A Revolution of The Industrial Kind

In the first part of "The Darkling Thrush" by Thomas Hardy, it appears as though he has a lack of faith in humanity's ability to sustain itself with the introduction of the Industrial Revolution.

The land's sharp features seemed to be
      The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
      The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
      Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
      Seemed fervourless as I.

The land's sharp features could be represented by factories since they would cast a sharp look to the skyline of a city and it is the remains of the previous century which is why he says "The Century's corpse outleant," Overall, he has a very pessimistic view of where society is headed because he feels as though the earth has been scoured of all it's beauty while he is only looking at a small part of it. Once the thrush enters and begins to sing it shocks him out of his dark desolate despair and reminds him that it really isn't that bad. There has to be something good still left. It almost seems like the best is yet to come.

Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew

      And I was unaware.

Writers Block....

Writer’s block… That uncomfortable feeling where all of your ideas and thoughts seem absent once you try to write. I know for a fact I’m feeling that right now. It seems like even the noteworthy history making people experience writer’s block too. “The Circus Animal’s Desertion” is about some of the frustrations Yeats experienced because of his. The “circus animals” from the title and the rest of the poem refer to his previous poetry and works; the “desertion” part refers to the feeling of his creativity missing and his current lack of inspiration. That is partly why I like this poem though: it’s relatable.  Anyone that writes (whether it is for a living, school, or fun) can relate to how it feels to have a writer’s block. It is extremely frustrating and time consuming, and I cannot think of anyone that likes it. Throughout the length of “The Circus Animal’s Desertion” I felt like Yeats was trying to find inspiration for something new, and running short each time.  My favorite part of this poem, however, is how Yeats was able to turn his writers block into something. To me this shows that even nothingness can turn into a theme in itself.

I probably should have mentioned "Gunga Din" during the awkward silence

When going through the epitaphs I was a little surprised that no one brought up the similarities between "A Servant", "Native Water-Carrier" and "Gunga Din"; though I'm more to blame for that than anyone else as the one who saw it and said nothing. There is some separation of years between the two, but coming from the same man it's hard not to see the evolution of his thoughts.
    For those not familiar with "Gunga Din", it's about a water carrier who is not treated well by the British soldiers. The speaker of the poem is shot, and Gunga Din comes to stop the bleeding and bring the man water, only to be shot dead. The famous closing lines of the poem are where I drew my connection to "The Years Between".
   Though I've belted you and flayed you,
   By the livin' Gawd that made you,
   You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!
   Since "The Years Between" are in fact epitaphs I almost see the "A Servant" and "Native Water Carrier"  as about "Gunga Din". I don't mean to draw some detailed lineage between the poems and claim Kipling was specifically trying to write out a character, but the connection is to strong to be ignored. At the very least it shows just how strong Kipling felt about the use of native peoples and their treatment, as well as class divisions. In both "A Servant" and "Gunga Dun" Kipling claims that in death the servant and Din are the better men based on their actions and despite the obvious class separation.
   "Native Water Carrier" ends with the lines, "The Gods are jealous-now, as then, They gave no quarter" implying that the Gods showed no discretion when it came to the death of the water carrier, which argue for the equality of death. When taken into consideration with "Gunga Din" and "A Servant" Kipling's overall argument becomes more complex than this, his view of death is defined as the great equalizer that cares not for race, class, or quality of person. I don't mean to be overstretching any of this, but Kipling is not a poet of coincidence, and so I felt this was not to be ignored.

Kipling

One of my favorite things we read for Monday was Kipling's Epitaphs. I didn't really have one epitaph in particular that I liked better than the rest but there is a few I prefer more than the others. As a whole I found the Epitaphs to be very moving, especially since they were written just a few short years after world war one. Kipling was an English man so I believe that these Epitaphs could mean more considering England was in the war from the beginning. Unlike America who joined in just the last year. I also think they mean so much more considering this was the first world war. All the death and destruction had world wide implications and relationships with countries were ruined forever. During world war one there would be pages in the newspaper filled with the names of those who died. It was one of those things that hadn't been seen before in England, at least not by the people of that generation. The news coverage on the war was probably just as shocking to the people living in World War I as the television coverage was to those living through Vietnam in America. There was probably a lot of epitaphs written that year, but Kipling's were't published until two years after the war was over. Even though they were published later I believe they probably still held a deep emotional significance to those who lost family and friends in the war. For some it was probably therapeutic to read it, and for others it was probably just an unwanted reminder. Either way, Kipling used this great historical event (which would have been a contemporary event for him) to immortalize those who died during world war one. I see this book of multiple epitaphs to be like one giant epitaph and whoever reads it can identify the one they lost with a particular epitaph. Kipling is reaching the general audience and a particular audience all at once. That's what I like so much about this work, he is reaching out to people and feeling what they feel. No one is alone.

You Poor, Poor Man

In Yeats' "The Circus Animal's Desertion," we find the speaker looking back over his poetic career, when his motivations for writing were more clear.  He is searching in "vain" for a poetic theme. He tried to find one for "six weeks or so," but was not lucky.

He believes that now that he is "a broken man," he will have to settle for writing about his heart, which disappoints him because he used to be able to write elaborate poems with fun themes, like "circus animals" - former poetic creations of his which have now "deserted" him. The speaker thinks back on three specific works that were full of images that were "masterful" and questions their honesty. He saw them as complete.

All the great images that he had in his life have been stripped away from by the decay of age.

Kipling, The Coward

This epitaph struck me in a most unusual way, and I believe that is due to a number of things. It's concise, only two lines and one sentence. It feels like an instant, or just a moment in time when it is read. The punctuation at the end symbolizing a single gun shot. These two lines fill me with a dread that shakes my bones. For as much as I love history, there is no beauty in it for want of war. The Great War lasted four years (1914 to 1918) and the citizens of the British Empire thought that their boys would be home by Christmastime. This war was a struggle for primacy between England and Germany, and it cost them both at least nine million lives. Their methods were archaic by today's standards: mustard gas, rifles, pistols, barbed wire, early explosive tactics, and horses. These men were ill equipped for such a war between nations and they were terrified  If they thought of death, which they often did, they prayed that a bullet would kill them cleanly because the alternative was indescribable, unbearable pain and likely death in the hospital.

But if you were a coward? You could pretend to light a cigarette and hold your lighter above the trench, hoping that a German saw the flame and would shoot you through the hand. You would be taken to the hospital to recover and not called back for action. That is, if you weren't caught. The alternative was being shot for cowardice, and letting your family grapple with Her Majesty's military for information. They want to believe that you died valiantly and unafraid, but the truth is you didn't. You couldn't face death willingly so your Captain and Lieutenant took you out of the trenches, blindfolded you, and forced death upon you. After all, God's Chosen Daughter (England) has no use for cowards like you.

Note: I have more feelings than I would like about the Great War. I blame history and Downton Abbey.