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Alan Seeger: medievalism as an alternative ideology
Tim Dayton
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If you make reference to this version of the manuscript, use the following information: Dayton, T. (2012). Alan Seeger: Medievalism as an alternative ideology. Retrieved from http://krex.ksu.edu
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Citation: Dayton, T. (2012). Alan Seeger: Medievalism as an alternative ideology. First World War Studies, 3(2), 125-144.
Copyright: © 2012 Taylor & Francis
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi:10.1080/19475020.2012.728698
Publisher’s Link: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19475020.2012.728698 This item was retrieved from the K-State Research Exchange (K-REx), the institutional repository of Kansas State University. K-REx is available at http://krex.ksu.edu
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Ala n Seeger: Medieva lism a s a n Alterna tive Ideology
Tim Da yton*
Depa rtment of English Ka nsa s Sta te University Ma nha tta n, KS USA 66502
* E-ma il: ta da [email protected]; Tel. 785-532-2155
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Ala n Seeger: Medieva lism a s a n Alterna tive Ideology
Abstra c t
The Americ a n poet Ala n Seeger ima gined the First World Wa r a s a n opportunity to rea lize medieva l va lues, whic h were embodied for him in Sir Philip Sidney. Sidney epitomized Seeger’s three idea ls: “Love a nd Arms a nd Song,” whic h c ontra sted with the ma teria lism a nd sophistic a tion of modernity. His embra c e of “Arms” a nd the desire for intense, a uthentic experienc e led Seeger, who wa s living in Pa ris in August 1914, to enlist in the Frenc h Foreign Legion, in whic h he served until his dea th in c omba t in July 1916. As a n infa ntryma n Seeger ha d extensive experienc e of the Western front. This c onc rete experienc e of the wa r, of the indignities of life in the trenc hed a nd the domina nc e of tec hnology, c ontra sted in signific a nt wa ys with wa r a s c onstruc ted in Seeger’s medieva list ima gina tion.
Seeger, however, rec onc iled this c ontra dic tion by seeing the wa r a s pa rt of the elementa l Strife of na ture. By this mea ns, Seeger a voided the potentia lly unsettling c onsequenc es of c onfronting the profoundly modern na ture of the wa r. Interpreting the wa r a s a form of “Strife” a nd a s a n a ssertion of medieva l va lues a llowed Seeger to ima gine himself a nd his c omra des to be living outside the world of industria l c a pita list modernity. Seeger sha red with others involved in the wa r this medieva lism a nd the belief tha t the wa r offered relief from the va lues of modernity, even if Seeger’s medieva lism wa s more intense, more thoroughgoing, tha n wa s c ommon. However, Seeger’s dea th a s a result of wounds rec eived from ma c hine gun fire vividly displa ys the c ontra dic tion between his ima gina tion a nd the rea lity of industria lized wa rfa re.
The exa mple of Seeger thus suggests tha t the Americ a n effort in the First World
Wa r wa s underwritten in pa rt by a n ideology through whic h a modern, industria lized wa r wa s embra c ed in terms derived from the ima gined medieva l pa st. Insofa r a s this is true medieva lism func tioned to provide a n ideology tha t c onstruc ted, in the terminology of Ra ymond Willia ms, a n a lterna tive to the industria l c a pita list modernity from whic h the wa r emerged, a n a lterna tive ideology tha t a llowed the wa r to be ima gined differently from wha t it wa s, but whic h posed no substa ntive c ha llenge to the wa r’s soc ia l a nd ec onomic rea lities.
Keywords: wa r poetry; Ala n Seeger; medieva lism; ideology; modernity
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Ala n Seeger: Medieva lism a s a n Alterna tive Ideology
Even prior to US entry into World Wa r One, Ala n Seeger wa s seen a s the a rc hetypa l Americ a n soldier-poet of the wa r. This sta tus mislea ds slightly: Seeger wa s idiosync ra tic in the intensity a nd c onsistenc y of his c ommitment to medieva l a nd ma rtia l va lues. Yet, ultima tely, those sa me medieva l a nd ma rtia l va lues Seeger espoused c onsc iously a nd delibera tely a ppea r in a more diffuse form in the broa der c ulture of the era . Thus Seeger a nd, the a va ila ble c ultura l evidenc e suggests, the United Sta tes a s a whole, enga ged in the wa r on a pa ra doxic a l or perha ps c ontra dic tory ba sis: the wa r wa s ima gined a s the opportunity to a ssert va lues ec lipsed in, a t the sa me time tha t the wa r itself took pla c e a t the c utting edge of, c a pita list modernity. Fought using the most rec ent developments of the sec ond industria l revolution, propelled by the c onflic t between the “unlimited dyna mism” impa rted to G erma ny by “the impera tive to expa nd of a ma ssive c a pita list ec onomy wa tc hing its sta tistic a l c urves soa ring upwa rd” a nd the United Kingdom, a ttempting to preserve its globa l ec onomic a nd politic a l domina nc e,1 this strikingly modern wa r wa s ima gined in terms strikingly a na c hronistic .
Tha t Seeger wrote a bout the wa r in terms derived from a n ima gined premodern pa st is unsurprising: his ba c kground formed him in suc h a wa y tha t it would be a stonishing ha d he not sha red in the post-Roma ntic poetic c ulture a na lyzed by Pa ul Fussell, Ted Boga c z, Sa muel Hynes, a nd others. Born into a n old
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New Engla nd fa mily, Seeger a ttended the Ha c kley Sc hool in Ta rrytown, NY prior to entering Ha rva rd a s a member of the c la ss of 1910. At Ha rva rd, Seeger would eventua lly room with T.S. Eliot in his senior yea r, while Eliot wa s working on his Ma ster’s degree.2 After gra dua ting from Ha rva rd, Seeger lived in G reenwic h Villa ge for a short time before moving to Pa ris, where he wa s living a t the outbrea k of the wa r.3 Shortly a fter the wa r bega n Seeger enlisted in the Frenc h Foreign Legion, motiva ted in pa rt by his love for Fra nc e but a lso by a deepsea ted desire to experienc e wa r: a fter Seeger died from wounds rec eived in c omba t in July 1916, a friend wrote tha t Seeger fought on the side of the Frenc h bec a use he ha d been living in Fra nc e, a s he would doubtless ha ve fought on the side of the G erma ns ha d he been living in G erma ny.4
The poetry Seeger produc ed out of the fulfillment of his desire for milita ry experienc e c ontra sts sha rply in form a nd c ontent with the rea c tion a ga inst the wa r in muc h of the c a nonic a l Americ a n litera ture, most prominently the work of E.E. C ummings, John Dos Pa ssos, a nd Ernest Hemingwa y. Yet this desire for milita ry experienc e, whic h for Seeger wa s c losely rela ted to the desire to be a poet, wa s c ommon in the la te 19th a nd ea rly 20th c enturies in the U.S., pa rtic ula rly a mong the middle a nd upper c la sses; indeed, C ummings, Dos Pa ssos, Hemingwa y, et a l. ha d experienc es to rea c t a ga inst b ec a u se they sha red, to a grea t extent, Seeger’s c ultura l forma tion. But C ummings’, Dos Pa ssos’, a nd Hemingwa y’s writing a bout the wa r rejec ts signific a nt elements of tha t forma tion, a nd is thus less typic a l of the Americ a n c ulture tha t underpinned
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the wa r effort in 1917 a nd 1918 tha n is tha t of Seeger, whose c ollec ted P o ems were a non-fic tion best seller in those yea rs.5 Understa nding Seeger helps one to understa nd more fully these c a nonic a l writers by illumina ting their c ultura l situa tion, while a lso revea ling the powerfully a na c hronistic qua lity of the underlying c ulture mobilized in support of US intervention into the wa r.
I. Seeger before the war
In the spring of 1908 Seeger, then a sophomore a t Ha rva rd, wrote a n essa y, “Suggestions for a Disserta tion on the Historic a l Development of the Fa ustmotive.” His professor for C ompa ra tive Litera ture 7, M.A. Potter, responded fa vora bly to Seeger’s essa y, pa rt of whic h wa s c onc erned with the historic a l na ture of the Rena issa nc e, whic h Seeger presents a s a pla y of new a nd old:
It is simple enough to see the new impulses, but wha t sha ll be sa id of the things tha t a re no more, of the spiritua l light tha t ha s va nished out of men’s hea rts? I suppose tha t it is only within rec ent yea rs tha t the sophistic a tion of three c enturies ha s so fa r a ba ted a s to a llow of a more c orrec t a nd sympa thetic estima te of the media eva l world.
In this pla y of new a nd old, Seeger prefers the old: for him a ba leful “sophistic a tion” ha s overwhelmed the “spiritua l light” of the medieva l, a spiritua lity tha t a ppea red to rea ssert itself before retrea ting onc e a ga in:
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there wa s the spora dic impulse of the Roma ntic Reviva l, but not a ppa rently ba sed upon a ma ture enough selfc onsc iousness to a tta in tha t perfec tion towa rd whic h it wa s progressing when blighted under the grea t returning tide of ma teria lism tha t ha s a fflic ted the la st ha lf-c entury. 6
Seeger wa nts to reverse this “tide of ma teria lism” so tha t the “spiritua l light” ema na ting from the medieva l world might shine a ga in.
Medieva l settings or themes a re prominent in Seeger’s prewa r poetry:
“Vivien,” “Broc elia nde,” a nd “Lyonesse,” a ll work with tra ditiona l Arthuria n ma teria l, while “C ouc y” c onc erns a c a stle in Fra nc e tha t wa s home to severa l c rusa ders. Less obviously medieva list his poem “The Rendezvous” c onc erns a lover a wa iting his beloved in a C a tholic c hurc h. He seeks out her fa c e a mong the c ongrega nts:
But the long vespers c lose. The priest on high Ra ises the thing tha t C hrist's own flesh enforms; And down the G othic na ve the c rowd flows by And through the porta l's c a rven entry swa rms. Ma ddened he peers upon ea c h pa ssing fa c e Till the long dra b proc ession termina tes. No princ ess pa sses out with proud ma jestic pa c e. She ha s not c ome, the woma n tha t he wa its.7
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The setting in this poem derives its fla vor in la rge pa rt from the C a tholic reviva l movement, a c omponent of Vic toria n medieva lism. The “G othic na ve” a nd the “porta l’s c a rven entry” provide a ba c kdrop intended to ma ke the lover’s disa ppointment a ll the more poigna nt.
This penc ha nt for the medieva l, for role-pla ying, a nd for a pec ulia r a nd c ruc ia l form of a bstra c tion ma y be seen in a Februa ry 1916 letter tha t Seeger wrote while he rec overed from a respira tory infec tion c ontra c ted in the trenc hes. He expla ins to his mother tha t in his first yea rs a t Ha rva rd he wa s a devotee of Lea rning for Lea rning's sa ke… . The events of tha t life were positive a dventures to me. Few, I a m sure, ha ve known more tha n I did then the employ of intellec t a s a n instrument of plea sure. I shut myself off c ompletely from the life of the University, so full, nevertheless, of plea sures. I sc offed a t these plea sures tha t were no more to me tha n froth. I felt no need of c omra deship. I led the life of a n a nc horite.
The c hoic e of terms is signific a nt: while not a n exc lusively medieva l phenomenon, a nc horites a re strongly a ssoc ia ted with the medieva l. As a sort of a nc horite, Seeger devoted himself to “Lea rning for Lea rning’s sa ke.” The c a pita liza tion is typic a l of Seeger, who tended to a bstra c t a nd to a llegorize. This Lea rning of his produc ed not, a ppa rently, knowledge or understa nding, but plea sure; Seeger’s sensibility wa s funda menta lly, a lthough c omplexly,
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hedonistic , a s is seen further in his a c c ount in the sa me letter of his turning a wa y from Lea rning. C ompa ring himself to c ha ra c ters in Ba lza c , Seeger sa ys, “Obsessed by the burning vision of Ha ppiness they left the quiet groves of the Ac a demy a nd went down into the c ity in sea rc h of it." He c ontinues:
But my hedonism, if suc h it ma y be c a lled, wa s not superfic ia l like tha t of so ma ny, to whom the emotiona l mea ns only the sexua l. I wa s sublimely c onsistent. For seeing, in the ma c roc osm, a ll Na ture revolve a bout the twin poles of Love a nd Strife, of a ttra c tion a nd repulsion, so no less in the mic roc osm of my individua l being I sa w the emotiona l life equa lly divided between these two c a rdina l princ iples . . . . [M]y a spira tion wa s to go a ll the ga mut, to "drink life to the lees." My interest in life wa s pa ssion, my objec t to experienc e it in a ll ra re a nd refined, in a ll intense a nd violent forms. The wa r ha ving broken out, then, it wa s na tura l tha t I should ha ve sta ked my life on lea rning wha t it a lone c ould tea c h me.8
The c a pita liza tion c ontinues in this pa ssa ge, but now Seeger’s a bstra c tion a nd a llegoriza tion ta kes on a slightly different c a st. First, the melodra ma tic qua lity of Seeger’s ima gina tion bec omes even more prominent. But beyond this, his move into the a bstra c t sta nds in c urious rela tion to the desire for experienc e Seeger expresses in the letter. But then a ga in, however c onc rete a nd pa rtic ula r a ny given experienc e ma y be, nothing is more a bstra c t tha n Experienc e.
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This is not a ll. In his movement from wha tever the pa rtic ula rs of a given experienc e ma y be to the terms in whic h he understa nds it (Love, Na ture, Strife) Seeger elides the rea lms of the soc ia l a nd politic a l: in his wa r poetry, the wa r will rema in la rgely a ma tter, on the one ha nd, of sense experienc e a nd, on the other, of remote a bstra c tion. Thus the wa r ra rely a ppea rs in his writing, either poetry or prose, a s a p o l itic a l c onflic t. While this elision typic a lly a llows Seeger to a void types of ideology c ommon in muc h of the Americ a n poetry of 1914-1918, it a lso displa c es ideology to those levels tha t a r e presented, most c lea rly but not exc lusively onto the a bstra c tions, Love, Na ture, Strife, Roma nc e, etc ., through whic h Seeger proc esses the pa rtic ula rs of experienc e. Seeger thus a lso displa c es ideologic a l c onflic t to the level of the ima gina tive, a s when he ma kes a n ima gined medieva l world or ima gined medieva l figures repositories of a ntimodern va lues.
While Seeger a ttempts to expla in the va rying pa tterns of his life in this letter to his mother, empha sizing the brea k between his existenc e a s a n a nc horite a nd a s a n a c tive pa rtic ipa nt in the world, a strong c ontinuity underlies his c onc erns: the medieva l func tions in the sa me ma nner in both the “Fa ustmotive” essa y of 1908 a nd in his wa rtime writing. In the essa y, Seeger ima gines a brea k with “the sophistic a tion of three c enturies,” with c a pita list modernity. C lea rly, suc h a c ha nge would be epoc ha l, a nd Seeger bec omes simulta neously a poc a lyptic a nd prophetic a s he ima gines the possibility: “Now we a re dwelling in the unc erta in lull a nd sultriness tha t prec edes a storm. Now we ha ve rea c hed
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the issue when ma teria lism ha s been weighted a nd found wa nting.”9 Apoc a lypse a nd prophec y enter here in the figure of the wa iting storm, a storm tha t would indeed brea k six yea rs la ter with the a dvent of the wa r.
For Seeger, this storm promises to end the era of ma teria lism tha t ha s so fa r defea ted the roma ntic return to the spiritua l.
Wha t is to be the c olor of the da wning spirit? I fa nc y this: it is to be a new roma ntic ism, a roma ntic ism ba sed on a truer perfec tion of ma n’s rela tion to Na ture; it will be tha t renova tion whic h sha ll be the dea th of a ll our sha llow refinement tha t so unduly empha sizes the psyc hologic a l in huma n interc ourse, whic h sha king off the tra mmels of a dea dening sophistic a tion sha ll return to those purer idea ls when ma nkind wa s only a rtistic a lly a dmissible in so fa r a s entered into his proper rela tion to the universa l a nd enc ompa ssing Bea uty.10
Here, in this sophomore term pa per, muc h of the ba sis of Ala n Seeger’s c a reer a s a poet ma y be seen. Both Seeger’s poetry a nd his embra c e of the wa r emerge from his rejec tion of the ma teria lism a nd sophistic a tion c ha ra c teristic of life in the modern era . Seeger’s progra m opposes wha t Fussell sees a s c ha ra c teristic of the response to the wa r. Fussell’s “irony” is a sophistic a ted response to the wa r. Seeger, even a s a n undergra dua te, c a lls for a return to a na ïve sensibility. Seeger will a dvoc a te, a nd a ttempt to embody, a kind of new
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roma ntic ism tha t revives the va lues of the medieva l world a nd a spires to the idea l. Seeger intends his medieva lism, then, foremost a s a rupture with modernity.11
II. The Storm Breaks
The deep-lying na ture of Seeger’s sensibility is glimpsed in the terminologic a l c onsistenc y between the “Fa ust-motive” essa y a nd his wa rtime
writing. In a n essa y published in the N e w Y o r k Sun in 1915 a nd la ter inc orpora ted into his posthumously published L e t t e r s a n d D i a r y, Seeger refers to his unit’s
enc a mpment a s “roma ntic .” 12 In a la ter a rtic le for the Sun, Seeger refers to going on a night rec onna issa nc e pa trol a s “the one brea th of true roma nc e” to
be found in “the monotonous routine of trenc h wa rfa re” (L e t t e r s a n d D i a r y, 92).
In one of his wa rtime sonnets, one in whic h he, a typic a lly, ima gines life a fter the wa r, he sees a future in whic h
… the grea t c ities of the world sha ll yet Be golden fra mes for me in whic h to set New ma sterpiec es of more ra re roma nc e. (P o em s, 156)
Roma nc e promises to restore to life the spiritua lity lost during three hundred yea rs of “sophistic a tion,” three hundred yea rs tha t c orrespond roughly to the era of c a pita list modernity.
Between 1914 a nd 1916, Seeger looked to the wa r to usher in the revived roma ntic ism he ima gines in the “Fa ust-motive” essa y, a roma ntic ism whose va lues opposed the “ma teria lism” of c a pita list modernity. But a s ma y be
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glea ned even in the brief quota tion in whic h he refers to “the monotonous routine of trenc h wa rfa re,” the wa r does not offer the prospec t of this roma ntic ism in a ny unproblema tic wa y. If pa trols a nd ra ids offer the “one brea th of true roma nc e,” then the norm of wa rfa re experienc ed by Seeger a nd his c omra des is tha t of “monotonous routine.” Seeger desc ribed this routine a t some length in a n ea rlier a rtic le for the Sun. Trenc h wa rfa re, domina ted by a rtillery, “is extremely modern, a nd for the a rtilleryma n is doubtless very
interesting, but for the c ommon soldier, is a nything but roma ntic ” (L e t t e r s a n d
Di a r y, 29). The wa r threa tens to be a nother version of the very modernity tha t Seeger hopes to see ended by the storm tha t is the wa r. Indeed, trenc h wa rfa re tra nsforms soldiers into the very embodiments of monotonous routine: industria l workers.
Seeger writes tha t a s a fternoon sha des into evening, a nd the a rtillery fire
ends, “Everybody turns out like fa c tory workmen a t 5 o’c loc k” (L e t t e r s a n d D i a r y,
37). This most unspiritua l experienc e of wa r empha sizes the ba sic ma teria l a spec ts of existenc e, a nd threa tens to provide the ba sis not of a new roma ntic ism, but of a kind of ultra -ma teria lism. Seeger a llows this c ritic ism of modern wa rfa re to be voic ed most powerfully by a Serbia n c omra de:
It is ignoble, this style of wa rfa re, he exc la ims. Instea d of bringing out a ll tha t is noble in a ma n, it brings out only his worse self—mea nness a nd greed a nd ill temper. We a re not, in fa c t, lea ding the lives of men a t a ll, but tha t of a nima ls,
