Asst.Prof. Qassim Salman, Akhlass Rahi Georgian Poetry between Tradition and Innovation
Georgian Poetry between Tradition and Innovation By Asst.Prof. Qassim Salman Sarhan(Ph.D .) Akhlass Rahi Mashkoor (B.A.) Abstract The present paper investigates one of the prominent traditions of modern English poetry, Georgian poetry which was common at the turn of the twentieth century. It aims to remove the misconceptions about this trend and whether it was really a mere copy of traditional English poetry of nature. This is done by citing a number of representative poets and poems which show the innovative aspects of this poetry. Georgian Poetry European cosmopolitan element that was best realized in T. S. Eliot, Allen Tate, Ezra Pound, and other avante- between Tradition and gaurdist poets who followed Pound's motto " make it new". The label Innovation "Georgian" was chosen by Edward Marsh, the man who assembled their The term "Georgian" cannot be said to work in one volume entitled Georgian signify a coherent school of poetry with Poetry (1912) which was the sort of a consciously agreed upon tenets and personal choice by Marsh himself. 1 principles. Nor does it represent a That anthology, therefore, does not movement in the same sense as necessarily include all poets who Imagism and Symbolism for instance. contributed to the Georgian tradition. Rather, it denotes a group of The 1912 anthology was followed by conservative poets who began to four more collections in 1915, 1917, publish verse during the first and 1919, and 1922 respectively making a second decades of the twentieth total corpus of forty poets 2. Among the century and who were generally poets associated with the Georgians are content to adopt the traditional D.H. Lawrence, Walter De La Mare, conventions, forms, and diction of Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon, English poetry. In them, one finds a Isaac Rosenberg, Edmund Blunden, faithful expression of the native British and Rupert Brooke. However, Edward element of verse rather than the Thomas, Wilffred Owen, Charles
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Asst.Prof. Qassim Salman, Akhlass Rahi Georgian Poetry between Tradition and Innovation
Sorley, and Andreaw Young were of the “prison- house” upon the child's never represented in Marsh's world of fantasy, and the blunting of collections though they were in the true his senses by materialism no less "Georgian" tradition 3. In view of this, poignantly than Wordsworth: it is better to rely on theme and Look thy last on all things lovely technique as yardsticks for classifying Every hour, Let no nigh a poet as Georgian, rather than on mere Seal thy sense in deathly slumber inclusion in Marsh's anthology. Till to delight According to the Encyclopedia Thou have paid thy utmost blessing Britannica, this poetry derived its There is often a common view of De essential quality and inspiration from La Mare's poetry as "making the actual the countryside and nature, and “in the magical, and the magical actual”. He hands of less gifted poets”, became a himself says: "Between children's copy of the “diluted and middle brow dream and their reality looms no conventional verse of the late Romantic impassable abyss" 8. He wrote poems period. The term ‘Georgian’ came to be from the child's consciousness, set in a a pejorative term, used in a sense not fairy- tale atmosphere of mystery, intended by its progenitor, Marsh 4. beauty, and wonder. This is the poetry Difficult though it is to give an of withdrawal from the ugliness and accurate definition of the term horror of the modern barren actuality’. "Georgian", yet it is possible to identify a poetry that bridges the gap between certain features common to the the actual and the real bringing into his members of the group. H. Coombes reader’s mind a beyond world, one writes that "Georgian poetry derives which could be captured only by [primarily] from early and later children and poets in moments of nineteenth century romantic poetry." In vision 9. Yet this world is not all beauty his view, the Georgians took over the and charm, it also entails much evil, weaker characteristics of Romanticism terror, and mystery. It is the world of such as "vague emotion, inexpressive “sinister innocence” to borrow Richard sing- song rhythms, emphasis on Ellman’s exact words 10. surface verbal music for its own sake, “Is there anybody there?” said the and the tendency to fantasy and dreams Trareller, without a very strong human interest" 5. Knocking on the moonlit door; They looked for guidance to Milton, And his horse in the silence champed the Romantics, and the Victorians, the gras rather than to the Metaphysicals and Of the forest’s ferny floor. the Neo-classicals whose model was This poetry with its haunting gothic followed by innovative poets especially atmosphere is in the true tradition of those coming from America 6. On the the medieval literature of terror and other hand, Babette Deutsh finds in the mystification. Georgians "something closer to the Another prominent figure of Victorian pathos than to the panic of Georgian poetry is Rupert Brooke, the age of Anxiety in their insistence whose verse exhibits a "genuine “on loss, the grief of aging, and the stab sensuousness" as intense as that of of personal extinction" 7. This is Keats(11): especially true of Walter De La Mare Down the blue night the unending whose lyrics lament the encroachment columns press
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Asst.Prof. Qassim Salman, Akhlass Rahi Georgian Poetry between Tradition and Innovation
In noiseless tumult, break and wave If anything might rouse him now and flow, The kind old sun will know. Now tread the far south, or lift rounds of snow Here is a bitter "lament for the loss of Up to the white moon's hidden youth, beauty and intelligence in war, loveliness. an elegy for the rich but wasted gift of Some pause in their grave wandering creativity in human beings 12: comradeless Think how it wakes the seeds- And tum with profound gesture vague Woke, once, the clays of a cold star. and slow, Are limbs, so dear –achieved, are As who would pray good for the sides, world, but know Full –nerved- still warm- too hard to Their benediction empty as the bless stir, Yet Brooke was also a war poet who Was it for this the clay grew tall? approached war from a romantic point - O what made fatuous sunbeams toil of view, seeing in it a heroic and noble To break earth's sleep at all? endeavor, an attitude that is most finely The modern huge war machine and expressed in his war sonnet " the advanced killing technology left no soldier": place for courage or heroism. It only If I should die, think only this of me: intensifies the sense of loss and waste That there is some corner of a foreign subsequent on war. The poem could be field seen as an elegy for the anonymous That is for ever England soldier who killed in war and his body Even if the soldier dies in a foreign is never recovered gets. This unknown land, the place where he is buried soldier could be Own himself for a becomes a British soil since his body is soldier expected death at any moment. England's. Own could be amenity himself in this Another group of Georgian poets, poem he dies. On a wider, existentice however, approached war from an level, The poem could be seen as an opposite view emphasizing the waste, ellgy for man at large. This means the pity, and meaninglessness of war. whole realm of human life because Siegfried Sassoon, another soldier poet, meanings or “futile”. The pessimistic, obsessed by the agony and panic of war existentice outlook of life is itself a of which he had an actual experience, genuine touch of modernism. attacked it bitterly in his verse. Wilfred Owen employed "Para rhyme"- a Owen stayed with Sassoon in hospital kind of imperfect rhyme (assonance) in for sometime during the First World order to reflect the sense of chaos, War and from him Owen learned to discordance, and unease of war by expose the ugliness and poignancy of denying the reader the satisfaction that war. In a short lyric entitled "Futility", comes from perfect rhyme 13. Para he presents a poignant elegy for the rhyme is Owen's most notable technical unknown soldier: innovation which indicates, no doubt, Move him into the sun that the Georgians were not passive Gently its touch awoke him once, dreamers, aloof from the major current At home, whispering of fields unsown of life at the turn of century, nor were Always it woke him, even in France, they unaware of the necessity of Until this morning and this snow. innovation in modern poetry.
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Asst.Prof. Qassim Salman, Akhlass Rahi Georgian Poetry between Tradition and Innovation
Another circle of Georgian poets were On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me specialized in "country sentiment and Remembering again that I shall die the pursuit of Beauty". F. R. Leavis And neither hear the rain nor give it mentioned two of them, Edmund thanks Blunden, and Edward Thomas. The For washing me cleaner than I have former found his relief in a new been "Arcadia" realized in "rural England, Since I was born into this solitude. seen, not only through the memories of Blessed are the dead that the rain childhood, but also through poetry and rains upon art 14: But here I pray that none whom once I I heard the graybird bathing in the rill loved And fluttering his wings dry within Is dying to-night nor lying still awake thorn boughs Solitary, listening to the rain Which all embowered the rill; with Either in pain or thus in sympathy tiny bill Helpless among the living and the The robin on red- berried spray bade dead, rouse Like a cold water among broken One whom I could not see, a field reeds, away.' Has not dissolved except the love of I heard the passing girl to her young death, man say' If love it be for what is perfect and " O look, there's a buttercup". For Cannot, the tempest tells me, Autumn brought there still ……… disappoint.17 (October Comes) Like Wordsworth, Thomas feels the Blunden tried to create a pastoral world mysterious haunting presence of in the true tradition of Augustan “Nature” and the emotions that it pastoralists and Romantic nature- inspires within men. The simplest, and poetry 15. His poetry is imbued with a commonest element of nature can fill deep, poignant sense of nostalgia for a man with consolation, serenity and joy past, simpler, more organic world when which are to be gained only in solitude man lived in perfect harmony with 18. nature. The "exquisite particularity" of this Edward Thomas is , in Leavis's verse, however, distinguishes it from view, "a very original poet of rare Georgian nature poetry. His persistent quality who was associated with the habit of sensibility and recapturing of Georgians by mischance ". “He sense impressions is akin to Virginia devoted”, Leavis writes, "a great Woolf's methods of writing which drew technical subtlety to the expression of a attention to the inner world of distinctively modern sensibility. "The subjective experience19. poem with him becomes an emotional From this brief survey of Georgian experience which he lives and registers poetry, it becomes clear that the bad in the form of "random jotting down of connotation of the term "Georgian", chance impressions and sensations, the and may be of the region of king record of a moment of relaxed and George as such, unjustly obliterate the undirected consciousness : 16" literary achievement of this group of Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the poets who never were dull imitators of wild rain nineteenth century stale convention. On
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Asst.Prof. Qassim Salman, Akhlass Rahi Georgian Poetry between Tradition and Innovation the contrary, the Georgians did produce 9 Maurice Wollman, Ten Twentieth one of the most prolific and versatile achievements of English poetry, one in Century Poets,(p.4) which appears the tension caused by 10 Richard Ellman and Rubed O’clair, the conflict inside these men, between the allure of tradition and the demands (New York: of modern sensibility. www.Nortonacompany.com,1988), p.234 11 Notes F. R. Leavis, "The Situation at the 1John Press, A Map of Modern English End of World War 1 "in Modern Verse .(Oxford: Oxford University Poetry: Essays in Criticism" ed. John Press, 1979), p.106. Hollander, (London: Oxford Univ. 2 J.A.Cuddon, A Dictionary of Literary press, 1968)p.54. Terms. Harmord sworth: Penguin 12 Allen Freer and John Andrew, (eds.) Book, 1979. 3 Press,p.106. The Cambridge Book of English Verse: 4 “Georgian Poetry”, Encyclopedia 1900-1939, (Cambridge, The univ. Britannica Article, press, 1970), p.196. 13 http://www.brittannica.com/ebc/article. I bid. 14 7/1/2008. Leavis, p.57. 15 Kenneth Allott (ed.) The Penguin 5 H. Coombes "Hardy, De La Mare, Book of Eon temporary Verse, and Edward Thomas "In The Pelican (Penguin Books: 1962), p.136 Guide to English Literature ,vol.7, ed. 16 Leavis, p.77. Boris Ford,(London: Harrap, p957), 17Cite by Leaves, p.77. p.146. 18 Wollman, p.77. 6 Press, p.10 19 Leavis, p.77. 7 Babette Deutsch, Poetry in Our Time, Bibliography (New York: Columbia University Allott, Kenneth (ed.). The press, 1975), p.255. Penguin Book of Contemporary 8 Coombes, p.141.
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Asst.Prof. Qassim Salman, Akhlass Rahi Georgian Poetry between Tradition and Innovation
Verse. London: Penguin London: Oxford Univ. press, Books, 1962. 1968. Cuddon, J. A. A Dictionary of Press, John. A Map of Modern Literary Terms. Harmord English Verse . Oxford: Oxford sworth: Penguin Book, 1979. University Press, 1979. Coombes, H. "Hardy, De La Wollman, Maurice (ed.). Ten Mare, and Edward Thomas "in Twentieth Century Poets, The Pelican Guide to London: Harrap, 1959. English Literature ,vol.7, ed. “Georgian Poetry”, Boris Ford. Encyclopedia Britannica Article, Deutsch, Babette. Poetry in Our http://www.brittannica.com/ebc/ Time, New York: Columbia article.7/1/2008 University press, 1975.
Ellman, Richard and O’clair , ﻣﻠﺨﺺ ﺍﻟﺒﺤﺚ Robert (eds.). The Norton " ﺍﻟﺸﻌﺮ ﺍﳉﻮﺭﺟﻲ ﺑﲔ ﺍﻟﺘﻘﻠﻴﺪ ﻭﺍﻟﺘﺠﺪﻳﺪ" .Anthology of Modern Poetry ﺗﺮﻛﺰ ﻫﺬه اﻟﺪراﺳـﺔ ﻋﻠـﻰ :New York اﺣـــﺪ اﻻﲡﺎﻫـــﺎت ﰲ اﻟـــﺸﻌﺮ اﻻﻧﻜﻠﯿﺰي اﳊﺪﯾﺚ اﻟﺬي اﺻـﻄﻠﺢ .www.Nortonacompany.com,1988 ﻋﻠﯿــﻪ ب (اﻟــﺸﻌﺮ اﳉــﻮرﺟﻲ ) Freer, Allen and Andrews, John واﻟﺬي ﺗﺮاﻛﻤﺖ ﺣﻮﻟﻪ ﳎﻤﻮﻋﺔ ﻣﻦ اﻻﻧﻄﺒﺎﻋﺎت اﳋﺎﻃﺌﺔ ﺑﺎﻋﺘﺒـﺎره eds.). The Cambridge Book of) ﺷﻌﺮا ﺗﻘﻠﯿﺪﯾﺎ رﺗﯿﺒـﺎ ﻻﯾﻘـﺪم :English Verse ﺳــﻮى ﺻــﻮرة ﻣﻜــﺮرة اﻟــﻀﯿﻖ ﰲ اﻟﻌﺼﺮ اﻟﻮﺳـﯿﻂ واﻟﺮوﻣﺎﻧـﺴﻲ . .Cambridge, The univ ,1900-39 وﺗــﺒﲔ اﻟﺪراﺳــﺔ إن اﻟــﺸﻌﺮاء press, 1970. اﳉـــﻮرﺟﯿﲔ ﱂ ﯾﻜﻮﻧـــﻮا ﳎـــﺮد ﻣﻘﻠﺪﯾﻦ ﺑﻞ أﻢ اﻏﻨﻮا اﻟـﱰاث Leavis, F. R. "The Situation at ﺑﻠﻤﺤﺎت وﻧﻮاح ٍ ٍ ﲡﺪﯾﺪﯾﺔ ﻛـﺜﲑة the End of World War 1 "In وإﻢ أﯾﻀﺎ ﻋﺎﺷﻮا اﻟﺼﺮاع ﺑـﲔ ﺑﺮﯾﻖ اﻟﱰاث واﳊﻨﲔ إﱃ اﳌﺎﺿـﻲ Modern Poetry: Essays in ﻣﻦ ﺟﻬـﺔ وﻣﺘﻄﻠﺒـﺎت اﳊﺪاﺛـﺔ واﻟﺘﺠﺪﯾﺪ ﻣﻦ ﺟﻬﺔ أﺧﺮى. ,Criticism" Ed. John Hollander
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