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Yeats, Eliot and R. S. Thomas Yeats, Eliot and R YEATS, ELIOT AND R. S. THOMAS YEATS, ELIOT AND R. S. THOMAS Riding the Echo A. E. Dyson ©A. E. Dyson 1981 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1981 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published I 98 I by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and BasingJtoke CompanieJ and repreJentativeJ throughout the world ISBN 978-1-349-01296-1 ISBN 978-1-349-01294-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-01294-7 TypeJet by Computacomp (UK) Ltd, Fort William, Scotktnd. For Julian Lovelock Nature bandaged Its wounds. Healing in The smooth sun, it became Fair. God looked at it Again, reminded of An intention. They shall answer For you, he said. And at once There were trees with birds Singing, and through the trees Animals wandered, drinking Their own scent, conceding An absence. Where are you? He called, and riding the echo The shapes came.... (R. S. Thomas, 'Echoes') Contents Preface IX Acknowledgements XI Introduction: Riding the Echo xm Yeats's Poetry: the Major Phase, 1916-39. No Enemy but Time Introductory Note, p. 1; 'The Wild Swans at Coole', p. 3; 'In Memory of Major Robert Gregory', p. 7; 'An Irish Airman Foresees His Death', p. 12; 'Men Improve with the Years', p. 16; 'A Song' and 'To a Young Beauty', p. q; 'Ego Dominus Tuus', p. 19; 'The Cat and the Moon', p. 21; 'Easter 1916', p. 22; 'The Second Coming', p. 27; 'A Prayer for My Daughter', p. 30; 'To Be Carved on a Stone at Thoor Ballylee', p. 36; 'The Tower', p. 37; 'Sailing to Byzantium', p. 4 7 ; 'Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen', p. 58; 'Meditations in Time of Civil War', p. 68; 'Two Songs from a Play', p. 83; 'Leda and the Swan', p. 86; 'Among School Children', p. 88; 'A Man Young and Old', p.97; 'All Souls' Night', p.99; 'In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz', p. 104; 'Death', p. 107; 'A Dialogue of Self and Soul', p. 108; 'Coole Park, 1929', p. 113; 'Coole Park and Ballylee, 1931', p. 116; 'The Choice', p. 120; 'For Anne Gregory', p.121;'Byzantium',p.122;'Vacillation',p.135;'Stream and Sun at Glendalough', p. 143; Words for Music Perhaps: the Crazy Jane Poems, p. 143; Words for Music Perhaps: the Remaining Poems, p. 151; 'A Woman Young and Old': a Note, p. 156; 'A Prayer for Old Age', p. 157; Last Poems: a General Note, p. 157; 'The Municipal Gallery Revisited', p. 159; 'The Spur', 'The Chambermaid's First Song', 'The Chambermaid's Second Song', 'The Wild Old Wicked Man' and 'News for the Delphic Oracle', p. 164; Vlll Contents 'What Then?', 'Are You Content?' and 'An Acre of Grass', p. 168; 'The Circus Animals' Desertion', p. qo; 'Long-legged Fly', p. 175; 'Lapis Lazuli', p. q8 2 T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets: Disturbing the Dust 'Burnt Norton': There the Dance Is, p. 185; 'East Coker': Only the Fight, p. 211; 'The Dry Salvages': Such Permanence as Time Has, p. 238; 'Little Gidding': Not in the Scheme of Generation, p. 259; Final Note, p. 281 3 The Poetry of R. S. Thomas: What Resource? Select Bibliography 327 Index 330 Preface This book proceeds mainly by way of practical criticism, and depends entirely upon the poems discussed being heard. I should like to make an urgent plea to every reader to heed the words of Yeats on this topic: If they are to read poetry at all, if they are to enjoy beautiful rhythm, if they are to get from poetry anything but what it has in common with prose, they must hear it spoken by men who have music in their voices and a learned understanding of its sound. There is no poem so great that a fine speaker cannot make it greater or that a bad ear cannot make it nothing. I.Samhain, 1906; in Explorations, p. 2 u?) Whether this account is being read in a study, or used as the basis for group or seminar discussion, I would ask readers to read aloud the poems discussed and to hear them read aloud. Personal reading is essential, whether one's voice 'has music' in it or not. For the student, there is no investment more valuable than a simple tape recorder, on which he can hear his own reading, rub it out, try again, and so continue until the music and meaning of the poem come across as best he can manage, given the voice he has. In a group, several people should read, listening to each other, making constructive suggestions, and entering the poem first in this way. With Eliot, we are fortunate enough to have his own recording of Four Qy,artets (as well as of other poems), and several other recordings made by men with fine voices. Ideally, these too should be heard (though not before the personal reading has been attempted: and duly remembering, of course, that copyright laws make this a strictly personal exercise). The poet's own reading has peculiar authority, in that it reveals how he heard it; but it is not definitive, as Eliot was the first critic always to insist. There are maybe as many 'good' performances possible, for poems of this kind, as there are of major symphonies. Each performance may have something new to teach, some new pleasure to give. My own comments have been based on reading, hearing and discussing the poems with many students, and are offered simply as X Preface insights, to be accepted or rejected by readers against their own considered response. If they add to understanding and pleasure, then I shall have succeeded; if not, the personal reading and discussing of the poems will have at least been worthwhile. It will be seen that, though outstanding debts are acknowledged when I come to them, I make no attempt to list every debt. The bibliographies - on the first two poets in particular - are extensive, and it is impossible to do justice to the amount of insight I have myself received, over many years. Debts to students - at the University of East Anglia, the University of Connecticut and the University College of North Wales in particular - are still more extensive: if I have unwittingly assimilated their thoughts, I hope they will regard this as the debt it is, and not as deliberate theft. This said, two further points remain. The first is that the ideas expressed here are my personal responsibility. The second is that certain handbooks have proved invaluable to me, as they must to all students: notably A. N. Jeffares, A Commentary on the Collected Poems of W. B. Yeatl, and B. C. Southam's A Student\' Guide to the Selected Poems of T. S. Eliot. I have not used, while actually writing, either jon Stallworthy's two fine books, tracing the evolution of Yeats's poems through various drafts, or Helen Gardner's more recent work of a similar kind on Four Quartet\. This approach to literary criticism, by way of scholarship, is uniquely valuable, and complements criticism of all other kinds. It offers insights available in no other way into both creative intention and creative process, and cannot fail to have an authority peculiar to itself. Even so, I think there is still room for creative readings (or performances), based on the finished text, and approached as one might a musical score, as it stands. The dividing line may be a thin one (particularly in the case of Yeats, where some knowledge of his life, imported from outside the poems, is essential equipment), but it does, I think, exist. We are extremely fortunate to have so many aids to the understanding of Yeats and Eliot. It is greatly to be hoped that the ten volumes between Song at the Earth's Turning and Frequencies, and other private collections, upon which R. S. Thomas's reputation so far rests, will soon be available in a Collected Poems - the most important so far non-existent literary work of the century. Tapes and recordings of the poet can be obtained, and are immensely helpful, but I hope that, like Eliot, he will also be far more extensively available, on commercial recordings, before long. Note that books mentioned in the text are listed in section 1 of the Select Bibliography (p. 327). In section 2, I list a small selection of the other books which I particularly recommend. University of East Anglia, january 1980 A. E. DvsoN Acknowledgements The author and publishers wish to thank the following who have kindly given permission for the use of copyright material: William Collins, Sons & Co. Ltd and Pantheon Books, a division of Random House Inc., for the extract from Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C. G.Jung, edited by AnielaJaffe, translated by Richard and Clara Winston. Faber & Faber Ltd and Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich Inc., for the extracts from T. S. Eliot's 'Tradition and the Individual Talent' in Selected Essays; and the extracts from Four Quartets, The Holww Men and 'Gerontion' from Collected Poems, rgog-1962; USA © 1936 by Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich Inc.;© 1943, 1963, 1964 by T. S. Eliot; © 1971 by Esme Valerie Eliot. Penguin Books Ltd, for the extract from Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, translated by D. C. Lau. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd and Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich Inc., for the extracts from Modem Man in Search of a Soul by C. G.Jung. R. S. Thomas and Granada Publishing Ltd, for the extracts from his poems, published by Hart-Davis MacGibbon Ltd.
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