On an unseasonably mild day for November, it was hardly surprising that we had a selection of poems that included some more evocative of spring and summer than the deep autumn. Not a golden leaf, not a foggy morning, not so much as a witch or mushroom! The range of emotions was, however, considerable.
Thomas Hood’s ‘The Song of the Shirt’ was both poignant and angry at the sweat-shop conditions of the 19th century. Wilfred Owen’s ‘From My Diary, July 1914, was poignant in its complacency, full of prettily expressed conventional images, unaware, of course, of the horrors shortly to be visited on the young swimmers and lovers. Similarly complacent and apparently self-satisfied was ‘Leisure’ by W.H. Davies. This famously popular poem divided opinion, but those who did not know the poet’s life-story were astonished at it, and it had to be admitted that the poem is incredibly well-known and loved.
In contrast to Davies couplets, ‘Daed-traa’ by the contemporary poet Jen Hadfield conformed to modern free verse, expressing the effect of a rock-pool on the poet. The images were strange, diverse, and sometimes arcane. The title seems to be Gaelic. We discussed the problem, as we saw it, of poets who intentionally distance their readers by including little-known things, and we compared Hadfield to T.S. Eliot. Ezra Pound might have been added.
As well as this meditation on poetic inspiration, we had the alternative view from Alice Walker, trying unsuccessfully to reject the poetic impulse in ‘I Said to Poetry’.
It was a richly varied selection of poems prompting so much discussion that we ran out of time.
December’s meeting will be on 1st, free choice as usual.
Thomas Hood’s ‘The Song of the Shirt’ was both poignant and angry at the sweat-shop conditions of the 19th century. Wilfred Owen’s ‘From My Diary, July 1914, was poignant in its complacency, full of prettily expressed conventional images, unaware, of course, of the horrors shortly to be visited on the young swimmers and lovers. Similarly complacent and apparently self-satisfied was ‘Leisure’ by W.H. Davies. This famously popular poem divided opinion, but those who did not know the poet’s life-story were astonished at it, and it had to be admitted that the poem is incredibly well-known and loved.
In contrast to Davies couplets, ‘Daed-traa’ by the contemporary poet Jen Hadfield conformed to modern free verse, expressing the effect of a rock-pool on the poet. The images were strange, diverse, and sometimes arcane. The title seems to be Gaelic. We discussed the problem, as we saw it, of poets who intentionally distance their readers by including little-known things, and we compared Hadfield to T.S. Eliot. Ezra Pound might have been added.
As well as this meditation on poetic inspiration, we had the alternative view from Alice Walker, trying unsuccessfully to reject the poetic impulse in ‘I Said to Poetry’.
It was a richly varied selection of poems prompting so much discussion that we ran out of time.
December’s meeting will be on 1st, free choice as usual.
