Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30 was a fitting and moving opening tribute to our much-missed member and friend Dave Johnson. We did, and will often again, find pleasure in remembering him. Our evening included several readings from William Blake, Dave’s favourite poet – see his entry in our Favourites section.
Part 3 of Seamus Heaney’s ‘Clearances’ is a fond memory of the poet’s mother, as is DH Lawrence’s ‘Piano’. Tony Harrison develops a clever but sad metaphor out of his mother’s saying that he and his father were like ‘Book ends’.
Derek Mahon’s ‘A disused shed in Co. Wexford’, in memory of the writer J G Farrell, is a multi-layered meditation in which the long-ignored mushrooms seem to represent past traumas and struggles. WH Auden’s ‘Roman wall blues’ in contrast is a simple tale of a simple man, which aims a swipe at religious puritanism – an echo of Blake?
Seamus Heaney returns ‘From the Republic of Conscience’ and becomes an ambassador of that imaginary country. A nun taking the veil has no wish to return from her ‘Heaven-haven’ (Gerard Manley Hopkins). WB Yeats prefers ‘The fisherman’ to the Philistines and hypocrites he meets in the city; while William Blake imagines a world where Philistinism, corruption and the organised church will be rejected, in an extract from the preface to ‘Milton’.
That extract included the words of the hymn ‘Jerusalem’, which we sang at Dave’s funeral. Tony Kitt in ‘Funeral’ makes a succint and telling point. The power of Dylan Thomas’s famous villanelle ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ is undeniable, though the prescription was not endorsed by everyone.
In an extract from The Fire Sermon, the third part of TS Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’, the blind Tiresias observes a loveless coupling in a dreary flat where tinned food is consumed; a diet which also features pejoratively in ‘Slough’ by John Betjeman (note the unusual rhyme scheme AAAB / CCCB). We also had an extract from Eliot’s ‘The love song of J Alfred Prufrock’ with its succession of unforgettable images.
Douglas Dunn’s ‘A removal from Terry Street’ amusingly evokes a deprived area of Hull, the city where the poet studied and also worked in the University library under Philip Larkin. Dave worked at the British Library in London and Boston Spa, reflecting his love of books. At the St Pancras site you will see the monumental Paolozzi sculpture based on Blake’s ‘Newton’ and the collection of course includes Blake manuscripts. Interesting British Library talks about Blake can be found on YouTube.
Dave proudly came from Liverpool and we heard from two of that city’s famous “Mersey poets” – the third, Brian Patten, featured in two recent meetings. Like Douglas Dunn, Roger McGough studied at the University of Hull, worked in part of its library and was encouraged by Larkin. McGough’s ‘Icarus allsorts’ is black humour from an age of anxiety about nuclear annihilation. His ‘Melting into the foreground’ is a hilarious account of a drunken night out. Adrian Henri in ‘Last will and testament’ foresees himself possibly dying of a hangover. This and other poems by Henri include references to the famed ‘East Lancs Road’, England’s first purpose-built inter city highway, opened 90 years ago to speed up transport between Liverpool and Salford.
Other William Blake poems were all from his beautiful illuminated book Songs of Innocence and Experience, although only one comes from the Innocence section – ‘Infant joy’, a delightful imagined conversation with a new-born baby. In ‘The clod and the pebble’, the innocent clod is disabused by the experienced pebble. The beauty-destroying caterpillar in ‘The sick rose’ may represent the priesthood in Blake’s symbology. ‘The angel’ describes some kind of anxiety dream. The questions posed in ‘The tyger’ evoke a sense of wonder. ‘The school-boy’ spends many an anxious hour in the classroom, which makes the poem very topical. It has the rhyme scheme ABABB. ‘The little vagabond’ wishes Christian worship could take place in a warm and convivial ale-house, as does our poetry group.
I’m sure that Dave would have very much enjoyed all of this evening’s poetry – and our convivial company.
A truly excellent summary of the evening, Chris, with additional snippets of interest. It was a fitting remembrance of Dave who I’m certain would have approved of the poems chosen.