Comparing Rain Showers in Jonathan Swift and Louis MacNeice Poetry - Essay Example

Client Comparing Rain Showers in Jonathan Swift and Louis MacNeice Poetry In a comparative study of Jonathan Swift’s “A Description of a City Shower”(1710), and Louis MacNeice‘s, London Rain (1941), one can immediately discern a similarity in theme. While there is a melancholy tone to MacNeice’s work, a tone of amusement exists in Swift’s piece. Both pieces use rain as their central theme and evoke images that create mystery and wonder as the activity of London is portrayed during the respective storms. However, as the pieces move through their paces, one sees marked differences in the symbolism and the deeper meanings become vibrant and alive through the clever use of phrase and word. Jonathan Swift an Anglo-Irish poet of the eighteenth century, is considered a skilled satirist whose most famous work would be Gulliver’s Travels, a novel that which satires human nature and political struggle. Considered to be his best poem and perhaps his best work, “A Description of a City Shower” is a commentary on urban life and the way that life in a city can be inauthentic and artificial. The poem is constructed with lines in a loose version of iambic pentameter, in heroic couplets. It can be said that the poem evokes that feeling of ’shared experience’ as those portrayed are collectively together and captured in the event of a storm. However, the other shared experience that is just past 1 Client Last Name 2 the veil between the word and the audience is the commentary and social satire in which Swift portrays his subjects. The subjects of his words are treated with wit and social relevance. The poem is filled with small references some of which may not be immediately revealed, but on repeated readings the joyful mockery has extraordinary appeal. At one point within the poem a direct jab is taken towards the political parties who forever argue and accomplish little in the process. Swift says, “Triumphant Tories, and desponding Whigs, forget their feuds, and join to save their wigs.”[1]. In one quick stab of wit, Swift suggests that in this moment of rain, the Tories and the Whigs finally have a common element in their experience. The rain may destroy their wigs. In this manner, he reduces the members of these groups to a common element of humanity. With skill and a great, quiet power, Swift is able to reduce his subjects and require humility as they must step off of their pedestal for a moment - all disguised within a cleverly crafted rambling of the story of a rain shower. Louis MacNeice‘s, another Irish poet, wrote “London Rain” (1941) which also speaks of a rain shower. MacNeice’s work wasn’t intended to have quite the wit of Swift’s work, however his thoughtful and humanistic approach was clever and skillful as he commented on the human condition. Mixing classic ideals in poetry with contemporary themes, he sought to peel away the layers of the human condition and reveal the truth beneath the pretense. He is quoted as saying, “Poetry in my opinion must 1. Jonathan Swift and John Mitford. The Poetical Works of Jonathan Swift. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, and company, 1880, 14. 2 Client Last Name 3 be honest before anything else and I refuse to be objective or clear-cut at the cost of honesty.”[2]. This emotional approach allowed for subjectivity as he contrived his commentary on humanity. The poem, “London Rain” depicts a fantastical escape from a downpour as MacNeice writes, “And the park becomes a jungle: In the alchemy of night.: My wishes turn to violent: Horses black as coal: The randy mares of fancy: The stallions of the soul–”[3]. The intense imagery evokes the sense of foreboding, while maintaining an anxious energy as if something is about to break open, flooding the scene with emotion. The content of the poem wanders to the concept of spirituality and the sadness of atheistic theory. He wonders, “If the world was made amiss.; Under God we can reckon; On pardon when we fall; But if we are under no God; Nothing will matter at all,; Arson and rape and murder; Must count for nothing at all” [4]. This evokes the question that John Lennon proposed, “Imagine theres no heaven; Its easy if you try; No hell below us; Above us only sky”.[5] However, MacNiece wasn’t suggesting that the result of abolishing religion and living in a world without God would result in peace. He suggested that it would lead to anarchy with no guilt to keep rampant passions in check. The language patterns of these two poems differ in the way in which the rhythm is presented. The poetic language is informal as it does not for either poem adhere to a strict rule concerning poetic form. Swift’s work is reminiscent of Shakespearian verse as 2. T. Brown. Louis MacNeice: sceptical vision. Dublin, Gill and Macmillan, 1975, 183. 3. Louis MacNeice “London Rain”. Mind of Winter. http://mindofwinter.org/category/macneice/. 4. MacNeice 5. John Lennon. “Imagine”. Digital Dream Door. http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/lyrics/ imagine.html. 3 Client’s Last Name 4 it suggests the iambic pentameter of that work, although the precision of that form is not followed with any sense of loyalty. MacNiece’s work also breaks rhythm, throwing a turn to the audience as an expected rhyme is misplaced, or a phrase sits slightly out of rhythm. The rhyming couplets follow a pattern that has every other line rhyming with every sixth line repeating the same word as the fourth line. This adaptation of a classic form with original interpretation creates a fascinating voice for the poem. The piece by Swift uses very clever defamiliarization as he pursues his satiric commentary. The strongest visual created by this concept is found in his last verse. “Sweeping from butchers stalls, dung, guts, and blood, Drownd puppies, stinking sprats, all drenchd in mud, Dead cats, and turnip-tops, come tumbling down the flood.” [6]. While the images evoked are mostly realistic in nature, this conglomeration of disgusting images, not only evoke a visual disgust, but a sense of an olfactory assault from such decay and filth, one takes a mental step backward to recoil from this mess. “The central point of commentary and interpretation might be the moralistic argument that true value lives in the ‘livid life’ of the unique individual, and it is disastrous for the artist to fail to recognize a necessary subservience of art to a communal reality.“ [7]. In a display of multiple signification, this mess not only signifies the clearing away and end to the rain, but the foul nature of a society that must don the costume of its nature in defiance of truth. With these words Swift is commenting on the artifice that society wears until it is 6. Swift, 14. 7. Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester [England]: Manchester University Press, 1995. 4 Client’s Last Name 5 washed away and the offensive nature of that cloak is revealed. The use of language in MacNiece’s poem is also compelling in its strong imagery and fantastical themes. His use of defamiliarization is strong as he says, “ So reinforced by logic; As having nothing to lose; My lust goes riding on horseback; To ravish where I choose,; To burgle all the turrets; Of beauty as I choose.” [8] He uses a personification of his passions in order to separate himself from the act that he claims he would do should the guilt and shame that God provides for him not stand in his way. As the poem approaches its end, a sense of hope is given. “So let the water sizzle; Upon the gleaming slates,; There will be sunshine after; When the rain abates”[9]. Whatever this darkness that has come over him that has created a rain in his life, the sun will shine again. This demonstrates an essence of the defamiliarization technique as the weather becomes a metaphor for the emotional life. The emotional content in Swifts piece is less pronounced. His ideology in the way he is painting a portrait of his city in the rain is to peel away the pretense and reveal the squirming underbelly, is raw in its creation. This in no way suggests that the work is not sophisticated. On the contrary, the piece is masterful in the way it tells a benign story while relaying its truths. He suggests that one shouldn’t stray to far and should expect the consequences of the coming storm because it cannot be avoided. “A coming shower your shooting corns presage, Old a-ches throb, your hollow tooth will rage; Sauntering in coffeehouse is Dulman seen; He damns the climate, and complains of spleen.” [10]. The 8. MacNeice 9. MacNeice 10. Swift 5 Client’s Last Name 6 piece expresses a new way of seeing the rain, not as a way to wash away the bad, but as a way to reveal the symbolic nature of the trappings of societal artifice and reveal the mess it truly embodies. The use of rain is uniquely recreated in each of these masterful pieces of poetry. Rain symbolizes a harsh reality for Swift as it takes over the city and traps it in its revelations. For MacNiece, it is an emotional representation of a dilemma faced and not yet conquered. His references of ‘God’ and ’No-God’ represents a duality of nature as the struggle to contain dark inspirations are held in check solely by the presence of a being of greater power. Only out of respect for God and for his nature can he hold back the impulses that would unleash horrible consequences. The two poems, Jonathan Swift’s “A Description of a City Shower”(1710), and Louis MacNeice‘s, London Rain (1941), exhibit strong use of symbolism and create exciting and meaningful visual elements. In Swift’s portrait of his city, he is able to utilize his skill in poetic language to give a passive description of the people with a very aggressive satirical commentary. MacNiece is able to take the theme of a rainstorm and turn it into a spiritual journey through which he navigates the existence of God and the consequences of that existence being absent. While this question has plagued mankind since the beginning of faith, this presentation has a new and vivid detail that is frightening and powerful. With great skill and uniquely crafted presentation, both Swift and MacNiece present a new point of view that artistically represents different aspects of the literary meaning of rain. 6 Clients Last Name 7 Works Cited Brown, Terence. Louis MacNeice: Sceptical Vision. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1975. Lennon, John. “Imagine”. Digital Dream Door. Retrieved on 12 January 2008 from http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/lyrics/imagine.html MacNeice. “London Rain”. Mind of Winter. Retrieved on 12 January 2008 from http://mindofwinter.org/category/macneice/. Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester [England]: Manchester University Press, 1995. Swift, Jonathan, and John Mitford. The Poetical Works of Jonathan Swift. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, and company, 1880. 7 Read More