To His Love by Ivor Gurney - Essay Example

?Running head: TO HIS LOVE Written Project in Critical Reading of English Literature To His Love By Lamia BENMOUSSA Lamia Benmoussa 2 Introduction Ivor Gurney, considered to be one of the greatest British poets from the World War I era, was born in Gloucester, on August 28th, 1890 (John Lucas, 2001). Gurney loved the countryside and often took long walks enjoying its beauty. He started composing music in 1904 at the age of 14. His scholarship enabled him to enroll himself at the Royal College of Music in 1911, but his mood swings made it difficult for him to focus on academic work. He suffered from bipolar, manic depression, poor health, and had his first breakdown in 1913. After convalescing, he returned to college (Pamela Blevins, 2008, p77) World War I had an adverse effect on Gurney’s college education and that is the time when he chose to enlist as a private. He was deployed at the Western Front where he seriously took to writing poetry. (Michael Hurd, 2011) It was rather unfortunate that he was badly wounded in April 1917, when he was in the middle of writing poems. After recovering, he went back to the front. Another very unfortunate mishap that took place was that Gurney was senselessly gassed four months later, and had to be hospitalized. However, once again he took to writing poetry once he was discharged from hospital. But as fate would have it, once again he suffered a serious breakdown in March 1918 and yet once more, spent his time composing and writing poetry during his stint in hospital. After gradually regaining his emotional stability, he was discharged honorably from Lamia Benmoussa 3 the army in October 1918. He returned to the Royal College of Music, but sadly his mental stability continued to worsen and he was finally forced to drop out. He had suffered so much in life and by 1922, his family declared him to be insane. The following fifteen years of his life was spent in different asylums but still continued his writing during those bitter years. He contacted tuberculosis, became very sick and breathed his last on December 26th 1937 at the age of 47, in the City of London Mental Hospital. (Stuart Lee, The Ivor Gurney Collection). Gurney wrote his first elegiac World War I poem “To His Love” from the deep trenches at Seaton Delaval, Northumberland in 1917. His poetic technique was simplistic yet captivated the reader to focus upon the goodness of common things. His poems highlight conflicting memories that reflected the pain and trauma in his life. Gurney’s poetry is one that seeks simple honesty in the middle of contemporary ideas and other commonplace expressions. In his poems, he expresses the after-effects of gas and the trauma he faced while at the front, and about his experiences following his discharge from the Army. (Jennifer Kilgore-Caradec, p.38) In the poem, “To His Love”, Gurney begins on a sober note with a traditional sort of elegy, reminiscing about the happy days spent in the past, with his friend, but sadly now he lies dead. He is unable to even glance at his friend’s lacerated body and filled with grief, expresses himself through a note of rising hysteria as Lamia Benmoussa 4 he feels helpless in trying to erase the grotesque memory of his beloved friend. (Glynn Maxwell, 2011). There is mention of the River Severn and Gloucestershire, where, together in the company of his dear friend, are associated with two themes in the poem. The poem is a soliloquy and an elegy in which one of the soldiers is found talking to the fiance’ or the girlfriend about the death of a soldier. He mourns with grief at this loss and regrets that he has lost the company of this soldier forever and will never be able to redeem that pleasure again. Gurney’s inspiration for this poem was drawn from the supposed death of Willy Harvey who was his dearest friend, in August 1916. When his friend was alive they had spent such wonderful days together, but now the poem describes the harsh reality of his friend’s death which is described in this poem. In fact, Harvey was taken as a prisoner of war but was not killed, and when the war came to an end, returned to his fiance’ Sarah Kane (Ivor Gurney, (1890 – 1937). Poetic style was witnessing a revolutionary transformation and a good number of poets were focusing on establishing themselves at the onset of World War I in 1914. It was during this period that poets made great contribution to a new anthology called “Georgian Poetry” which depicted the natural beauty of the landscape of England, including the beautiful countryside. “Landscape is as fundamental to literature as setting is to theatre” (Paddy Woodworth, Web, 2013, para, 2) Most of these poems not only described the English landscape, but Lamia Benmoussa 5 also showed that this was one of the reasons why soldiers went to war and fought bravely. Because of this, trend, England’s landscape stood as a symbol that was predominantly found in many of the poems on war written during that period. Gurney made use of a good bit of imagery involving the countryside in his poems. In this poem, he talks about the Cotswold’s, a range of hills in South West England, the idyllic pastoral lands in Gloucestershire, the sheep grazing in the meadows very quietly thus bringing out the imagery of England, thus projecting a quiet and tranquil image in sharp contrast to the ongoing war. (Wilfred Owen, 2006) From the form or structural point of view, the poem comprises of four stanzas, each having five lines. The first three lines were free verse and the following two lines were a couplet with rhyming words. One of the most interesting things about this poem, however, is its admirable use of consonantal alliteration to make it more effective. This poem is musical due to the alliteration found in it. The sounds alternate between soft sounds of ‘oh’, ‘ooo’, ‘uh’ and long drawn out vowel sounds of ‘I’ and ‘E’. Alliteration is found in all four stanzas, providing the poem with an elusive rhythmic style. For example, in the first verse, the sibilance offers a sort of soft murmur, of whispering (G. M. Griffiths, April 22, 2011) Lamia Benmoussa 6 The lines below show this alliteration Are useless indeed We’ll walk no more on Cotswolds Where the sheep feed Quietly and take no heed.” (Ivor Gurney, 1890 – 1937) In the opening two lines of the above stanza, the speaker is conveying a crude and grief filled statement depicting his loss. He is expressing his helplessness of not been able to remedy the situation of his earlier plans, thereby describing a state of pointlessness. Here, he refers to his friend and their walk in the Cotswold’s where sheep silently graze, paying no heed to them. In the last three lines of the above stanza, Gurney describes the idyllic countryside as the landscape. The Cotswold’s, of the English countryside, is quite famously known for its astounding scenic beauty, with a range of hills in Gloucestershire, where Gurney spent his childhood. Like most of the World War I poetry, the countryside and its landscape provide soothing and inspirational memories, when contrasted against the horrific images of war. The lines below clearly bring out this contrast. “His body that was so quick Is not as you Lamia Benmoussa 7 Knew it, on Severn River Under the blue Driving our small boat through” (Ivor Guerney, 1890 – 1937) In the first stanza, the first two lines of the speaker describes how the soldier’s body is no longer as lively as it used to be when sailing in a boat under blue skies on the river Severn. The liveliness and the person is missing, because now he is lifeless. The hidden connotation of this euphemism depicts the mutilated body of the soldier that is beyond recognition, providing a grotesque snapshot of the events that occurred to the soldier at the enemy’s hands.. Here too, the poet draws a sharp contrast of the beautiful image of the landscape of the River Severn under the blues skies, and the horrific tragedy of what had happened to the soldier, now lying motionless due to death. Harmonious and appalling memories struggle against each other to lend meaning to his poem. “You would not know him now… But still he died Nobly, so cover him over With violets of pride Purple from Severn side” (Ivor Guerney, 1890 – 1937) Lamia Benmoussa 8 In the first line of this stanza, it seems that the speaker does not want to continue describing about the fully mutilated body of the soldier, when speaking to his beloved. Once again, alliteration is adeptly used and can be found right through the poem. In the second line of the above stanza, the speaker swiftly shifts from speculation about the mutilated body to the nobility of his death –by fulfilling his duty as a gallant warrior. In the last three lines the speaker goes on to describe how the soldier, for his valor, should be shrouded with flowers, particularly, the purple flowers such as the violets from the Severn, a symbol of pride, as it is associated with kingship “Cover him, cover him soon! And with thick-set Masses of memoried flowers- Hide that red wet Thing I must somehow forget”. (Ivor Guerney, 1890 – 1937) In the first line, “Cover him, cover him soon!” Gurney uses an exclaimed repetition to describe the desperate and detestable state of mind of the speaker. In the next two lines, the speaker suggests that the flowers should be generously scattered over the dead soldier’s body, so as to hide the horror of death underneath, drenched with “red” blood. Lamia Benmoussa 9 The flowers symbolize the happier times on the Severn. The speaker psychologically demonstrates a kind of withdrawal because he is desperate to bury the tragic memory, of his dear friend’s passing. He wishes to forget the tragedy that took place. The poet uses imagery of the ‘red wet Thing’ to describe the maimed body of his friend that lies drenched in blood, thus portraying the unspeakable violence that was meted out to him. The last line, demonstrates how soldiers who survive bloody combat face the struggle between remembrance and burying tragic memories from the war front. (G. M. Griffiths, April 22, 2011). Personally, I liked reading Ivor Gurney’s poem “To My Love”, but what really struck me about the writer was that he himself had gone through harrowing experiences in his life and yet inspite of it he pursued his love for writing. The poem though simplistic in style and presentation, really touches the heart because it was so personal. References Glyn Maxwell (2011) Ivor Gurney’s “To His Love” Paris Review. Retrieved from Web, May, 2013 http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/11/10/glyn-maxwell-on-E2%80%9Cto-his-love%E2%80%9D/ Griffiths G.M., (2011) Ivor Gurney, To His Love, Move Him into the Sun. University of Oxford. Retrieved from Web, April 22nd 2011 http://movehimintothesun.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/to-his-love-ivor-gurney/ Ivor Gurney, (1890 – 1937) To His Love. All Poetry. Retrieved from Web, 2013 http://allpoetry.com/poem/8540763-To_His_Love-by-Ivor_Gurney Ivor Gurney Society, (1917): Poetry, To His Love. The Manuscript of Gurney’s poem. Retrieved from Web, 2013 http://ivorgurney.org.uk/poetry.htm Jennifer Kilgore – Caradec Resisting to Rhetoric, Ivor Gurney’s Memory Work. Arts Of War, Retrieved from Web, 2013 www.awpreview.univ-paris-diderot.fr/.../1.1_4_kilgore_gurneyin_revisi. John Lucas, (2001) Ivor Gurney, Northcote House, pgs. 114 www.books.google.com Michael Duffy, (2009) Ivor Gurney, First World War Poetry. Retrieved from Web, May, 2013 http://www.firstworldwar.com/poetsandprose/gurney.htm Michael Hurd (2011) The Ordeal of Ivor Gurney, Faber & Faber, pgs. 250 www.amazon.com Paddy Woodworth, Landscape and Literature. International Writing Program, Retrieved from Web, May, 2013 www.wp.uiowa.edu/sites/iwp.uiowa.edu/ Pamela Blevins (2008) Ivor Gurney and Marion Scott, Song of Pain and Beauty, The Boydell Press, Woodbridge. www.books.google.co.in/books?isbn=1843834219 Stuart Lee, The Ivor Gurney Collection. First World War Poetry Digital Archive http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/gurney Wilfred Owen (2006) How Important is landscape in some of the literature you have studied on the Great War? Retrieved from the web, May, 2013 www.markedbyteachers.com/ Read More