R A 19 (382)

Elizabeth Harvey

English 382

Dr. Foss

May 1, 2012

What Makes You British Class Summary

When Dr. Foss walked into the classroom at 11:00 he announced that he did not prepare a reward quiz for us today and the class heaved a huge sigh of relief. We began class by reviewing the perspective section “Whose Language” (2772). During our review, we learned that language helps create the world instead of serving of it. Also language helps develop one’s self and one’s self in the world. Because Britain had an empire that the sun never set on, there was a confusion of tongue. Authors were always conflicted as to what language they should write in, English or their native tongue. The confusion can be seen in Salman Rushdie’s quote when he explains why he is writing in English instead of Hindi: “Those of us who do use English do so in spite of our ambiguity towards it, or perhaps because of that, perhaps because we can find in that linguistic struggle a reflection of other struggles taking place in the real world, struggles between the cultures within ourselves and the influences working upon our societies. To conquer English may be to complete the process of making ourselves free.” (2772) We also discussed how the language confusion played a huge role in colonial and postcolonial writing. We decided as a class that the contemporary British literature pieces that we read today deal with the issue of language, who the “insiders” and the “outsiders” are based on the language you use, if your native tongue or British is correct, and if you should consider yourself British.

The first author and his poetry that we discussed was the Caribbean writer, Derek Walcott (2661). We first reviewed his biography and learned that the British Empire and slavery had a huge impact on his life because he was born on Saint Lucia, a former British colony, which caused his education to be primarily British. (2661). Also it is believed that both of Walcott’s grandmothers were descendants from slaves (2661). One of the overarching themes in Walcott’s poetry was that it explores the relationship between two worlds, his home, the West Indies, and Europe (2661).

In Walcott’s poem “A Far Cry from Africa”, which takes place in Kenya, we discussed how the colonizers, the British, and the colonized, the speaker, both suffer. An example of both parties suffering is in lines 15-17 because both parties deal with animalistic violence, “The violence of beast on beast is read/As natural law, but upright man/Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain” (2662). There are also two instances in the poem where the colonized lash out at the colonizers. The first example is in lines 9-10, “What is that to the white child hacked in bed?/To savages, expendable as Jews?” where the speaker alludes to the long standing history between the colonizers ruling the colonized (2662). The other example of when the colonized lash out at the colonizers is when the speaker curses a drunken British officer (2662). The colonizers suffer mentally because they are trying to humanize others, while the colonized are suffering because they are torn between their homeland and Britain. At the end, the speaker poses a variety of questions that deal with identity and language issues because the reader is left wondering if he favors one place over another and why he is writing in English even though he doesn’t want to favor it or their literary tradition.

In Walcott’s other poem “54 from Midsummer”, we saw that the speaker described where he came from by describing his homeland that he identifies with, the Caribbean (2670). We discussed lines 20-21 in great detail as a large group, “Ah Joseph, though no man ever dies in his own country,/the grateful grass will grow thick from his heart” (2670). At the beginning of the poem, the speaker told us that grief is what turned him to poetry and then Camille said that the ending was hopeful because even though you are not at your homeland dying, the grass of that country is growing straight from your heart, so you’re embracing their culture (2670). We also discussed what the grass could symbolize and the two meanings we came up with were that grass could symbolize life springing up anew or that grass is controlling the wilderness since it is only growing from your heart. Nia made an interesting comment that addressed the part of the line that nobody dies in their own country because their culture is always changing.

After discussing Walcott’s poems, we reviewed the biography of every other author. Dylan Thomas was the first poet we reviewed and we learned that he was born in Swansea, South Wales (2572). His poetry is known as being distinctly Welsh because it is “too emotional, too lyrical, too irrational” (2572). It is also important to note that Thomas’ poetry is written to be read aloud so we can hear his poetic, musical voice (2573). Carol Ann Duffy, born in Glasgow, Scotland, never lost a sense of her homeland and questions what it means to be British (2648). It is said that she “created a body of poetry that gives voice to the sense of strangeness and disaffection we might have otherwise thought exclusively the province of the former colonies” (2648). Seamus Heaney was born “in rural County Derry, Northern Ireland” where “his family was part of the Catholic minority in Ulster” (2739). Heaney’s writing relied on the traditions of English Romanticism and Irish-language assonance (2739). Eavan Boland was another Irish writer, but a female (2777). Boland questioned modern Irish poetry, but mainly focused on the absence of women in Irish poetry (2777). She put together the Field Day Anthology of Irish Literature to emphasize that women have been neglected in Irish literature and that they are always presented as suffering (2777). Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, another poet with Irish ancestors, was “born in a coal mining region in England” (2791). Dhomhnail grew up bilingual, speaking English at home and Irish outside (2791). She stayed true to her roots and insisted on writing in Irish or Gaelic (2792). Throughout her life, Dhomhnail learned that translations pick up and leave behind meaning (2791). Next, we discussed Gwyneth Lewis, born in Cardiff, Wales (2805). She wrote in Welsh and attended a bilingual school (2805). We briefly discussed her poem “Mother Tongue” and how it conveyed a playful sense of language, how the speaker became addicted to English, and in the end killed Welsh. The last poet we reviewed was W.N. Herbert, who was born in Dundee, Scotland (2809). Reading his biography we learned that “much of his work is in Scots, a language he appreciates for its stanza forms and for its sense of otherness, which helps to hold a reader’s attention” (2809).

Our final activity for the day was breaking into small groups and completing a “Boom, Boom, Boom” activity. The first pairs of poets that my small group discussed were the Welsh poets, Thomas and Lewis. My small group decided that since both of these poets are Welsh their poems are lyrical and musical. We agreed with the biographers’ statement that Thomas is a Romantic poet because in “Poem in October”, lines 3- 6 create a very calming tone, “And the mussel pooled and the heron/Priested shore/The morning beckon/With water praying and call of seagull and rook/And the knock of sailing boats on the net webbed wall” (2575). We also noticed the detail in the poems when they are read aloud, especially in “Fern Hill”. My small group decided that the meaning of “Poem in October” is that things happen the same way as they always do when you get older. We did not have much time to spend on Lewis, but we decided that in “Mother Tongue” the speaker thinks that Welsh is too boring, so they embrace the English language. Also in this poem there is the comparison between language and drugs. The comparison is made in lines 3-7, “for the bite of another language’s smoke/at the back of my throat, its bitter chemicals./Soon I was hooked on whole sentences/behind the shed” (2806).

The next poets we studied were Scottish, Duffy and Herbert. When my group was discussing these poets we said that it was interesting that Duffy’s poem “Translating the English, 1989” and Herbert’s poem “Cabaret McGonagall” had the same meaning because they both say “Come and take a look at this country!” with a skewed perspective (2649, 2809-11). We also discussed how in “Originally” the theme of identity comes up because the speaker is losing their old identity but wants it back and you can hear the speaker’s voice asking “how much do you need to lose in order to lose your identity?” (2648). Also we decided this poem was very relatable because everybody has moved and that is what “Originally” is about (2648).

My small group next discussed the Irish poet Heaney’s poems “The Toome Road” and “Postscript”. My group agreed that Heaney was like fellow poet Thomas because they both follow the tradition of their culture and are Romantic writers. Heaney draws on Irish literary tradition, but he also draws on English literary tradition because he grew up in a part of Ireland that supported English rule. In line 13 of “Postscript” it says “You are neither here nor there,” which tells the reader Heaney has trouble identifying with only the Irish or the English (2746). Heaney relies on Irish tradition when it comes to assonance in his poems especially in line 3 of “The Toome Road”, “…broken adler branches” (2743). The Romanticism can be seen in “Postscript” in lines 3-6, “In September or October, when the wind/And the light are working off each other/So that the ocean on one side is wild/With foam and glitter” (2746).

The last set of poets we explored were the Irish poets, Boland and Dhomhnail. For the “Mise Eire” we discovered a double meaning in the title because in the footnotes it says that it means “I am Ireland” and “misery” (2780). My small group said that the poem was about the speaker wanting to go back to Ireland before England changed it (2780). The meaning of the poem explains the double meaning of the title because the speaker’s identity is torn, she wants to go back to Ireland, but doesn’t because the English have made it a miserable place (2780-1). Also in lines 40-44 in “Mise Eire”, it says “a new language/is a kind of scar/and heals after a while/into a passable imitation/of what went before” (2780-1). The meaning of this quote deals with the theme of language and identity because a new language comes quickly, replaces the old one and causes you to stop identifying with it. In Dhomhnail’s poem “Ceist’na Tengan/The Language Issue”, language is compared with Moses being put into a basket and floating down the river. This is important because when Moses floated down the river, the Pharaoh’s daughter found and adopted him and perhaps this is true for language. Maybe language floats down a river and people stop identifying with it, until somebody picks it up and introduces it to everybody else.

By then it was 12:15, we had completed the last “Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom” activity, discussed all the poets and their works, and had come to the conclusion that British literature deals a lot with the language issue and who identifies with it.

The Longman Anthology: British Literature: The Twentieth Century and Beyond. Boston: Pearson Education, 2010. Print.