Cuthbert, Alexander John (2012) Eternity's unhidden shore: time in the writings of Edwin Muir (1887-1959). PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3191/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the Author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Eternity’s Unhidden Shore: Time in the Writings of Edwin Muir (1887-1959) Alexander John Cuthbert MA, MPhil Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Critical Studies College of Arts University of Glasgow February 2012 ii We speak of this time and that time, and these times and those times: “How long ago since he said this?” “How long ago since he did this?” “How long ago since I saw that?” “This syllable is twice as long as that single short syllable.” These words we say and hear, and we are understood and we understand. They are quite commonplace and ordinary, and still the meaning of these very same things lies deeply hid and its discovery is still to come. 1 The feeling for eternity is a hypocritical one, for eternity feeds on time. The fountain retains its identity only because of the continuous pressure of water. Eternity is the time that belongs to dreaming, and the dream refers back to waking life, from which it borrows all its structures. Of what nature, then, is that waking time in which 2 eternity takes root? 1 Augustine, Confessions, XI:22, Confessions and Enchiridion , Albert C. Outler tr. (London: SCM Press, 1955), p.260. 2 Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception , Colin Smith tr. (New York: Humanities Press, 1962), p.423. iii Abstract The thesis discusses the subject of time as dealt with in the writings of Edwin Muir, exploring the ways in which his poetry, novels, and critical writings articulate a range of perspectives regarding the nature of time and its relation to human experience. Following the adaptation of ideas through Muir’s career, a trajectory is traced from his early writings in which time is seen as a destructive power antithetical to life through to the celebration of mortality in his late writings. Integral to this development was his persistent interrogation of the relationship between time and eternity. Identifying the important role of Muir’s autobiographical method, this thesis begins by exploring his desire to obtain an objective view of human life by establishing a critical distance in his writings between the subject being presented and the imagination that presents it. To this end, his creative writings often incorporate myths, biblical allegories, heraldic symbolism, and surreal abstractions to present archetypal or timeless events and situations. In doing so, Muir is seen drawing on an array of literary and philosophical influences, many of which relate to his adolescence and formative adulthood in Glasgow. His rural childhood in Orkney and his early contact with Presbyterian and Evangelical Christianity made a lasting impression on his imagination with the resultant preoccupation with Eden and the Fall being dominant features of his poetry. Often dealt with in an abstract way in his poetry, Eden is frequently associated with his childhood on Wyre in his autobiographical writings, with the Fall, in Muir’s theorizing, forming the moment at which time becomes of relevance to humanity. Critically under-appreciated as ephemera and juvenilia, Muir’s earliest prose and poetry in The New Age magazine between 1913 and 1923 convey a strong sense of his desire to engage with the popular debates of the day regarding contemporary literary and social matters. For this reason, a significant amount of space has been given in this thesis to allow these writings to be re-evaluated; not just as portents of his later work, but also as important contributions to the vibrant journal and magazine culture of the period. Offering substantive detail to sketch the relevant biographical context, the essays, critical monographs and volumes of poetry are discussed chronologically and with reference to each other to allow the development of Muir’s ideas to be seen as an organic evolution rather than as a series of philosophical epiphanies. However, the significance of Muir’s reconciliation to Christianity in 1939 is highlighted as the single most important creative breakthrough of his mature adulthood. iv The extensive range of Muir’s critiques of Scottish and European culture, and his essays on the relationship between literature and society more generally, underline his position as a modernist writer immersed in the affairs of his time. Through detailing Muir’s creative and philosophical struggles with himself and modernity (which he felt he had fallen into through a time-accident) he is seen repeatedly reaffirming his commitment to exploring the nature of time and its meaning for human society. v Contents Abstract. .iii Acknowledgements . vi Abbreviations. vii Introduction . 1 Part I Early Life and Influences (1887-1913) One ‘My Childhood all a Myth’: Muir’s Autobiographic Approach. 25 Two ‘A Child in Adam’s Field’: Orkney . 49 Three ‘A Child, a Youth, a Man’: Glasgow and The Clyde Coast . 63 Part II Early Writings (1913-1926) Four Edward Moore and London (1913-1921) . 82 Five Transition and Individuation: Prose and Poetry (1921-1926). .107 Part III Dislocation and Displacement (1927-1938) Six The Three Novels and Other Writings (1927-1932) . .128 Seven Poetry and Prose (1932-1938). .147 Part IV Later Writings (1939-1959) Eight ‘Eternity Written and Hidden’: Recognition and Reconciliation. 174 Nine ‘The Spoils of Time’: Affirmation and Acceptance. .195 Conclusion: ‘Strange Blessings Never in Paradise Fall’. .216 Bibliography. 222 vi Acknowledgements This research has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and I wish to thank the staff of the Department of Scottish Literature whose backing enabled me to secure it. I would especially like to thank Prof Alan Riach, Dr Kirsteen McCue, and Dr Theo van Heijnsbergen for their diligence and much appreciated support throughout my postgraduate and undergraduate studies. Heartfelt thanks are also due to Dr Susan Stuart (HATII) for her assistance and encouragement during a particularly difficult period of my studies. I also wish to thank Prof Douglas Dunn (St Andrews) and Dorothy McMillan (Glasgow) both for examining this thesis and for their advice regarding future projects. I must also thank Dr Margery McCulloch for her invaluable input regarding Muir and Scottish Modernism generally and for the opportunity to receive feedback on some of my research at the ASLS Scottish and International Modernism Conference (2009). A version of Chapter Four has been published as ‘Edwin Muir and The New Age ’ in Scottish and International Modernisms: Relationships and Reconfigurations , Emma Dymock and Margery Palmer McCulloch eds. (Glasgow: ASLS, 2011). I am also one of the countless number of researchers who have been assisted by the dedicated and friendly staff at the National Library of Scotland’s Manuscripts Reading Room and I offer my gratitude to them accordingly. To my wife Jackie all I can say is simply thank you, thank you for everything. vii Abbreviations Auto An Autobiography (1954) CP The Complete Poems (1991) PT Poor Tom (1932) SF The Story and The Fable (1940) SL Selected Letters of Edwin Muir (1974) TM The Marionette (1927) TNA The New Age Magazine TTB The Three Brothers (1931) 1 Introduction ‘A Return to Time’: Some Theoretical Contexts Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration, the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present, the words which express what they understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle, and feel not what they inspire: the influence which is moved not, but moves. 1 P.B. Shelley’s famous claim that ‘poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world’ is far more than the suggestion that poets affect social policy; it signals the belief that poetry has the potential to convey anagogical realities that lie far beyond the mundane realms of authorial intention and literary reception. It is ‘less their own spirit than the spirit of the age’ which is voiced through such poetry, argues Shelley, the ‘all-penetrating spirit’ of modernity which breathes life into their ‘impassioned conceptions respecting man and nature’. 2 Modernity, in this context, is the ever-present moment as lived, the co-ordinates of mankind’s position in space and time; positioned, as we experience ourselves to be, between an ever-receding past and an always approaching future. By Shelley’s account, the poet holds a special position as an orator for the ‘spirit of the age’ revealing the opinions and preoccupations of the day from a privileged position, as it were, live from the scene. However, in suggesting that every age has its own specific character or ‘spirit’ that will be as different in nature from those which precede it and those which follow it, Shelley appears also to be assuming that our experience of time is unquestionably sequential and that our understanding of time, in itself, is beyond revision. As poetic and influential as Shelley’s account of literary inspiration may be, it unintentionally underlines the complex relationship between our understanding of time as an abstract concept and the ways in which we represent and discuss our experience of time in literature.