PART I DARK SAYING: A STUDY OF THE JOBIAN DILEMMA IN RELATION TO CONTEMPORARY ARS POETICA PART II BEDROCK: POEMS Rachael Boast A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 2009 Full metadata for this item is available in St Andrews Research Repository at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/906 This item is protected by original copyright Part I Dark Saying: A Study of the Jobian Dilemma in Relation to Contemporary Ars Poetica Part II Bedrock: Poems Rachael Boast A Thesis Presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of St Andrews School of English July 2009 ii Abstract Part I of this thesis has been written with a view to exploring the relevance a text over 2500 years old has for contemporary ars poetica. From a detailed study of ‘The Book of Job’ I highlight three main tropes, ‘cognitive dissonance’, ‘tĕšuvah’, and ‘dark saying’, and demonstrate how these might inform the working methods of the contemporary poet. In the introduction I define these tropes in their theological and historical context. Chapter one provides a detailed examination of ‘Job’, its antecedents and its influence on literature. In chapters two and three I examine in detail techniques of Classical Hebrew poetry employed in ‘Job’ and argue for a confluence between literary technique and Jobian cosmology. Stylistically, the rest of the thesis is a critical meditation on how the main tropes of ‘Job’ can be mapped onto contemporary ars poetica. In chapter four I initiate an exploration into varying responses to cognitive dissonance, suggesting how the false comforters and Job represent different approaches to, and stages of, poetic composition. A critique of an essay by David Daiches is followed by a detailed study of Seamus Heaney. In chapter five I map the trope of tĕšuvah onto contemporary ars poetica with reference to the poetry of Pilinszky, Popa, and to the poems and critical work of Ted Hughes. The chapter concludes with a brief exploration into the common ground shared between the terms tĕšuvah and versus as a means of highlighting the importance of proper maturation of the work. Chapter six consists of a discussion of how the kind of ‘dark saying’ found in ‘Job’ 38-41 impacts on an understanding of poetic language and its capacity to accelerate our comprehension of reality. I support this notion with excerpts from Joseph Brodsky and a close reading of Montale’s ‘L’anguilla’. Chapter seven further develops the notion of poetry as a means of propulsion beyond the familiar, the predictable or the clichéd, by examining the function of metaphor and what I term ‘quick thinking’, and by referring to two recently published poems by John Burnside and Don Paterson. iii In chapter eight I draw out the overall motif implied by a close reading of ‘Job’, that of the weathering of an ordeal, and map this onto ars poetica, looking at two aspects of labour, which I identify as ‘endurance’ and ‘letting go’, crucial for the proper maturation of a poem or body of poems. The concluding chapter develops the theme of the temple first discussed in chapter one. I argue for a connection between Job as a temple initiate, who has the capacity to atone for the false comforters, and poetry as a form of ‘at-one-ment’. This notion is supported by reference to Geoffrey Hill and Rilke. Part II of the thesis consists of a selection of my own poems, titled ‘Bedrock’. iv Declarations I, Rachael Boast, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 43,000 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. I was admitted as a research student in September 2006 and as a candidate for the degree of PhD in September 2007; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St Andrews between 2006 and 2009. date …………. signature of candidate ………….………... I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. date ………….. signature of supervisor ……………………. In submitting this thesis to the University of St Andrews we understand that we are giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. We also understand that the title and the abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker, that my thesis will be electronically accessible for personal or research use unless exempt by award of an embargo as requested below, and that the library has the right to migrate my thesis into new electronic forms as required to ensure continued access to the thesis. We have obtained any third-party copyright permissions that may be required in order to allow such access and migration, or have requested the appropriate embargo below: The following is an agreed request by candidate and supervisor regarding the electronic publication of this thesis: Access to all or part of printed copy but embargo of all or part of electronic publication of thesis for a period of 5 years on the following ground: publication would be commercially damaging to the researcher, or to the supervisor, or the University. date …………. signature of candidate …………………. signature of supervisor ………………………….. v To Andrew Brown vi Acknowledgements I offer my sincerest thanks to Andrew Brown for his companionship and valued conversation, without which the seeds for this thesis would probably not have been sown. I am indebted to him for perceptive advice and guidance on aspects of the ‘Job’ material. Thanks are due to my secondary supervisor, Kathleen Jamie, for starting me off on a sound footing. I would also like to thank The Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation who offered me a scholarship for my final academic year, The Gray’s Trust, Kersey for their financial support, the University of St Andrews Student Support Services for loan of equipment and financial assistance, Professor Douglas Dunn for generous lending of books, the secretarial staff in the School of English, staff in the School of Divinity, and staff in the University of St Andrews Library, the Scottish Poetry Library, the National Library of Scotland and Bristol Central Reference Library. Thanks also to the editors of the following publications in which poems, or versions of them, included in the second part of this thesis have appeared or have been accepted for publication in the near future: Addicted to Brightness (Long Lunch Press), Ambit, Markings, Other Poetry, Poetry Wales, The Red Wheelbarrow, The Scottish Poetry Library On-line Anthology 2007, The Yellow Nib. Special thanks to my family for their care and affection. Finally, I offer the warmest possible thanks to my primary supervisor, Don Paterson, for his expert advice and guidance, his invaluable humour, his sustained support of my work, and for his good-natured tolerance of some of the more impetuous manifestations of my approach to PhD research. vii Contents Part I. Dark Saying: A Study of the Jobian Dilemma in Relation to Contemporary Ars Poetica INTRODUCTION : THE JOBIAN DILEMMA ...................... 1 • Cognitive Dissonance 3 • The Tĕšuvah 8 • Dark Saying 10 • Concluding Remark 12 CHAPTER I : ‘WHERE WAST THOU…?’ ………………….. 13 • The Temple 13 • Kingliness 16 • Job’s Antecedents 17 • The Book of Lamentations 21 • Job’s Influence on Literature 25 CHAPTER II : LANGUAGE AT THE EDGE .......................... 31 • Parallelism 32 • Linguistic Shock Tactics 35 1. Defamiliarization 35 2. Intensification 43 3. Ironic Movements 45 • Summing Up 50 viii CHAPTER III : A LITANY OF MAKING STRANGE ........ 52 • The Question as Dark Saying: Job, 38-41 52 • Reversal and Repetition 54 • ‘Is a dictionary a sepulchre/or a sealed honeycomb?’ 58 • ‘What to make of a diminished thing’ 60 CHAPTER IV : A READING OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE IN RELATION TO CONTEMPORARY ARS POETICA ........... 64 • ‘And here we are as on a darkling plain’: Cognitive Dissonance and Premature Closure 66 • ‘The comet’s pulsing rose’ 70 • The Half-said Thing: A Poetics of the Negativa 73 • ‘Description is Revelation’ 77 CHAPTER V : A READING OF TĔŠUVAH IN RELATION TO CONTEMPORARY ARS POETICA ................................................ 80 • ‘The biblical monsters/start slowly towards me’ 82 • ‘I turn myself into a sun/Above your nightmare’ 85 • ‘When God hammered Crow/He made gold’ 88 • Ars Poetica: Tĕšuvah and Commitment to the Poetic Project 91 CHAPTER VI : A READING OF ‘DARK SAYING’ IN RELATION TO CONTEMPORARY ARS POETICA ........................................ 97 • ‘Muse of dots lost in space!’: Dark Saying in Relation to Ars Poetica 98 • Post Tenebras Lux: Poetry and Restoration 104 ix CHAPTER VII : WHAT THE SPARKS SAY ........................... 112 • Metaphor: ‘A twin to your own bright eyes’ 113 • What the Sparks Say: Labour and Quick-thinking 117 • Concluding Remark 123 CHAPTER VIII : LABOUR OF LOVE ....................................... 124 • Playing it by Ear 124 1. Endurance 125 2. Letting Go 129 • Concluding Remark 136 CHAPTER IX : AT-ONE-MENT .................................................... 137 • Job 42: An Interpretation 137 • At-one-ment and Ars Poetica 140 • ‘Today a temple rises in their hearing’ 141 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................ 144 Part II. Bedrock: Poems ................................................................ 147 APPENDICES ……………………………………………………………. 191 BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………. 196 Part I Dark Saying: A Study of the Jobian Dilemma in Relation to Contemporary Ars Poetica Introduction 2 INTRODUCTION THE JOBIAN DILEMMA We enter into the Book of Job as into a classic folk-tale.