Poetry of the Thirties, edited by Robin Skelton
I took this one on holiday with me, and sat by the side of the pool on a sun lounger reading it. I think this confirms my status as a nerd of the highest degree.
Seriously, though, it was good. Skelton's introduction and his thematic arrangement of the poems made for a really interesting overview of the poetry of the era, and the impact of different historical events and social attitudes on the poets and their writing. Poetry is such an expressive, personal art form, so it was fascinating to see the similarities between them, and to see the way history surfaces in each poet's output.
It would be impossible to write a comprehensive review of the whole anthology - and not everyone wants to read such hefty analysis anyway, because not everyone is the kind of person who would make 1930s poetry their book of choice for their summer by the pool... So I'm going to do a speed review of my top seven poems from this collection (don't ask why seven, that's just how it's turned out). These are poems that spoke to me, poems that I went back and read for a second time, poems that made me go 'ooooh'. And if you want, you can go and look them up, and see if they make you go 'ooooh' as well.
1. An Elementary School Class Room in a Slum, by Stephen Spender
This poem really captures the theme of social justice, which Skelton's introduction identified as an attitude prevalent in thirties poetry. It was advocating for the liberation of children living in poverty - but its approach intrigued me a little. You see, in my mind, education is an empowering route to freedom, but Spender chose to criticise and challenge the nature of education. This surprised me at first, but it was actually pretty clever and very beautiful - he contrasted the geography map on the classroom wall with the wonder of the real outside world, and used this imagery of entrapment vs freedom to point out the flaws in a system that didn't actually help the children, to criticise the class divide, and to call for real liberation.
Where all their future's painted with a fog,
A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky,
Far from rivers, capes, and stars of words
2. Slough, by John Betjeman
I find myself drawn to Betjeman's poetry because of its rhythm and rhyme. In this case, the rollicking rhythm and lively rhyme help to create an overall tone of light-hearted humour, which is interesting because the subject matter is actually rather dark - the poem is about how it would be for the better if the whole of Slough were to be destroyed by falling bombs! Essentially it is quite a melancholy lament about the poor state of society, using Slough to represent the modern industrialised world - but this bitterness is masked with humour. That's clever.
I also particularly relished this one image showing the way consumerism and industrialisation has corrupted people:
Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans
Tinned minds, tinned breath
3. The Hand that Signed the Paper, by Dylan Thomas
This poem came from the chapter 'And I Remember Spain' in the anthology, which were poems Skelton deemed to have been inspired by the Spanish Civil War. I think this poem could be linked to a number of political regimes and war situations, whether or not it was originally born out of the Spanish Civil War; Thomas is highlighting the injustice of politics, the cruelty of war, the danger of dictatorship. Some of the magic of literature is that it can resonate beyond its original context, and can still speak, so long after its publication. He shines a light on the impact one political leader can have on thousands of lives, by magnifying the power divide, focussing on just the hand of the faceless leader, and the devastation that hand can inflict on a global scale. I found the whole thing both clever and haunting.
The hand that signed the paper felled a city;
Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath,
Doubled the globe of dead and halved a country;
These five kings did a king to death.
4. The Conflict, by Cecil Day Lewis
Another poem about war. It was a poem of two clear halves, with a volta (turning point) in the middle. The first half resonated with me, because it was about having hope even on the brink of despair, and this notion was communicated through the imagery of singing. I sing a lot, and I do find it to be hugely freeing and invigorating and innate, so the use of singing to represent hope and freedom really spoke to me (or sung to me, I suppose!). And then in the second half, 'the conflict' appears, and 'beats song into a single blade', taking away this hope and liberty and life. Powerful. To cap it off, the whole thing was written using both true rhymes and slant rhymes - such a graceful and beautiful use of words.
Singing I was at peace,
Above the clouds, outside the ring;
For sorrow finds a swift release in song
And pride its poise.
5. Poem, by Hugh Skyes Davies
This inventively named work (haha) appeared in the section called 'When Logics Die', which was representative of the surrealist movement of the 1930s - when art became abstract and absurd. It was very weird, but the use of language was pretty clever (the images in each stanza were very similar, but the words were shuffled around each time), and its innovative structure was very interesting (every stanza started with 'in the stumps of old trees', and ended with 'because', and there were slashes instead of line breaks) and the macabre imagery was rather haunting, and the surprisingly light-hearted punchline made me laugh. Overall, it wasn't quite like anything I'd ever read before.
6. The Compassionate Fool, by Norman Cameron
I'm a sucker for a funny poem. What better art form is there for communicating humorous nonsense than poetry? 'The Compassionate Fool' was such an absurd narrative with such a surprising ending that I thought at first I might have mis-read it, but when I went back and read it again, I hadn't. It was just an odd story. It might also be metaphorical, and it might be spreading a message about the dangers of being too meek and submissive, perhaps. (But I don't really mind if it isn't; I think there can still be value in it even if it is just a silly story that makes one raise one's eyebrows.)
7. The Sunlight on the Garden, by Louis MacNeice
'Sunlight on the Garden' falls in the final chapter of Skelton's anthology, 'Farewell Chorus,' and it does feel like a kind of goodbye; it reads like a lyrical lament for the passing of a lovely moment. I thought the language was beautiful, and this is actually the main reason I've put it on my list of favourites. The rhyme scheme was magical, with rhymes not only on the ends of lines, but also between the ends and the beginnings! To execute that so perfectly shows a supreme amount of skill, and for me it's this - when language aligns so gracefully and the words complement each other so exquisitely - that makes poetry so stunning.
The sunlight on the garden
Hardens and grows cold,
We cannot cage the minute
Within its nets of gold,
When all is told
We cannot beg for pardon.
There you have it. Seven of my favourite poems from 'Poetry of the Thirties.'