Poetry and Ritual

POETRY AND RITUAL

By

J. M. LEIGHTON B.A. (RAND), D. LITT ET PHIL. (UNISA), T.H.E.D.

Inaugural lecture delivered on 4 March, 1970 on appointment to the Chair in the Department of English at the Rand Afrikaans University

Publication series of the Rand Afrikaans University A 28 JOHANNESBURG 1970 The Publications of the Rand Afrikaans University are published in the following series: A: INAUGURAL ADDRESSES AND LECTURES, B: RESEARCH BY LECTURERS AND STUDENTS.

Mr Rector and Vice-Chancellor . .. Ladies and gentlemen members of the Council . .. Ladies and gentlemen colleagues . The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and not necessarily Ladies and gentlemen students . those of the University Ladies and gentlemen who honour this occasion with your presence,

I see it as my duty, in the Department of English at this university, not only to teach the English language, but also to try and indicate something of the culture that is, so to speak, built into both language and literature. A language is not only a medium of referential communication, but also a medium of cultural communication. In order to reveal this culture to my students, I use the technique of literary criticism of texts selected from the three major genres of poetry, drama, and the novel. I hope that by this means they will discover that although ideas and responses might vary from national group to national group, all humanity forms a whole greater than anyone of its parts; that although emphases might differ the same basic range of emotions, ideas, and moral values are common to all mankind; that no nation has a monopoly of truth and virtue, and in any nation will be found those whose unnecessary, false, hard-headed © RAND AFRIKAANS UNIVERSITY, 1970 prejudices prevent a free interplay of serious minds. - 73961 - In order to accomplish this aim, it is necessary to try and define, with precision, the fundamental features of the literary

3 writer, it is surely the duty of the reader to adjust his response discipline. Indeed, one might say that definition is one of the to that required by the particular form. essential disciplines of the academic process. Not that know­ The distinction I propose between prose and poetry, then, ledge changes, though it does that too, but each age brings into is not a distinction of technique or outer form, but an inherent, relationship new combinations of thought and feeling that need or aesthetic, distinction. The proposition I must defend is that to be described. It is my aim tonight to try and describe one great poetry is essentially the communication of experience in of the essential features of literary art - the place of ritual in which religious ritual is used to enhance symbolism, or interpret poetry. I hope also to show incidentally that ritual in poetry the significance of rites, whereas prose is the medium of commu­ is one of the remaining features that makes poetry uniquely nication of those matters that concern man in a terrestrial, non­ different from prose. religious, social context. Prose is the language of everyday In their standard work on the theory of literature, Wellek communication, of discourse and discussion, of reference and and Warren state that 'most modern literary theory would be controversy; poetry is the language of man in search of his inclined to scrap the prose-poetry distinction, and then to divide relationship not only with society, but also with the unknown, imaginative literature (Dichtung) into fiction (novel, short story, or imperfectly known, God; the language of vision and of ecstasy. epic), drama (whether in prose or verse), and poetry (centring It is on ritual in poetic expression that I shall now concentrate. on what corresponds to the ancient "lyric poetry").'l) That it * * * might or might not be advisable to scrap the distinction between Before I attempt a demonstration of this view of poetry, prose and poetry is, unfortunately, a matter that the two authors several questions, interrelated questions, must be answered. decline to discuss. Moreover, the fact that no comment is forth­ Most important, what is ritual; and then, how far are vision coming suggests at least a tacit acceptance that modern literary and ecstacy an essential ingredient of ritual; what is the signifi­ theory is justified, and it is precisely this tacit acceptance that cance of Christianity; and finally, in what way is the use of requires questioning. ritual an inherent element in the inner form of a poem - i.e. With the development of numerous variations of literary how does it influence poetic structure? styles, the older distinctions between prose and poetry have First then a definition of ritual - and this is given in the become increasingly unacceptable. The well-known controversy full knowledge that definitions please only the makers of the between Coleridge and Wordsworth in this respect was based definitions. Nevertheless it must be done, if only because those on structural or technical differences that were already clouded who remain in their shells are apt to see less than those who at the end of the eighteenth century. So many prose writers, endanger their necks by sticking them out: for example, deliberately use semi-regular rhythms for rhetorical Religious ritual is a prescribed ceremony, in which some effect, and so many poets reject all but the loosest rhythmic belief of central importance to man's consciousness of the structures, that distinction solely on these grounds is clearly relationship existing between himself and God is dramatically impossible. Metaphor, image, symbol, inversion, satire, irony, symbolized, with a view to establishing or confirming belief comedy, tragedy - name what technique or form you will, it by repetition. will be found to be common to both kinds of writing. Hence, in discussing Sir James Frazer's interpretation of the Yet there is a distinction, else why should one medium be golden bough episode in Virgil's Aeneid, Maud Bodkin says: be deliberately chosen for a particular purpose, and not another? . . . the blossoming branch offered to the dead as part of The distinction, I firmly believe, must be made, for the integration the ritual of interment, brings in symbol the power that of structure and content in a particular form is such that it re-awakens forest and garden, to keep watch beside the 2 requires a particular kind of reading and a particular kind of corpse or accompany the freed spirit. ) response. If the choice is deliberate, there must be a reader's And Jessie Weston, considering the same episode, further com­ response in view. And if a particular response is aimed at by a 2) Maud Bodkin. ArchetypalPatterns in Poetry, Vintage Books, New York, 1) Rene Wellek and Austin Warren. Theory ofLiterature, Peregrine Y 28, 1958, p. 126. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1966, p. 227. 5 4

~~------._- ----­ ments on the religious significance, in saying: As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out But in view of the use made of these (nature) cults as the In a wall'd prison packs and sects of great ones medium of imparting high spiritual teaching, a use which ... 5 That ebb and flow by the moon. ) can no longer be ignored or evaded, are we not ... justified precis~ly in asking if the true importance of the rites has as yet been The ecstatic happiness revealed in this poetic speech is recognized. 3 ) the result of the 'Dionysian union with a larger whole' of which Maud Bodkin speaks. A dramatic version of the ritual of co~­ Now clearly is it impossible for mankind to know God perfectly. trition, forgiveness, and reconciliation has bee!! ce!e?rated m This understanding, first-hand understanding that is, can only Lear's earlier meeting with his daughter, and hiS spmt has ac­ come through vision, or, to use the terms of my definition, cordingly been freed from the dema~ds of court l?omp, and 'consciousness of the cosmic relationship existing between (man) self-indulgence, so that he can now take upon (himself) the and God'. Maud Bodkin, with her psychological interest, mystery of things', and he and Cordelia can look back on the would say that such vision is an archetype of human experience, world of ambition and petty climbing that constitutes 'court and when it forces its way into the conscious mind it leads to news', as though they 'were God's spies'. ecstacy. His freedom moreover, is not only freedom from emotional Such ecstacy has a number of different effects: in the first and intellectual involvement in the petty affairs of terrestrial place, by means of the visionary awareness of a cosmic relation­ life but also freedom from the confines of the temporal and ship, the visionist is drawn away from the demands of the personal sp;tial. Time and space have no meaning in an infinite and will, and is able to see life and its patterns with something like eternal world, so that, despite their 'wall'd prison', they will objectivity. No longer are the private aspirations, desires, hopes outlast 'packs end sects of great ones/That ebb aI?-d flow. by of the individual of paramount importance, but he can, like the moon'. Perhaps it is not too far-fetched to see m the tidal Troilus in his seventh sphere, look down on the toil and sweat 'ebb and flow' of human affairs a subjection to physical forces of life, and laugh with the laughter of the gods. 'This felt release,' from which Lear at least, has been released, and this release says Maud Bodkin, 'and Dionysian union with a larger whole, has excited both 'ecstacy and the serene clarity of Appollonian would seem to constitute that element of religious mystery _ vision and meaning. G) of purgation and atonement - traditionally connected with the idea of tragedy.4) In the presence of such vision death has little. in i~ to ~e feared. Yet death is an important event around which ntual IS, Such ecstacy is, I believe, expressed by Lear, when, having from ancient time, formed; understandably, for as Hamlet says, been rejected by his daughters and having probed his own essen­ 'the undiscover'd country, from whose bourn no traveller returns, tial humanity, he looks down on the pattern of life with the puzzles the will'. Only by removal from the li~ited. sight of objective and uninvolved laughter of a visionist: physical eyes to visionary insig?t c~n ~an rec?n~lle himself to No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison; the inevitable and unknown. It IS thiS vlSlonary mSlght, I suggest, We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage: that is the distinguishing factor of great poetry, and t~e form in When thou dost ask me blessing I'll kneel down which it is presented is closely related to the ceremollial dance, And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live, and ecstacy, of ancient rituaL And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh One must, however, recognise that such words as 'Go~' At guilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues and 'ritual' do not mean that poetry always conforms to a parti­ Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too ­ cular dogma, or a stereotype of ceremony. All one can, in the Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out; ­ final account aver is that visionary insight has occurred, that And take upon's the mystery of things the effect is 'ecstacy, followed by serenity and reconcilia;tion; 3) Jessie L. Weston. From Ritual to Romance, Doubleday, Anchor Books, and that those who write what is truly visionary poetry gam an New York, p. 6. 5) Shakespeare. King Lear, V, iii, 11.8-19. 4) Maud Bodkin. op. cit., p. 21. 6) Maud Bodkin. op. cit., p. 20.

6 7 objectivity through seeing the world at a distance, as it were struggle to regain his lost pOSItion, which, if left to his 9 from the point of view of God, because of the consciousness of own strength, he can never accomplish. ) the relationship existing between man and God; and finally a Some might disagree with Schlegel's somewhat li~eral. inter­ clarity is noticeable in the style of the writer, because in contrast pretation of Adam's sin, but what cannot be demed. IS t~at to his earlier poetry there is a clearer insight into the nature of Christianity has brought to the weste~n :-v?rld. a .co~cept m whIch life's patterns, its archetypes, its concerns, and its universals. salvation, and that both eternal and mfImte, IS mtImately bound Jessie L. Weston in her influential From Ritual to Romance up with man's behaviour as a social being. In Hom.er's Iliad, is inclined, with Maud Bodkin, to try and find parallels between which is, as far as I have read, the most morally conscIOus w?rk the pagan and Christian worlds: of pre-Christian Greek literature, there is no ~int that e~erlastlIlg It has taken me some nine or ten years ... (she says) to felicity could have been the result had AC~Illes not gIven way complete the evidence, but the chain is at last linked up, to his wrath and pride. Indeed, Homer qUIte clearly stat~s th~t and we can now prove by printed texts the parallels existing the measure of happiness or unhappiness that man receives IS between each and every feature of the Grail story and the in the hands of Zeus, who has a large container of good f.ortune recorded symbolism of the Mystery cults. Further, we can on the left side of his throne, and an equally large contamer of show that between these mystery cults and Christianity there bad fortune on the right side.10 ) The contents of these two ~e existed at one time a close and intimate union, such a union would appear to dispense with a fine disregard for human ment. as of itself involved the practical assimilation of the central Even so, Christian belief, and its attendant rituals, cannot rite, in each case a 'Eucharistic' Feast, in which the wor­ be regarded as the sole force behind post-Christianyoetic creation. shippers partook of the Food of Life from the sacred vessels. 7 ) There are other kinds of vision, as poetically valId. All one can Maud Bodkin would seem to suggest that this union between look for is the poetic creation of a dimension beyond the ordinary, pagan and Christian practice is the result of an archetype of soc~al human behaviour, in which the everyday, and the terrestrial, in interaction.. Ritual, in fact, is not, as morality is not, an extra-lIterary element Imposed ... "high truth" ... belongs to the lines not as isolated, from without: it is an inherent part of form. There are no but as grown familiar in their setting - the unified ex­ standard rights or wrongs which it behoves every writer, accept­ perience of the play converging upon them and the incanta­ able to the critical establishment, to uphold; and there are no tion of their music carrying them ever deeper into the 8 sets of beliefs or rituals that writers aspiring to immorality secret places of the mind that loves them. ) inevitably conform to. In the galaxy of literary stars will be The possible implication of these extracts, seen in isolation, found Roman Catholic, Anglo-Catholic, Protestant, and a­ might seem to be that poetry is concerned always with the same Christian shining side by side. kind of vision. This is not so. Pagan poetry (whether of the I have, up till now, tried to establish what ritual is, and what dramatic or lyrical kinds) is written in the context of a belief its essential elements are. I have also tried to show that although that differs radically from Christian beliefs. A ugust Wilhelm different rituals have elements in common, these elements should von Schlegel, commenting on this difference suggests that: not be classified too rigidly to form a narrowly confining dogma. Among the Greeks human nature was in itself all-sufficient; It remains then to make an inquiry into the statement th~t it was conscious of no defects, and aspired to no higher ritual is an inherent part of the inner form of the poem, that It perfection than that which it could actually attain by the exerts an influence on the structure that can be analysed. 'The exercise of its own energies. We, however, are taught by achievement of form', says R. A. Donovan, '... is insepara!'le superior wisdom that man, through a grievous transgression, from, and indeed identical with, the imaginative act of seemg forfeited the place for which he was originally destined; and that the sole destination of his earthly existence is to 9) W. A. Schlegel. From On Dramatic Art and Literature, Lecture 1, in Romantic Criticism, ed. R. A. Foakes, Arnold, London, 1968, pp. 56-57. 7) Jessie Weston. op. cit., p. 5. 10) Homer. The Iliad. trans. E. V. Rieu, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 8) Maud Bodkin. op. cit., pp. 9-10. 1950, p. 451.

8 9 which provides him with his subject matter in the first place' force of inner form. Perception, according to Coleridge repeats the artist's vision is itself the shaping instrument. As soon a~ the 'eternal act of creation' of the infinite God - the 'I AM'. the artist sees his subject, the form is in it, and also the potentiality Creation is not seen as happening temporally at one particular of ~tn~c~ure.'l1) 'Structure', he ~ater defines '... is vision already time, but as occurring in an eternity of past, present, and future ObjectIfIed and made concrete 10 art, and at the same time it is - or perhaps one should say occurring in an eternity where the emperical basis of the concept of genre.'12) Thus vision is the such terms have no meaning. The imaginative perception enables impelling forc~ of per.ception us~d in the I?1aking of a poem, the perceiver to gain some insight into a cosmic world of infinity and structure IS the fInIshed artIcle on whIch the critic bases and eternity, but because this cosmos is perceived by man he his analyses, and from which he deduces how to respond. tends to translate it into the finite terms by which he is bound . ~t ",:ould seem. then that vision is an essential aspect of in his terrestrial existence. This perception, in the hands of an ImagmatIve perceptIOn, and that the impelling force of vision artist, must then be translated into a structure. The perception transmutes form into the likeness of ritual. In other words, to of infinity gives him a perspective on life, and this perspective use Maud Bodkin's expression, the artist 'attains for himself has already pre-determined the nature of the insight - it h.as vision and possession of the experience engendered between his given it an inner form. It is only by the artistic process of ~IS­ own soul and the life around him, and communicates that ex­ solving, diffusing, and dissipating for the purposes of re-creatIOn perience, at once individual and collective, to others, so far as that the perception is given that unity that combines the p~rts they can respond adequately to the words and images he uses. '13) of a literary work into a total structure expressive of perceptIOn I~ remains now to suggest how this transmuting process - a structure that in its ceremonial artificiality is very like the from lOner form to structure takes place. This is best described symbolic ceremony in ritual. I b~lieve, by Coleridge !n his defi~ition of the two types of imagi~ The last point made by Coleridge is of paramount impor­ natIon - the perceptIve or pnmary, and the communicating tance. He says that perception of the infinite is essentially 'vital' or secondary imagination: in contrast with the fixity and deadness of objects. He would The Imagination then I consider either as primary, or seem, according to my interpretation of this, to imply that where secondary. The primary Imagination I hold to be the living only the known or measurable is treated; where the imagination power and prime agent of all human perception, and as a does not elevate the mind and heart beyond the earthly, that repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation poetry is not being created. Two possible modifiers should be in the infinite I AM. The secondary Imagination I consider added to this: firstly, 'objects (as objects)' does not mean that as an echo of the former, co-existing with the conscious objects should never be used or mentioned; the concrete or will, yet still as identical with the primary in the kind of its finite is, after all, the means by which the infinite is rendered agency, and differing only in degree, and in the mode of its intelligible to the limited response of man. Secondly, the dis­ operation. It dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to re­ tinction between ritual-like and -unlike poetry, or to use cr~ate: or where. this process is rendered impossible, yet Coleridge's terms, perceptive and non-infinite poetry, is not stIll at all events It struggles to idealize and to unify. It is difference between poetic art and non-poetry, but often between essentially vital, even as all objects (as objects) are essentially great poetry and intelligently observant poetry. (It is, incidentally fixed or dead.14 ) at the level of intelligently observant poetry that there is no essential distinction between poetry and prose.) Perception, as it has been defined by Donovan, is the impelling One point should at this stage be made clear: perception, in itself, is not a guarantee of great poetry. It is only when 11) R. A. Donnovan. The Shaping Vision, Cornell University Press, Ithaca perception of the infinite is formalized in a structure that great (N.Y.), 1966, p. II. poetry is generated. 12) Ibid., p. 13. 13) Maud Bodkin. op. cit., p. 8. I have tried to show in my theoretical discussion that ritual embodies, and establishes or confirms, a consciousness of the 14) Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Biographia Literaria, Everyman's Library II, Dent, London, 1952, pp. 145-146. relationship existing between man and God; that vision is the 10 11 means by which this relationship is perceived; that ecstacy and They were wrong. But let Pope speak for himself. finally serene acceptance are the result of such vision; that poetry But hark! the chiming Clocks to dinner call; does not prescribe the form either of the ritual or the vision, A hundred footsteps scrape the marble Hall: but rather vision gives form to perception, and this form, when The rich Buffet well-colour'd Serpents grace, artistically treated seems to image forth a ritual; and that although And gaping Tritons spew to wash your face. Christianity is a formative influence in western poetic art, the Is this a dinner? this a Genial room? kind of vision it embodies is not the only kind to be found in No, 'tis a Temple, and a Hecatomb. the western world, nor is the kind of vision any indication of A solemn Sacrifice, perform'd in state, quality, although vision of some sort is a qualitative element. You drink by measure, and to minutes eat. It remains now to demonstrate these points by an analysis So quick retires each flying course, you'd swear of poems taken from the works of poets who have achieved Sancho's dread Doctor and his Wand were there. maturity. Obviously, to substantiate the theory fully many more Between each Act the trembling salvers ring, examples should be considered. Time, however, does not permit From soup to sweet-wine, and God bless the King. more than a cursory glance at three or four poems. I have, In plenty starving, tantaliz'd in state, however, tried to select the poems as objectively as possible. And complaisantly help'd to all I hate, I have not, for example, chosen works of explicitly religious Treated, caress'd, and tir'd, I take my leave poets such as Donne, Herbert, Hopkins, and T. S. Eliot; but Sick of his civil Pride from Morn to Eve; rather those poets with whom, as far as I could see, one would I curse such lavish cost, and little skill, not normally associate visionary experience. And Swear no Day was ever past so ill. The first poem is, in fact, not a complete poem. It is an Yet hence the poor are c1oath'd, the Hungry fed; extract from Alexander Pope's Epistle to Richard Boyle, Earl of Health to himself, and to his infants bread Burlington, the fourth in a series of Moral Essays. Pope was The lab'rer bears: What his hard Heart denies, born on May 21st, 1688, and died on May 30th, 1744, aged His charitable Vanity supplies. fifty-six. I have chosen this poem mainly because, although he Another age shall see the golden Ear was himself a Roman Catholic - which was why he never Imbrown the Slope, and nod on the Parterre, attended a university, Roman Catholics being debarred by law Deep Harvests bury all his pride has plann'd 16 from institutions of higher learning - although, as I say, Pope And laughing Ceres re-assume the land. ) was a Roman Catholic, his Catholicism is infrequently regarded To start with, it is noticeable how Pope uses certain established as revealing itself in his poetry. Rather, Pope is taken as the rituals to enhance his view of the vulgarity of his host and his type of Augustan poets, who are, too facilely, accepted as being host's environment. It might be said that I am carrying my upholders of such qualities as commonsense, balance, discipline, interpretation too far, that I am reading rituals into a poem propriety. In fact, despite F. R. Leavis's excellent appreciation where none are intended. The words themselves, I affirm, are of Pope's art in his Revaluation, Wyatt's and Clay's view of my evidence. The ritual cleansing, or lavabo, before partaking Augustan poetry in general, and Pope's poetry in particular, of what Jessie Western has called the 'Food of Life' seems seems to persist: clearly intended by 'And gaping Tritons spew to wash your face' . . . . chief attention (they say) came to be directed to correct­ After all this takes place in 'a Temple', and the meal is described ness and neatness of expression and the critical rules of as a 'solemn Sacrifice'. Each part of the ceremony has its 'mea­ art, which finally developed a cold exactness and perfection sure', its established order to re-inforce the participator's wonder, of form, unbroken by the sudden pauses and turns of thought his ecstasy with the ceremonial fare. Further, the host supplies I5 I natural to passion and imagination. ) (6) Pope. 'Epistle to Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington', 11.151-176, in 15) A. J. Wyatt and H. Clay. English Literature from 1579, University The Poems of Alexander Pope, ed. John Butt, Methuen University Tutorial Press, London, 1924, p. 82. Paperbacks, London, 1965.

12 13 food for the hungry from this temple so that the 'Food of Life' seem to indicate that such concreteness is not only essential to is also a communion, a Eucharistic feast,!7) man, but is an essential quality of ritual: The trouble with these rituals, however, is that they are We have seen (he says) that ritual is a dramatisation of an wrong, and their very wrongness emphasizes the poet's satire original situation in society. This (Pawnee) ritual is con­ of his host's vulgarity. By being hollow the rituals become an cerned with the getting of life, or, it may be, of immortality, almost blasphemous twisting of the true order of God, in which the highest expression of life. The dramatic nature of the Pope believes. Ritual cleansing is confused with ostentatious ritual suggest that men are incapable of accepting ideas, display from, significantly enough, a Triton gargoyle; and the such as that of 'immortality', unless expressed in concrete Eucharistic Feast is marred by its source - vanity, rather than form. That is to say, until men had seen an 'immortal' the Food of Life derived from the sacrificial Lamb. man they did not conceive of immortality.19) Finally Pope asserts, not by referring to Christian ritual Lawrence, himself, was not a Christian - nor incidentally but to Greek ritual, the true order. He prophesies, in the old was he either gnostic or a-gnostic - but he was a theist. Thus sense of affirms not the newer sense of foretells, - he prophesies in attempting to define death, and the progress of the spiritual the coming of the new order when the staff of life comes from body, he turns to pagan ritual to symbolise his concept of a the Goddess of the Spring, 'And laughing Ceres re-assume(s) universal process. His poem is virtually a re-enactment of the the land'.18) Viking rite of passage, interspersed with Thesmophoric, autumnal symbols. * * D. H. Lawrence was born in 1885, and died in 1930. I have THE SHIP OF DEATH chosen, somewhat hesitantly, a few extracts from his Ship of I Death. In his early poetry Lawrence expressed his belief that Now is the autumn and the falling fruit civilization had degenerated through man's lost ability to respond and the long journey towards oblivion. to nature with his senses. The kind of physical response he sought was not simply, as is so often thought, a sexual response, The apples falling like great drops of dew but a response in which all the senses were restored to their to bruise themselves an exit from themselves. rightful place, in which intellectual rationalisation was not all­ important. He believed that full truth could only be 'experienced' And it is time to go, to bid farewell by intelligent, kinaesthetic feeling. to one's own self, and find an exit from the fallen self. In his later poems, such as the one I have chosen, and others, like Red Geranium and Godly Mignonette, The Body of God, 11 Bararian Gentians, The Hands of God, Pax, Abysmal Immortality Have you built your ship of death, 0 have you? and so on, Lawrence seemed to be searching beyond the purely o build your ship of death, for you will need it. earthly and social for answers about the nature of creation, The grim frost is at hand, when the apples will fall immortality, and his own relationship with the eternal and thick, almost thunderous, on the hardened earth. infinite God. His poetry still retains its intensely concrete imagery, as if he could not accept a concept of immortality that could And death is on the air like a smell of ashes! not be understood in the body as well as the perceptive heart. Ah! can't you smell it? W. J. Perry in an essay on The Dramatic Element in Ritual would And in the bruised body, the frightened soul finds itself shrinking, wincing from the cold 17) See E. O. James. Christian Myth and Ritual, John Murray, London, That blows upon it through the orifices. 1933, pp. 123-152. 18) See E. O. James. Seasonal Feasts and Festivals, Thames & Hudson, 19) W. J. Perry. 'The Dramatic Element in Ritual', Folk-Lore (Transactions London, 1961, pp. 135-137. (For Demeter read Ceres). of the Folk-Lore Society), yol. XXXIX, No.1, March, 1928, p. 66.

14 15 III IX And can a man his own quietus make ... out of eternity a thread with a bare bodkin? separates itself on the blackness, a horizontal thread With daggers, bodkins, bullets, man can make that fumes a little with pallor upon the dark. a bruise or break of exit for his life; Is it illusion? or does the pallor fume but is that a quietus, 0 tell me, is it quietus? A little higher? Surely not so! for how could murder, even self-murder Ah, wait, wait, for there's the dawn ever a quietus make? the cruel dawn of coming back to life out of oblivion. IV Wait, wait, the little ship drifting, beneath the deathly ashy grey o let us talk of quiet that we know, of a flood-dawn. that we can know, the deep and lovely quiet of a strong heart at peace! Wait, wait! even so, a flush of yellow and strangely, 0 chilled wan soul, a flush of rose. How can we this, our own quietus, make? A flush of rose, and the whole thing starts again.

V Build then the ship of death, for you must take the longest journey, no oblivion. X And die the death, the long and painful death The flood subsides, and the body, like a worn sea-shell that lies between the old self and the new. emerges strange and lovely. And the little ship wings home, faltering and lapsing on the pink flood, Already our bodies are fallen, bruised, badly bruised, and the frail soul steps out, into the house again already our souls are oozing through the exit filling the heart with peace. of the cruel bruise. Swings the heart renewed with peace Already the dark and endless ocean of the end even of oblivion. is washing in through the breaches of our wounds, already the flood is upon us. Oh build your ship of death. Oh build it! for you will need it. Oh build your ship of death, your little ark for the long voyage of oblivion awaits you.20 ) and furnish it with food, with little cakes, and wine for the dark flight down oblivion. 20) D. H. Lawrence. 'The Ship of Death', in D. H. Lawrence Selected Poems, W. E. Williams (ed.), Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1956, ** * pp. 128~132. 16 17 This is a long extract, but it reveals very clearly Lawrence's FROM: THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE vision of the progress of the soul from this world to the next. r will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree The use of the Viking rite of passage is too obvious to warrant And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: close analysis, and anyway time forbids too long a discussion Nine bean rows will I have there, and a hive for the honey­ of the poem. What I should like to mention is a noticeable change bee, in the poem. In the first part there is a noticeable human in­ And live alone in the bee-land glade. 21 ) volvement: the autumnal season is the time of the dropping of fruit, just as the autumn of life sheds the ripe fruit of life. This I suspect that Yeats, who was living in London at the time, and bodily decay is expressed in kinaesthetic terms of 'bruising', doing quite well, had no intention of leaving the comforts of and the cold of 'grim frost'. The human body is intensely aware his London house for the rigours of an Irish winter, with the of itself, it finds itself 'shrinking and wincing' from the onslaughts somewhat slender protection of a pole and dagga house in the of physical decay. middle of Lake Innisfree. This suspicion, moreover, is not Finally, as the soul 'oozes' out of the breaches made by the entirely extra-literary: Yeats, it seems to me, is building up a fall and decay, as it progresses further and further from bodily rather contrived picture of a rural retreat, which has all the ties on the flood of oblivion between earthly life and the new squashy romanticism of a picture on a tin of toffees. life, as it comes nearer and nearer to a' flush of yellow' and 'a The trouble with the poem is that it remains a picture, in flush of rose' in the new dawning, there is a decreasing conscious­ technicolour with sound effects, but does not, with any profundity, ness of self, an increasing consciousness of the spirit's purity extend the reader's consciousness of life. Even the peace Yeats and peace. The soul 'emerges strange and lovely', and steps claims to 'hear in the deep heart's core', and that comes 'dropping from the frail ship into the new life 'filling the heart with peace'. slow' from the morning mist, never gains any concrete reality. It would seem, as I suggested before, that the vision of man's What is the peace he talks about? Is it not, in truth, simply a relationship with God in an infinite context brings with it not peaceful sound of dripping? But where does this takes us to? only serenity, but also a sublime reconciliation. This reconcilia­ Are we not bound by a sensuality that never really takes us beyond tion further brings with it an objectivity, for man is now no the measurable and known into the complex world of emotions longer tied to the personal senses, the awareness of personal and ideas? pain or pleasure, a physically felt and personal sorrow or desire. With Byzantium, on the other hand, we have a quite different order of poem. * * * Finally, I should like to quote one extract, and one poem BYZANTIUM from the works of W. B. Yeats. The extract is from the frequently The unpurged images of day recede; anthologized Lake Isle of Innisfree, which I, shall try to indicate, The Emperor's drunken soldiery are abed; lacks the conciseness, the objectivity, and the depth of the second Night resonance recedes, night-walker's song work, taken from a more mature period in Yeats's poetic career. After great cathedral gong; By way of introduction I could, perhaps, just mention that A starlit or a moontlit dome disdains Yeats was born in 1865 and died in 1939. He seemed to develop All that man is, slowly as a poet, most of his best work being created from his All mere complexities middle years onwards, although his word artistry was never in The fury and the mire of human veins. doubt. He belonged to no religious persuasion, but, as with D. H. Lawrence, he sought answers to the human condition in religious terms. His religious ideas, which remain uniquely his 21) W. B. Yeats. 'The Lake Isle of Innisfrec', in Collected Poems of W. B. own, are outlined in his book The Vision. Yeats, Macmillan, London, 1952, p. 44.

18 19 Before me floats an image, man or shade, Shade more than man, more image than a shade; himself with the rite of passage from mortal life to immortal, For Hades' bobbin bound in mummy-cloth he reveals his belief that the rite is symbolic also of the artistic May unwind the winding path; process. A mouth that has no moisture and no breath The poem begins with the 'unpurged images' - humanity Breathless mouths may summon; that is - who are represented by the 'drunken soldiery' and the I hail the superhuman; prostitutes, leaving the streets of Byzantium free for the rite of I call it death-in-life and life-in-death. passage. It is interesting to note that Yeats has inverted the usual tabu here: normally, as E. O. James in his Primitive Ritual Miracle, bird or golden handiwork, and Belief points out, 'a dead body was buried by night in Rome More miracle than bird or handiwork, and Greece, lest it should corrupt not only man but even the Planted on the starlit golden bough, sunlight'.23) Here, however, sunlight and humanity are regarded Can like the cocks of Hades crow, as corrupt, and only in the pure 'artificial' light of the moon Or, by the moon embittered, scorn aloud and the stars can the great artifices of man stand out in all their In glory of changeless metal eternal, abstract glory of form; only in this uncorrupted light Common bird or petal can the ceremonial purging of spirits take place. And all complexities of mire or blood. The next two stanzas have a parallel thematic structure showing the relationship between the artistic and the death At midnight on the Emperor's pavement flit processes. In the progress of the soul, in which Yeats has used Flames that no faggot feeds, nor steel has lit symbols from the ancient Egyptian rite of passage as described Nor storm disturbs, flames begotten of flame: in the Books of the Dead, the spirit proceeds from man, corrupted Where blood-begotten spirits come by his body and 'the fury and the mire of human veins' that And all complexities of fury leave, make him self-conscious, to shade, where he is freed from his Dying into a dance, body, but is nevertheless bound to his earthly life by his earthly An agony of trance, experiences, to image, or pure spirit, freed from the bounds of An agony of flame that cannot singe a sleeve. life through the unwinding of the 'winding path' by 'Hades' bobbin bound in a mummy-cloth'. Only such purified and free spirits can call shades along the path of purification. Astraddle on the dolphins mire and blood, In the progress of art there are three parallel stages, from Spirit after spirit! The smithies break the flood, bird, to handiwork, to miracle. The bird is the corrupt material, The golden smithies of the Emperor! the handiwork or craft transforms the bird, removes, so to Marbles of the dancing floor speak, the mire and blood from its veins in creating it in a new Break bitter furies of complexity, form, and finally the image/miracle represents the pure essence Those images that yet of the bird, the eternal essence in the created work of art. Like Fresh images beget, 22 the image, the finished work of art can 'scorn aloud . . . all That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea. ) complexities of earthly life' - it is uncommitted to any human persuasion political, doctrinal, or what have you. The eleme~t .of ritual is very strong in this poem, but unlike the other two It IS used to reinforce two perceptions that Yeats The fourth stanza can equally be taken as the purification sees as closely related. Thus not only does the poet concern of the spirit or the purification of a work of art. Both are refined in the 'flames that no faggot feeds, nor steel has lit'. This refine­

22) W. B. Yeats. 'Byzantium', ibid., pp. 280--281 23) E. O. James. Primitive Ritual and Belief, Methuen, London, 1917, p. 72. 20 21 ment is also expressed in terms of the dance and ecstacy that form an essential part of ancient ritual. Dying into a dance An agony of trance. The dance begins the unwinding process and the ecstatic removal of the spirit from the passions of his life, and symbolises the artist's refining of his art. Byzantium the place and Byzantium the poem symbolize the place of purification and refinement, and it is in this poetic and geographic artifice that the celebration is performed so that, in the created world of the poem the poem is a ritual, not anthro­ pologically speaking, but artistically. The poem, in other words is what it enacts. It is to this world that the shades of the world come through the 'tormented' sea on the backs of dolphins, summoned by the 'great cathedral gong' to begin their spiritual agony and preparation for eternity. It is in agony and ecstasy that the work of art is finished and refined and prepared for the great tradition, the artifice of eternity.

Mr Rector, to have had the opportunity of working towards the development of a Department of English in a new university is in itself a unique experience. The Rand Afrikaans University provides for any teacher of English Literature and its use an extra challenge, for it means education of students in a language that is, apart from a few exceptions, not their home language. I do not see English culture and its literature as a monopoly of the English, it is at its best, a universal culture, and as such is as much a property of Afrikaans speakers as English - it is our common heritage, just as the music of Bach, the philosophy of Aristotle, and the art of Michael Angelo are our common heritage. If, by the will of God, I am able to open the minds of my students to this heritage in some small way, I shaIl have done the task that is set before me. For the opportunity of meeting this chaIlenge I must thank you. I have indeed been honoured. More than the honour, however, I value the spirit of co-operation among my coIleagues, and the encouragement I have received. This spirit is largely the result of the inspiring leadership you, Mr Rector, have given to us all. The quality that I have noted particularly among you my coIleagues, and for which I am most grateful because of the academic stimulation it has given me, is a spirit of free and open debate on all matters concerning the university. 22