INTRODUCTION
VICTORIAN
POETRY (by Inma C. Sanchis Garcia-
Astilleros)
AESTHETIC
PRERAPHAELISM (By Annalisa Garofalo)
MODERNISM
(By Ani Tadevosyan)
NEW
ROMANTICS IN THE FORTIES (By M. Elena Mármol Rodríguez)
THE
GROUP (By Mari Carmen Mora
Vives)
THE
MOVEMENT (By Mari Carmen Mora Vives)
THE MODERNIST TRADITION (by Sara Lozano Aragó)
THE EXTREMIST ART POETS (by Sara Lozano Aragó)
The British Poetry Revival
was a wide-reaching collection of groupings and subgroupings that embraces performance, sound and concrete poetry as well as the legacy of Pound,
Jones, MacDiarmid, Loy and Bunting, the Objectivist poets, the Beats and the Black Mountain poets,
among others. Leading poets associated with this movement include J. H. Prynne, Eric Mottram, Tom Raworth, Denise Riley and Lee Harwood.
(cf.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_poetry#The_British_Poetry_Revival)
But we are going to focus our attention on Lee Harwood and his poem called
“The Final Painting”.
The Final Painting
The white cloud
passed over the land
there is sea always
round the land
the sky is blue
always above the cloud
the cloud in the blue
continues to move
- nothing is limited
by the canvas or frame -
the white cloud can
be pictured like any
other clouds or like
a fist of wool
or a white fur rose
The white cloud
passes a shadow across
the landscape and so
there is a passing greyness
The grey and the
white both envelop
the watcher until he
too is drawn into the picture
It is all a journey
from a room through a door
down stairs and out
into the street
The cloud could
possess the house
The watchers have a
mutual confidence
with the approaching
string of white clouds
It is beyond spoken
words what they are
silently mouthing to
the sky
There was no mystery
in this - only the firm
outline of people in
overcoats on a hillside
and the line of
clouds above them
The sky is blue The
cloud white with touches
of grey - the rest -
the landscape below –
In
the first stanza I can see that he is describing a single cloud with very sweet
words like “a fist of wool” or “a white fur rose”. And he gives the reader a
sensation of calm, of freedom. Then, in the second stanza the landscape becomes
different because the cloud envelopes with a shadow, so that whiteness
disappears and the sky becomes grey. I think that someone is looking to the sky
in that moment so, that person starts taking part in the poem. Then, he
continues describing the painting. And he tells us that in the picture there
are people wearing coats, the sky is blue but the cloud continues with pieces
of grey. He ends the poem telling us that the rest is in our imagination. As a
whole, I think that he starts making us feel very well, with sensations of
calm, but while the poem continues, that sensation decays. Eventually, I think
that he describes the landscape of the picture very well.
This poem is full of
nature because we can find a lot of words related to the semantic field of
nature such as “cloud”, “sky”, “land”
but it doesn’t transmit the lyrical intensity or passionate feelings that we
find in the romantic poetry, for example in Wordsworth. It also lacks the
sensation of being in the open air. The poem gives the impression as if he was
in a museum describing a picture.
I have found some comments
to this poem, and I have seen that I share that idea of simplicity with other
authors. They said that this is as transparent as poetic language can be (a
virtue usually associated with prose), and in
Ashbery’s words "is self effacing not from modesty but because it is going
somewhere and has no time to consider itself". In this whole poem, the
subtlety with which the scene is presented in relation to the reader/observer,
and the self-consciousness with which the poem is aware of its own artifice, combines
a complexity of thought and perception with an unusual simplicity of language.
(cf.http://www.leafepress.com/litter/harwoodreview01.html
)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_poetry#The_British_Poetry_Revival
Home: <www.wikipedia.org>17-12-06)
http://www.leafepress.com/litter/harwoodreview01.html
Home: <www.leafepress.com>17-12-06)
The Mersey Beat poets were Adrian Henri, Brian Patten and Roger McGough. Their work was a self-conscious
attempt at creating an English equivalent to the Beats. Many of their poems
were written in protest against the established social order and, particularly,
the threat of nuclear war. Although not actually a Mersey Beat poet, Adrian Mitchell is often associated with the
group in critical discussion. Contemporary poet Steve Turner
has also been compared with them.
But we are going to focus our atenttion in
the poem “The Armada” written by Brian Patten.
(cf. http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/life/displaylife.asp?id=14
)
THE ARMADA
hidLong, long ago
when everything I was told was believable
and the little I knew was less limited than now,
I stretched belly down on the grass beside a pond
and to the far bank launched a child's armada.
hidA broken fortress of twigs,
the paper-tissue sails of galleons,
the waterlogged branches of submarines -
all came to ruin and were on flame
in that dusk-red pond.
hidAnd you, mother, stood behind me,
impatient to be going,
old at twenty-three, alone,
thin overcoat flapping.
hidHow closely the past shadows us.
In a hospital a mile or so from that pond
I kneel beside your bed and, closing my eyes,
reach out across forty years to touch once more
that pond's cool surface,
and it is your cool skin I'm touching;
for as on a pond a child's paper boat
was blown out of reach
by the smallest gust of wind,
so too have you been blown out of reach
by the smallest whisper of death,
and a childhood memory is sharpened,
and the heart burns as that armada burnt,
long, long ago.
(cf. http://www.spikemagazine.com/pattenarmada.php )
I have chosen this poem because it has remained me of the wars that are
happening for example in
In the poem, he represents the landscape very well. He tells us that he saw
a child’s naval armada which is fighting against others and he can see how the
submarines start getting on flames. Then, he tells us that a child was hurt so
he was brought to a hospital where, eventually, the child died. I do not have
words to express how I feel, this poem is very dramatic but it’s expressing the
cruel reality of the world in which we are living.
It is a very emotional and pessimistic poem, but also very realistic.
We can find some words referring to nature such as “grass” or “pond”, but
the poem itself hasn’t got the
intention of concentrating in nature because it deals with war.
It is said that Armada is perhaps Patten's most mature and formal
book, dispensing with much of the playfulness of former work.
(cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Patten
)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/life/displaylife.asp?id=14
Home:< www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk>17-12-06)
http://www.spikemagazine.com/pattenarmada.php
Home: <www.spikemagazine.com>17-12-06)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Patten
Home: <www.wikipedia.org>17-12-06)
CONCLUSION