist. He
has published several volumes of poetry including two
anthologies of West Indian/British poems (Bluefoot Traveller,
1981 and News for Babylon, 1984).

Cut- Way Feelills

This is from Lucy's Letters and Loving, 1982. It is a simple lament
in local dialect. The tone, like the loss, is strongly personal. The
two-line refrain which opens verses one, two and four is express-
ive of the poem's insistent lyrical quality. Most of the language
speaks of everyday situations in which the dead man will be
missed, but there is vivid imagery at the end of verse two - 'Him
gone Ief stars like spears/from roof holes in we eyes'. It is a fine
way of conveying the vacuum of loss in the lives of those who
remain, a sense of sharp grief, and the big-eyed look that comes
from weeping. Now compare this with any other poem, either
Caribbean or other, which is written in mourning or grief.

98
 Brief considerations

Derek Walcott
He was born in St Lucia in 1930. As well as collections of poetry,
he has published three volumes of plays and also writes literary
criticism. Like James Berry, he has read selections of his work on
cassette, and if you are interested you should get details of these
from your local record library.

A Lesson for this Sunday

This is from In a Green Night and it recalls a hot summer Sunday
at home. The first stanza sets a scene of peaceful laziness, with
no movement except for the maid singing hymns and 'shaking
linen'. Notice 'Requests the lemonade of simple praise', which
immediately suggests an atmosphere of refreshment, here
associated with religious praise. The easy, lazy movement of the
hammock is reflected in the -ings rhymes, but the immediate
contrast is seen in the activity of the children 'sinning' against
nature on this holy day. There is a sense of fear, even menace, as
the. butterfly is tortured. The final section of the poem shows the
writer pondering the paradox of cruelty, beauty, the loss of
childhood innocence.
Now look closely at the form of the poem, its visual quality
and the atmospheres which are generated on this particular day.
You will note the cultivated, educated tone, and you will pick out
certain phrases and images which underline the poet's technical
and imaginative ability. Write an appreciation of this poem, and
include structure, pattern of rhyme, theme, nature of experi-
ence and the phrases which seem to you to stand out because of
their sound or visual quality, or both. Quote freely. Then com-
pare this poem with the poem by James Berry. Indicate where
they share something (the theme of loss?) and where they differ.

99
General questions

Since most of the sections in this Brodie's Note have assignments

and questions with some guideline notes, no guidelines are given
here.
I Write a detailed account of one poem by either Yeats or
Hardy, bringing out the individual quality of the poem,
including its theme and the nature of the form and language
used.
It Choose either one of Eliot's early poems or The Waste Land
and show by close attention to the text how allusive Eliot's poetry
is.
S Compare and contrast any nature poem by Ted Hughes with
any other nature poem mentioned above, or with any to be
found in The Faber Book o/Twentieth-Century Women's Poetry (for
example, 'The Fish', by Elizabeth Bishop).
4 Write an appreciation of any two poems by different poets
which describe a particular mood.
5 Compare and contrast any two poems written by women
poets.
6 Indicate the part played by place either in the poems of
Seamus Heaney or John Betjeman.
7 Choose any poet discussed in the commentary above and
show, by close reference to any two poems, the kind of
techniques he/she employs.
8 Describe the lyrical qualities in any two or three poems which
are discussed here or which you have read for yourself.
9 By looking at poems other than those discussed here, indicate
the main qualities possessed either by the Liverpool poets or by
any two Caribbean writers.
10 Bring out the humour present in any two twentieth century
poets.
I I Indicate the part played by either violence or fantasy in the
work of anyone poet discussed above.

100
 General questions

u What are the characteristic techniques employed by Dylan

Thomas in his verse? You should refer to at least two poems in
your answer.
13 Compare and contrast the imagery used by any two poets
discussed above.
14 How does Wilfred Owen combine technical achievement
with the content of his verse? Choose two of his poems, and
quote in support of your views.
15 Write an appreciation of the work of any twentieth-century
poet not covered by the questions above.
16 Indicate what is 'traditional' and what is 'modern' in the
work of a particular poet you have studied.

101
Index of poets and poems

W. H. Auden: As I walked out one evening 52, Lullaby 53,

Musee des Beaux Arts 54, 0 what is that sound 51, Roman
Wall blues 53
James Berry: Cut-Way Feelins 98
John Betjeman: A Subaltern's Love Song 48, Death in
Leamington 46, Middlesex 47, Pot Pourri from a Surrey
Garden 48, Trebetherick 45, Upper Lambourne 45
Charles Causley: Cowboy Song 66, The Dancers 66, Nursery
Rhyme of Innocence and Experience 65, The Seasons in
North Cornwall 68, Timothy Winters 8, 67
T. S. Eliot: The Hollow Men 31, The Journey of the Magi 30,
The Love Song ofJ. Alfred Prufrock 32, Portrait of a Lady 33,
The Wasteland 34
Thomas Hardy: At the Railway Station, Upway 15, Beeny Cliff
13, The Bird Catcher's Boy 16, The Choirmaster's Buriail4,
Faintheart in a Railway Train 15, Midnight on the Great
Western 8, The Oxen 14, Snow in the Suburbs 16, Under the
Waterfall 12 , The Voice 12
Seamus Heaney: Antaeus 83, Badgers 84, A Constable Calls 86,
Death of a Naturalist 85, Digging 83, Hercules and Antaeus
83
Adrian Henri: Bat Poem 96, Love from Arthur Rainbow 95
Ted Hughes: The Horses 70, Six Young Men 73, The Thought-
fox 71, Thrushes 74, Wind 72
ElizabethJennings: One Flesh 94
Philip Larkin: An Arundel Tomb 60, At Grass 57, Mr Bleaney
59, Toads 58, The Whitsun Weddings 61
D. H. Lawrence: The Snake 89
Walter de la Mare: The Listeners 90
Roger McGough: Let Me Die a Young Man's Death 96
Louis McNeice: The Sunlight on the Garden 92
Edwin Muir: The Combat 91
Wilfred Owen: Anthem for Doomed Youth 25, Dulce et
Decorum Est 26, Futility 27, Strange Meeting 24
Brian Patten: After Breakfast 97
Sylvia Plath: Ariel 79, Daddy 78, Edge 80, Morning Song 7, 77,
Mushrooms 7-8, Suicide off Egg Rock 76

1011
 Index of poets and poems

Stevie Smith: The Murderer 93, Not Waving but Drowning 93

Dylan Thomas: And Death Shall Have No Dominion 39, Do not
go gentle into that good night 42 , Fern Hill 41 , The Force that
Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower 40, The
Hunchback in the Park 41
Edward Thomas: The Manor Farm 89
R. S. Thomas: The Labourer 93
Derek Walcott: A Lesson for this Sunday 98
W. B. Yeats: The Circus Animals' Desertion 22, Easter 191620,
Sailing to Byzantium 21, When You Are Old 19, The Wild
Swans at Coole 19