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Two kindred spirits of English poetry

by M.B. Mathmaluwe

With the 20th Century drawn to a close, and four years on, it would provide sufficient perspective for students of English Literature to look back and make an appraisal of the contributions of merit and lasting value made for the enhancement of the world's literary heritage, by writers of the century and, while doing so, to look for the front-runners for the foremost places among the poets of the period.

For a considerable part of the period, readers had been dazzled by the post-Victorian revolution ushered in by a set of young poets led primarily by T. S. Eliot and W. B. Yeats and later continued by others like Auden and Spender.

This group, taken in the long-view, were, no doubt, the creators of a new tradition; they certainly spelled out a new function for poetry with the introduction of their new critical standards.

It is, however, not intended here to expand on the events that followed this break-away, for they are much too familiar with the students of literature today.

Robert Frost.

Today, from the stand-point of a new century, it is easier to make a more comprehensive and balanced evaluation than before, of the poetry of the period and to notice that the Century does not belong to these afore-mentioned trend-setters alone, spectacular as their contribution has been! For instance, there are the Georgian poets who set their own tradition and, therefore cannot be associated with the former.

But more than that, observers cannot fail to notice that there are others whose contribution, though not conforming to the norms and forms of the above mainstream, is yet of sufficient importance to deserve serious consideration and claim to leave its stamp upon their Age.

Of these, this writer thinks that Robert Frost and Edward Thomas are the foremost. These two have been writing very great poetry all the while, rich with wisdom and humanism.

Poetic talents

A few matters deserve the reader's attention before an attempt is made to make an assessment of the poetry of these two poets.

Firstly, it would be noticed that these two were contemporaries.

Thomas writing in England and Frost, on the other side of the Atlantic: Frost, long outlived Thomas who died quite young as a soldier while fighting in the First Great World War, at the age of 39 and so, could be called a poet of unfulfilled promise; it is important for the reader to note this fact because, the fuller development of Thomas' poetic talents seems to have been cut short by his early death, when considered together with Frost's later achievements with the development of his poetic skills and vision of life.

All the poetry that Thomas ever wrote has been collected into a slim volume (Faber) of a mere 190 pages whereas, Frost's Complete Poems run into a substantial volume (Holt) of nearly 600 pages; also, it might interest readers to note that these two poets were personally known to each other and that Frost was a great admirer of Thomas' poetry: one cannot fail to notice that in Frost's Collected Poetry, there is a short poem, "TO E.T.", addressed to Thomas.

Judging by their poetry, it is quite apparent that there was much in common between them, at least as far as their poetry was concerned, in concept, skills and technique and it would only be reasonable to call them kindred spirits of their age.

This statement, however, is made subject to certain reservations which would be discussed later in this paper. Reading their poetry, a curious fact emerges: that it is not easy to assign them to any well-demarcated 'School' or 'Tradition' of Poetry of their time.

Inspiration

Both deal extensively, as their stock in trade, with Nature; but, just as it would not be quite correct to group, say, Hopkins with the 'Nature' or 'Pastoral' poets, merely because a considerable part of his poetry uses Nature and natural phenomena, (as much as it is 'Religious poetry), it would not be fair to label Frost and Thomas as 'Nature poets'.

Nor did they write poetry of the genre made fashionable at the time, by Eliot and his group.

It is true these two were drawn to, and found solace and inspiration in the beauty, freshness and tranquillity in nature and the rural scene, but unlike the pastoral poets of the Georgian period, of whom, many could not proceed beyond the superficial charm of nature, Frost and Thomas certainly went beyond and drew a moral and spiritual sustenance from it: they wrote with rapture, of the trees, the meadows, the birds and of the unhurried life of the farmer, the shepherd and the woodsman but the difference between their poetry and the poetry of the former Nature poets is that in the poetry of Frost and Thomas there is more to it than hits the eye; often nature became a symbol for the mysteries of life: by Frosts own statement, his poetry began with joy and ended with wisdom; in the 'pastoral' poetry of Thomas, he constantly sought solutions to the mysteries of human life, his own self and consciousness; both of them spoke of an evident flaw or a lurking evil not too far from nature.

In the well-known poem, "Desert Places" Frost sees a field filling up with snow on a dark evening, creating a scene of desolation and loneliness but they do not scare him because, he says, he is conversant with greater loneliness because he has a greater loneliness within him. Thomas sees a dead tree covered with a flourishing coat of moss and lichen in which he sees death and decay all the while, amidst greenery and growth:

"Lichen, ivy and moss
Keep evergreen the trees
That stand half flayed and dying".
- from the Poem: "The Hollow Wood".

Again, in Thomas' short poem "The Owl", for instance, he is totally carried away by the peaceful rural scene of a wayside inn - of the silence, falling dusk, solitude, promise of shelter and warmth etc., where, coming as he does, cold hungry and seeking shelter for the night, he finds everything a traveller needs: food, fire, rest, security. But just as he settles down to enjoy it all, he hears", ... a melancholy note if an owl crying" and, at once, he says:

".... salted was my food and repose,
Salted and sobered too, by the bird's voice
Speaking for all who lay under the stars
Soldiers and the poor, unable to rejoice". (.... from: "The Owl").

Melancholy

Reading through the entire gamut of Thomas' poetry it is easy to do that for, it is a very limited one - one cannot escape the conclusion that the essential keynote that runs through it all could be summed up in the word, "Melancholy": indeed, the word surfaces very often in his poems and, sure enough, there is a poem too, titled, "Melancholy"!

Throughout his poetry there runs a deep sense of futility and negativeness. If one looks for his vision of life, it may be stated that, deeply sensitive to life as he is, he recoils from it. Seldom is laughter heard from his poetry and man seems abandoned to his fate:

here is how he says it:

"And God still sits aloft, in the array
That we have wrought him, stone deaf and stone blind".
from: "February Afternoon".

One more matter that seems needing comment: there seems to be in Thomas almost a pathological aversion to human presence; he seeks out places derelict and abandoned, overgrown with bush, dark forests, little-trodden and lonely paths:

"Dark hangs the sycamore,
Shadowing the kennel and bones
And the black dog that shakes his chain and moans.
And when he barks...
Dark echoes the reply,
And the hollow past
Half yields the dead that never
More than half-hidden lie."
... from: "Two Houses".

Pointing out this aspect of Thoma's poetry, should not in any way mean to diminish the greatness and the intensity of statement seen in his poetry.

Whatever other significance nature has for him, one cannot fail to hear the constant undertone of his lament over the ever-present sorrow too, integral to it. Here is the strident note heard:

"That's the cuckoo you say: I cannot hear it....
And I think even if I lose my deafness,
The cuckoo's voice would be drowned by the voice of my dead."
... from: "The Cuckoo".

Numerous poems from both these poets could be quoted on this attitude of theirs to nature on seeing falling leaves, in his poem, "Aspens", Thomas says:

"We cannot other than an aspen be
That ceaselessly and unreasonably grieves."

On this identical theme, Frost, on seeing falling leaves says, he is ready to launch on his last journey like them:

"I shall set forth for somewhere,
I shall take the reckless choice.....
I shall be gone."
From: "The Sound of Trees".

One more aspect that needs comment in Thomas' poetry is his obsession with the fleetness of Time: he seems to feel Time is a thief cutting him short: was it a premonition of his early death? He says:

"How dreary-swift, with nought to travel to.
Is Time! I cannot bite the day to the core."
From: "The Glory"

Even a poem like, "Will You Come?" of Thomas, which looks innocuous enough, in the form of a lover's call to his mate, voices just this anxiety, so pervasive in these poems; and, there are so many of them:

"If you come
Haste and come.
Owls have cried;
It grows dark
To ride.
Beloved, beautiful, come."
From: "Will You Come?"

This same theme is handled most exquisitely in his poems, "Tears", "Old Man" and "Celandine"; in this last,he tries to revive the memory of a friend he had got used to associating with the fragrance of the flower, Celandine, but try as he might, he fails to recall her to memory:

"Which made me sigh, remembering she was no more
Gone like a never perfectly remembered air".

Nuances

The other poem mentioned here which has receive much attention from numerous critics is, "Old Man", may be for the fine nuances of feeling it evokes: it is a herb with a pleasant, yet pungent fragrance, a "hoar-green, feathery" plant "almost a tree"; it leads him on a trail of memories. only he does not know of what! The poem could read a deeper meaning such as Man's futile search for himself:

"As for myself,
Where I met the better scent is lost.
I, too, often shrivel the grey shreds,
Sniff them and think and sniff again and try
Once more to think what it is I am remembering,
Always in vain."
From: "Old Man"

All this no doubt goes to underscore a certain perplexity with which Thomas is be devilled when trying to understand the mystery of life; in this matter Frost and Thomas seem to part ways: while Thomas is overwhelmed with the unanswered questions regarding life, Frost realising there are no solutions to its many mysteries, is reconciled to them and prefers to live with them.

This attitude of Frost will be dealt with later in this paper. Both draw inspiration from nature but that does not prevent them from seeing nature's closeness to Creation's primal state and realising Man's helplessness in the face Nature's insensitiveness to the frustrations, travails and griefs that be set human life.

Thomas is perplexed by it while Frost accepts it. In Frost's poem, "A Fallen Tree Across the Road", the tree symbolises the many set-backs and frustrations in life but he is not discouraged:

"And yet, she knows obstruction is in vain;
We will not be put off the final goal:
We have it hidden in us to attain."

And now, for a final word about Frost's poetry: if one reads through Frost's poetry beginning with his earliest,it would be seen that his early poetry lacked the depth and maturity witnessed in his later poetry and more than that: he had into yet developed his somewhat Stoic vision of life.

Periphery

To put it in another way, one might say that his early poetry was Nature-centred with man at the periphery whereas his last poetry was Man-centred with Nature at the periphery. This is not anything new with creative artists - this conceptual metamorphos is: for instance, Words worth's early Nature poetry was quite different from his final Nature poetry.

Though the poetry of the two poets run on parallel lines in many aspects, the poetry of Thomas has a certain depth but on a narrower spectrum while the poetry of Frost is on a wider spectrum, expansive and carries and additional dimension, not found in Thomas's work.

To demonstrate this, just one his poems (to prevent this paper from becoming too lengthy) from his last published Collection," In The Clearing" will be taken here bearing the same title. Here, there is a forest and a log-cabin in a little clearing within it where people live: on a dark night, mist and smoke (smoke, from the cabin) stand outside and eavesdrop on a conversation going on inside: on a close reading of the poem, it becomes clear that the forest smoke, mist and the dark night are all symbols to demonstrate the great confusion, disorientation and ignorance as to the many unanswered questions about Man's life, his antecedents birth, death and aftermath. Frost, in a masterly dialogue between the listening mist and smoke that he creates says:

"Mist: 'Why don't they ask the Red Man where they are?'
Smoke: 'They often do, but are none the wiser for it.
So do they ask the philosophers.....
They will ask anyone there is to ask.'"
From: "In The Clearing".

Obviously, the "they" Frost is refering to are collectively, benighted Man, drifting around in life ignorant of his bearings! Finally, critics have said, after T.S. Eliot and W.B. Yeats, Edward Thomas is the greatest poet of the 20th century: to this writer's mind, Robert Frost is no less great.

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