The Old English Exodus and the Bible, paper 2008

The OE Exodus – A Heroic Epic and the Bible


1. Introduction
2. In General
3. The Heroic Character
4. The Epical Poem
5. Conclusion
Sources


1. Introduction

Exodus is the second book of the Old Testament. It is also called the Second Book of Moses. [Footnote 1: Moses is supposed to have written Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deutoronomy; the first five books in the bible. (Authorized King James version and New International version.) In the Lutheran bible they are called the First to Fifth Book of Moses.] In this paper, I will compare the Old English Exodus and that in the King James version of the Holy Bible with regard to differences in their respective contents. Also, I am going to point out how the Old English Exodus is contrasted against the Bible Exodus through its narrative style and vocabulary. For references to the Old English Exodus, I will use the Old English text with its translations in Modern English by Bradley and Tolkien, and the German translation by Busse. [Footnote 2: Bradley (transl.). Exodus. http://app.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/ilias/ilias.php?baseClass=ilPersonalDesktopGUI [31.01.2008]. (Quoted as Bradley in following footnotes.)
Tolkien, J.R.R. (1981). The Old English ‘Exodus’. Text, Translation, and Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Busse (transl.). The Old English Exodus. http://www.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/anglist1/html/exodus.html [24.11.2007]] As Bible reference, I will use the Authorized King James version, as mentioned above. [Footnote 3: The Holy Bible. King James Version. World Bible Publishers, Iowa Falls, USA. (Quoted as King James in following footnotes.)] The Bible was translated under King James and published in 1611. The Old Testament was translated from the Masoretic Hebrew text.


2. In General

Concerning the content, or the story-line, the OE Exodus represents only a small fraction of what is told in the Bible Exodus. The OE Exodus basically leaves out everything save the actual exodus – the Israelites’ leaving of Egypt. Instead, it recounts the near-encounter between Pharaoh’s army and the fleeing Israelites on the coast of the Red Sea with great vigour. This part contains vivid descriptions of the advancing Egyptians and the Israelites’ reaction, and a long speech Moses delivers to his frightened followers. Towards the end, in the course of the Hebrews’ triumph over Pharaoh, the OE Exodus also recounts several parts of Genesis.

Overall, it is written in the distinct style of a heroic epic poem. It addresses an audience directly and has attributes that are characteristic for heroic epics. The long introductory part, in which the audience is addressed first, and the two adversaries; Moses and Pharaoh, are introduced, strongly suggests that the text was meant to be delivered orally. In lines 1-7, the audience is hailed, and in the following lines up to line 22 Moses and Pharaoh are introduced as the champions for the forces of good and evil:

“Hwæt! We feor and neah gefrigen habað “Listen! far and near throughout the world we have heard
ofer middangeard Moyses domas, worthies tell of the decrees of Moses
wræclico wordriht, wera cneorissum,- and of exilic promises to the generations of mortals–
in uprodor eadigra gehwam of the reward of life in heaven for each of the blessed
æfter bealusiðe bote lifes, after the hazardous journey,
lifigendra gehwam langsumne ræd,- and of everlasting profit for each living soul.
hæleðum secgan. Gehyre se ðe wille! Let him who will, give heed.
þone on westenne weroda drihten, Him the Lord of the heavenly hosts, the King
soðfæst cyning, mid his sylfes miht steadfast in truth, distinguished in the desert
gewyrðode, and him wundra fela, with his own authority, and the eternal Ruler
ece alwalda, in æht forgeaf. of all put many miraculous powers at his disposal.
He wæs leof gode, leoda aldor, He was loved by God, a shrewd and wise elder of his people,
horsc and hreðergleaw, herges wisa, leader of the army and a bold commander.
freom folctoga. Faraones cyn, He curbed the nation of Pharaoh,
godes andsacan, gyrdwite band, God’s adversary, by chastisement with the rod,
þær him gesealde sigora waldend, when the Lord of victories vouchsafed to him,
modgum magoræswan, his maga feorh, their courageous mentor. the life of his compatriots,
onwist eðles, Abrahames sunum. and to the sons of Abraham the habitation of a homeland.
Heah wæs þæt handlean and him hold frea, Divine was the retribution of his hand and loyal his Lord:
gesealde wæpna geweald wið wraðra gryre, he granted him supremacy of arms against the violence of raging foes,
ofercom mid þy campe cneomaga fela, and by this means he vanquished in battle the sovereignty of many tribes,
feonda folcriht.” his enemies.” [Footnote 4: ll. 1-22 in Bradley.]


It is not evident at which point the introductory part of the narrative ends. The introduction of the figures of Moses and his antagonist seem to give way fluently to a short summarising notice of what will happen in the following story, or else a general description of Moses’ role. Because this half-line seems to pose a transition to the narration of the story, I decided on the 22nd line as the ending of the introductory part. After the part quoted above, the text continues:
“feonda folcriht. ða wæs forma sið “his enemies. That was the first time
þæt hine weroda god wordum nægde,” that the God of the heavenly hosts spoke words to him,” [Footnote 5: l. 22 f. in Bradley.]

which recounts Moses’ and Jehovah’s first encounter, in which Moses is assigned the task of leading the Israelites. This point marks the beginning of the account of the Exodus.


3. The Heroic Character

As for Moses, the main character in this poem, he is presented as a heroic chief and warrior – as opposed to the humble servant to God he is in the Bible. He is morphed into a courageous leader of people, presumably to appeal to the audience who might not have been too impressed by a figure such as the Moses of the Bible. The Moses of the OE Exodus is closer to figures like Beowulf or Weland [Footnote 6: Weland is a character in the poem Deor.] than to his own biblical prototype.
“Fyrd wæs gefysed, from se ðe lædde, “The army was filled with anticipation, and intrepid was the one
modig magoræswa, mægburh heora.” who led their nation, a courageous mentor.” [Footnote 7: l. 54 f. in Bradley.]

The presentation of the protagonist in the OE version is probably what the audience of before 1000 A.D. on the British Isles would have been most used to listening to.
Moses is described as “siððan hie feondum” (l. 64; translated as “the man of assured glory” by Bradley).
While the biblical version of him acts with the help of his brother-in-law, Aaron, as speaker because he does not deem himself eloquent enough to speak to all the tribes to follow him, there is no mention in the OE Exodus whatsoever of Moses second-guessing himself or not being entirely certain about something.

“10 And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, [...] but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.” [Footnote 8:Exodus 4:10 in King James.]

The Moses of the Bible is in continual counsel with Jehovah over every move he and the Israelites should undertake.
The OE version Moses on the other hand delivers a fourty lines long pep talk to the Israelites at the prospect of the Egyptians advancing on them. In lines 259-298 he encourages the frightened people camping on the coast of the Red Sea to trust in his and their god’s powers:
“‘Hwæt, ge nu eagum to on lociað, “’Behold! now shall you, the most cherished of nations,
folca leofost, færwundra sum, gaze with your own eyes upon an instant miracle,
hu ic sylfa sloh and þeos swiðre how I myself and this stronger hand have struck
grene tacne garsecges deop.” with a living emblem the ocean deep.” [Footnote 9: ll. 287 ff. in Bradley.]

This Moses does not have to be reassured, instead he is the one who consoles his followers. He does this in God’s name, but seemingly on his own accord, since no counsel by “this stronger hand” is recounted.
Even though the fleeing Israelites are intimidated by their pursuers, they never question Moses’ authority or the rightfulness of his decisions, let alone threaten his person in the OE Exodus. All of this happens in the Bible Exodus.
“11 And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? [...] For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.” [Footnote 10: Exodus 14:11,12 in King James.]

They hold Moses responsible for the hardships they endure since leaving Egypt. Everytime they meet an obstacle they cannot seem to overcome, they accuse Moses of having mislead them. In Exodus 17:3 the people “murmur against” him for being thirsty in the desert, and in 17:4 Moses “cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.” None of this occurs in the OE Exodus. There Moses is the undisputed, trusted leader of “modigra mægen” (l. 300; translated as “an army of spirited men” by Bradley).
This characterisation of a heroic protagonist is one of the properties that make this poem a heroic epic.


4. The Epical Poem

Another attribute of a heroic epic this poem features is its epical and martial content. In the Old English Exodus matters are presented spectacular and dramatic.
When the Egyptians advance on the Israelites’ encampment on the coast of the Red Sea, their military set-up is described in a detailed, but poetic manner:
“Hwilum of þam werode wlance þegnas “At intervals haughty officers from among the army
mæton milpaðas meara bogum. ranged the highways on horseback.
Him þær segncyning wið þone segn foran, There before them, by the banner, rode the bannered king,
manna þengel, mearcþreate rad; the ruler over men, with the ensign contingent.
guðweard gumena grimhelm gespeon, The warriors’ warlord fastened his visored helmet,
cyning cinberge, (cumbol lixton), the king his cheek-guard, in anticipation of fighting;
wiges on wenum, wælhlencan sceoc, the ensigns shone forth. He shook his mail-coat
het his hereciste healdan georne and commanded his troop of picked men zealously to hold
fæst fyrdgetrum. Freond onsegon fast their battle array. With eyes full of hate
laðum eagan landmanna cyme. the friends watched the advance of the landlubbers.
Ymb hine wægon wigend unforhte, About him moved unfearing soldiers,
hare heorowulfas hilde gretton, hoary sword-wolves; they welcomed warfare,
þurstige þræcwiges, þeodenholde. thirsting for the violence of battle, loyal to their leader.
Hæfde him alesen leoda dugeðe He had picked himself a force of two thousand people,
tireadigra twa þusendo, gloriously privileged according to the right of wealth,
þæt wæron cyningas and cneowmagas, who were kings and kinsfolk
on þæt eade riht, æðelum deore. esteemed for their lineage.
Forðon anra gehwilc ut alædde Each one consequently led out
wæpnedcynnes, wigan æghwilcne every male, every soldier
þara þe he on ðam fyrste findan mihte. he could find on that occasion.
Wæron ingemen ealle ætgædere, All the kings, those belonging to that land,
cyningas on corðre. Cuð oft gebad were gathered in his retinue. Repeatedly a familiar trumpet
horn on heape to hwæs hægstealdmen, made its proclamation among the horde, as to where the young warriors,
guðþreat gumena, gearwe bæron.” a belligerent troop of men, should carry their war-gear.” [Footnote 11: ll. 170-193 in Bradley.]

Although the Egyptian forces are described as a worthy army, rather than with strong contempt, there are words in this part which may mark them as the antagonists here. Assuming a negative connotation of each, the words “haughty” (l. 170), “zealously” (l. 177), and “horde” (l. 192) in the translation, along with stressing that Pharaoh’s army is eager for battle strongly several times, it should be unmistakable for the listener that they are not to be sympathised with.
Like this issue, which takes up a single verse in the Bible, [Footnote 12: Exodus 14:9 in King James.] others have been exploited similarly for their potentially exciting content. Others have been left out. For example the verses in which Jehovah speaks – not only in the 14th chapter, but in all of Exodus – have been ignored entirely.
Instead, the parts that were picked out to be told in more detail are enhanced, and their spectacular parts stressed particularly through a distinctive choice of words.
“þa þær folcmægen for æfter oðrum, “Then there advanced one tribal power after the other
isernhergum.” in iron-clad squadrons.” [Footnote 13: ll. 347,348 in Bradley. See also ll. 170-193: “grimhelm,” “cinberge,” “wælhlencan,” or l. 164: “Wulfas sungon.” Due to the volume of the OE Exodus and the limited space I am allowed for this paper, I quoted only a few examples.]

To provide a means for the audience to be able to relate to the story, it has been equipped with a vocabulary that somewhat distorts the original setting.
This terminology allows the medieval audience to be familiarised with this story, which was originally set in the entirely foreign north-east Africa. It accommodates the customs of an entertaining story, rather than a primarily religious text made to instruct.


5. Conclusion

The OE Exodus alters the original plot and setting to a large extent. Were it not for the names and the recounts of the first chapters of Exodus in the beginning of the Old English version, it would be changed almost beyond recognition.
This text probably never served any serious liturgical purpose. It bears a strong religious message, but it has been adjusted so as to appeal to an audience that wants to be entertained, not taught religion. Regarding the age of its oldest manuscript however, it might very well have been used in the course of Christianisation. [Footnote 14: C. 960-990 A.D. (See Leslie Lockett The dating of Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 11, Anglo-Saxon England 31 (2002), 144.)]


Sources

Primary
Old English text and Modern English translation:
Bradley (transl.). Exodus. http://app.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/ilias/ilias.php?baseClass=ilPersonalDesktopGUI [31.01.2008]

Old English text and German translation:
Busse (transl.). The Old English Exodus. http://www.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/anglist1/html/exodus.html [24.11.2007]

Tolkien, J.R.R. (1981). The Old English ‘Exodus’. Text, Translation, and Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press

The Holy Bible. King James Version. World Bible Publishers, Iowa Falls, USA.


Secondary

Tolkien, J.R.R. (1981). The Old English ‘Exodus’. Text, Translation, and Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Gordon, R.K. (1970). Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Everyman’s Library 794. Letchworth, Herts: Aldine Press

Remley, Paul G. (1996). Old English Biblical Verse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Leslie Lockett The dating of Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 11, Anglo-Saxon England 31 (2002), 144

Symbolism in Modern War Poetry, paper from 2009

Symbolism in Modern War Poetry

1. Introduction
2.1. Symbolism
2.2. Yeats’ Symbolism
3.1. Yeats: An Irish Airman foresees his Death
3.2. Owen: Dulce Et Decorum Est and comparison with Yeats
4. Conclusion
Bibliography


1. Introduction

With this paper I am going to try to point out a link between Symbolism and modern war poetry, specifically poetry of the Great War. The leading symbolist English language poets are not generally associated with modern war poetry. Their accomplishments in the evolution of English poetry, however, were picked up and employed in war poetry by other writers.
The examples I picked to analyse and contrast after giving an introduction to Symbolism are William Butler Yeats’ An Irish Airman foresees his Death and Wilfred Owen’s war poem Dulce Et Decorum Est. An Irish Airman is not supposed be a typical example of Yeats’ Symbolism but the best working example to compare war poetry. I am going to give an introduction to Yeats’ Symbolism in a separate chapter and use different poems as examples.


2.1. Symbolism

Symbolism is described in The Cambridge companion to modernism (Cambridge, 1999: 74) as exemplifying extreme poesis in its presentation. Through symbolic correspondences and stylistic elaboration it depicts the world in different layers and connects human feelings to natural events, and spiritual worlds of ideas (sometimes similar to Plato’s world of ideas) to tangible reality. It works through associations, the symbolic items are meant to evoke a particular feeling or thought in the recipient of the respective symbolist work (be it prose, poetry, or otherwise), and as opposed to simple metaphors they are part of a whole system of symbols in which they operate, to create a whole new layer of meaning. (London. 1971: 1) The surface layer of a poem, the literal meaning of its words, does not just contain symbols hinting at the hidden meaning of the poem, it is an entire symbolic web of images serving as the foreground of the poem. The purpose of this is not to poetically narrate a certain incident, but to evoke a particular mood or idea in the reader through which they might arrive at an understanding of the idea, feeling, or event told in the poem.
One of Symbolism’s great aims was to (re)claim the powerful thought- and feeling-evoking properties of music for words. (London. 1971: 44; London. 1947: 13) Richard Wagner’s works, which were very popular during the last decades of the 19th century, seemed to the symbolist Valéry and his peers to express more than classical music had before, and seemed to do it more powerfully with its ferocity, echoing in the listeners and not merely presenting the music to them, but using it to create feelings and thoughts in them. This is how Wagner’s style was perceived by the French symbolists, who were aiming at exactly the same thing with their own craft of writing which Wagner seemed to accomplish through music. For this purpose they broke up the traditional stiff verse and rhythm of French poetry and produced poems with irregular rhythm and irregular numbers of syllables. Arthur Rimbaud, a particularly progressive French symbolist, followed the example Baudelaire and Verlaine and even went so far as to discard rhyme and verses altogether in some of his work, dubbed “prose poems” (London. 1971: 26).1 With this particular form of poetry a likeness to the flow that music has is created through the coherence of the single images, or thoughts, giving them an impression of belonging together as a unity, where the line breaks of verses would have separated them. The “poetry” aspect of this kind of writing is accounted for by other means. It is the lyrical and symbolic nature of it which justify it being called a poem. Its lyricalness is another important likeness to the properties of music. Beautiful sounding words are essential to the creation of a smooth flow in reading a text and to its conveyed content and meaning: “Proper regard for the sound of poetry” is one of “the most lasting contributions of Symbolism to the modern world” (London. 1947: 15). This goal to incorporate musical qualities into poetry was adopted outside of French Symbolism and persued in a similar manner, by Symbolists using other languages and by related movements like Imagism.


2.2. Yeats’ Symbolism

In William Butler Yeats’ time the understanding of the human identity was subject to a number of definitions and theories that favoured a very detailed view on psyche, and for Yeats symbolism was a way of defragmentation of the human identity. (London. 1983: 24) By way of drawing parallels between the mind and the outside world he wanted to reconcile it with nature.
He developed a system of interdependent symbols not merely representing each other, but meant to evoke a sense or the idea of the respective corresponding item. (London. 1983: 26) This is something the French symbolists already strove to achieve, and Yeats adopted this aim and worked towards it with a meticulously developed system of symbols. The correspondences in his system are however not fixed but flexible in their associative links. Depending on the symbols which accompany them they can mean a variety of things. “Winter” does not necessarily always correspond to the idea of “death”, and a “storm” does not always evoke an idea of uncontrolled force. However, through thorough observation and even experimenting with friends Yeats arrived at a system of symbols which offers a pool of connected ideas for each single item, which can be evoked by using just the one symbol. He seemed to have taken to the elements and directions in particular. In A Memory of Youth (London. 1984: 123), for example, age and passing time in the form of “A cloud blown from the cut-throat north” (l. 6) puts a sudden end to the lyrical I’s “Love’s moon”, the romantic atmosphere of the love to a woman. A stark contrast between age and youth by symbols is given in Men improve with the Years (p. 136): The grown, aged man is “A weather-worn, marble triton //Among the streams;” (l. 2,3; 17,18) set against “burning youth” (l. 15). The weather-worn marble among the waters evokes a sense of cold stillness, something that is rigid among living, moving things (“among the streams”). It frames the whole poem, both on the textual layer and as the lyrical I’s whole situation. The poem offers one glimpse of the contrasting vitality in line 15 with the expression “burning youth”.
In accordance with the French Symbolists’ interdisciplinary take on their craft Yeats also “would have all the arts draw together,” to “recover their ancient assocation” (Syracuse. 2003: 1). This purpose of his poetry is also illustrated by the aforementioned poems. The strong visual character of their images, which are all very easily conceivable in the simplicity in which they are presented (simply a moon, a cloud, a marble statue), support the intention to evoke a sense of the meaning of the poem evoked by the particular array of images, rather than an understanding of it by deducing and piecing it together from their individual meanings.


3.1. Yeats: An Irish Airman foresees his Death

The example of a symbolist poem by Yeats that I am going to analyse is An Irish Airman foresees his Death. (London. 1984: 135) It is a dramatic poem, relating the thoughts of a fighter pilot who contemplates his current situation and the decisions that have led him to it.

William Butler Yeats: An Irish Airman foresees his Death
(The Wild Swans at Coole 1919)

I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross, 5
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds, 10
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind 15
In balance with this life, this death.

The poem consists of 16 lines with four cross-rhyming quadruplets. Not being divided into separate stanzas, the poem’s verses’ unity represents one consistent stream of thought. Several words and phrases are repeated in this poem, which might represent the lyrical I’s dwelling on the same thought and mulling it over thoroughly. “The clouds” in the second verse is repeated in the twelfth, with small changes to the phrasing of the supposed same situation, but in fact this similarity between these two lines brings to the surface a slight progress of the situation. The vague “Somewhere among the clouds above” becomes a more specific “this tumult in the clouds”. This indicates that time is passing and events are taking place in the background, not stated directly in the poem, but taken notice of, even as the lyrical I is entertaining his thoughts in the foreground. The contrast between the future tense in the first line (“I shall meet my fate”) and the deictic “this death”, referring to the present, in the last line supports this notion as well.
From beginning to end the lyrical I is certain of his fate, and content with it. He is merely contemplating his reasons and current situation in a calm manner, listing repetetively as if taking stock: “Those that I [...] I do not [...]” (l. 3) and “Those that I [...] I do not [...]” (l. 4); “My country [...] Kiltartan” (l. 5) and “My countrymen Kiltartan’s” (l. 6); “Nor law, nor duty” (l. 9), “Nor public men, nor cheering crouds” (l. 10); “I balanced all” (l. 13) returns in l. 16: “In balance with”; “The years to come” (l. 14) and “the years behind” (l. 15); and finally “waste of breath” (l. 14) is repeated in l. 15. This repeating of words and phrases could either show that it is a very short time in which these thoughts occur to the airman, and that there is simply no time for refinement, or that his thoughts branch out, and that more than one end of a thought are connected to its beginning: If all except making a difference in action in the war and dying in the course of it is “a waste of breath”, then listing a few instances of that which would be such a waste (“The years to come”, “the years behind”) is a simpler and quicker way of putting it than trying to explain the signifance of the action.
As an outsider without any first hand war experience the view on war in Yeats’ poems never touches on the action; it is limited to Yeats’ own experience and knowledge of the war. The war, specifically, the Great War, is only ever mentioned in his poems as a cause for death and loss, with death or loss being the actual topic which is dealt with. Apart from On being asked for a War Poem (Oxford. 2007: 288), An Irish Airman foresees his Death is Yeats’ only poem that touches upon the topic of World War I more or less directly – at least it uses the war as its setting.


3.2. Owen: Dulce Et Decorum Est and comparison with Yeats

Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen is the example of war poetry that I am going to contrast with Yeats’ symbolist work. It is not a symbolist poem per se, but it has traces of symbolism, which I am going to point out.

Wilfred Owen: Dulce Et Decorum Est (1917)

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots                    5
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;                                10
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,                           15
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;                            20
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest                25
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Like An Irish Airman foresees his Death this is a dramatic poem. The lyrical I, as opposed to Yeats’ airman, might very well be identical to Owen or at least a character modelled on him, because at the time when we wrote this poem he had already been in action, and the events described here are likely to have happened to him (Harlow. 1969; Harlow. 1975).
At first the war was even welcomed by the young who were eager to modernise and revolutionise the world, but over time, it dissolved all romantic prejudices about heroicism in war times, and the realisation of its unprecedented horrors settled in and began to show in poets’ works. Rupert Brooke was one of the soldier-poets whose work exhibited a lot of patriotic pathos and heroicism. He died early in service, so that his works did not address the more uncomfortable advanced stages of the war, and kept to their conventional form and their patriotism. However, this initial patriotic eagerness, which is accentuated in Brooke’s and others’ poetry, gets a mention in Dulce Et Decorum Est in the form of its title and at the end of the last stanza.
The title opens the poem with an optimistic sounding citation, deliberately omitting the uncomfortable “dying” part, but this con is quickly revealed as irony as the poem proceeds with the description of a grim situation which could not be less “sweet” or “honourable”. The whole sentence is cited at the end of the poem. The lyrical I concludes in ll. 27: “It is sweet and honourable” is a lie, and only the “dying” part is true – which must be why “Pro patria mori” is set apart from “Dulce et decorum est” by a line break. As if it were a final realisation, this fact of “dying for the fatherland” is the very last verse of the poem. It is also the shortest verse, with only six syllables, cutting the poem short of half a verse and thus lending these three short words more weight and profundity. In a way, this abrupt ending of the poem in its form exemplifies the meaning of the very last word, “mori”. This is an example of how in this poem the possibilities of combining form and content are used, which is similar to the aim of the symbolists to reconcile and unite separate media.
Rhythm and metre are irregular in this poem. Trochees are identifiable in the metre, but they are frequently interrupted by additional stressed and unstressed syllables. It can be read fast and erratically. Anyhow this irregularity throughout the poem makes it seem direct and unmediated and gives the reader a strong impression of a thrilling story, or of being allowed a relatively unaltered view on events. Were it not for the complete, complex sentences this would qualify as a stream of consciousness. In lines 6 and 7 – “All went lame; all blind; //Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots” – “blind”, “drunk”, and “deaf” are added to the preceding simple sentence as if they were just coming to mind in the moment of utterance. The same goes for line 16: “He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.”
These seemingly spontaneous listings, the length of the lines – depending on the pronunciation of the syllables each line except for the last has 10 to 12 syllables – and enjambements in the first and the last stanza all lend an impression of prose to the poem. It could almost be read as prose-poetry, or as an erratic stream of thought. The division into stanzas and the unfailing cross rhymes, however, lend the text the formal regularity of a traditional poem, although the second stanza is disrupted with a blank line between lines 14 and 15. This additional blank line, like the broken-off last verse of the poem, inserts a meaningful pause expressed through a formal aspect. The second stanza describes a soldier’s death by choking on gas: “Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light //As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.” (ll. 13) The folling blank line has the effect of a thinking pause, because then a very personal amendment is added: “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, //He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.” (ll. 15) These two verses tell of the lyrical I’s life after the events recounted in the rest of the poem, and of their current private thoughts, hence the displacement of these lines from the rest of the stanza.
Dulce Et Decorum Est contains traces of symbolism, and it also incorporates the elements into its system of association. It is not as intricate and carefully planned out as Yeats’ symbolism, but it is undeniably there. Recurring water- or liquid-related associations suggest an underlying system with water as symbol: “through sludge” (l. 2), “Drunk with fatigue” (l. 7), “floundering” (l. 12), “As under a green sea, I saw him drowning” (l. 14), “He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning” (l. 16), “gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs” (l. 22). These water-related images are all closely associated with imminent death. The whole poem deals with imminent death, but these specific images are specifically linked with dying, the idea of being “drunk with fatigue” and equating the fatal gas with a sea are not merely metaphors but indicate a whole set of associations behind these links.
The elements in this poem are interwoven: In the second stanza Owen links air (“GAS! Gas!”, “misty panes and thick green light”), fire (“fire or lime”), and water (“green sea”, “drowning”) to the same event; a soldier choking on poison gas. He “flounders like a man in fire”, is “drowning” like in water, but really it is the surrounding air (gas) that kills him. This might be a hint that a certain order of things is forfeit in the face of death in a war. Most importantly however it demonstrates the symbolist characteristic of a set of images functioning together and encompassing the main component, as described by Ellmann:
“the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water frequently are good examples of cooperative symbols. They set up eddies of association which are auxiliary to the main symbol of the poem. That main or emphatic symbol is a centre of attraction around which the mood gathers” (London. 1983: 63).

Note that Ellmann describes Yeats’ symbols here, and how well this description matches the second stanza of Dulce Et Decorum Est.
Yeats’ poetry is completely dedicated to symbolism with traditional subjects like love, death, and beauty, and scratches upon the surface of the matter of war only within the boundaries of these subjects. It is the personal view of an outsider on it, for whom the war is a matter of fact, a circumstance that is not to be mulled over. Owen on the other hand presents the view of someone who is directly affected. This imminence of the situation Dulce Et Decorum Est is concerned with and which he tries to convey, prevents him from employing any intricate, refined and complex symbolist system such as the kind Yeats always used. Yeats’ poems are all unfailingly carefully structured, very neat and orderly in traditional forms, often identifiable through his symbolism, whereas Owen and other soldier-poets gradually discarded traditional order and subtlety by breaking up the form of their poetry in order to evoke the desired ideas and feelings in the reader. Baudelaire, Verlaine, and Rimbaud employed similar tactics with their prose poems, but the symbolists of Yeats’ kind stuck to strict, closed verse form and focused on their neatly woven-in interdependent symbols in their pursuit to stimulate their readers’ minds.
Yeats tried to ignore the war. He created poetry for poetry’s sake, with a clear-cut idea of appropriate topics. Owen on the other hand subordinated poetry to the war, his main focus. Breaks in verses, stanzas, and rhythm in his poetry (Dulce Et Decorum Est) show that for him poetry was the tool, not the purpose, of his work. By trying to convey certain impressions of war experiences via poetry he made use of methods similar to the ones which symbolists used to accomplish their connections between disciplines (poetry, music) and different levels of thought and perception (concrete images, moods).


4. Conclusion

Symbolism has played a vital role in the evolution of poetry in general, and has influenced poetry beyond its initial goals. It seeped into other schools and movements and has affected the works of poets who were not consciously symbolists and who are not even chiefly associated with the movement. Wilfred Owen, who was not even acknowledged or appreciated as a proper poet, let alone as a peer in Symbolism, by W. B. Yeats, was, as I tried to show with this paper, observably affected by Symbolism. The mysticism of Symbolism and the stark, shocking depictions of war action in WWI poetry are compatible after all, as the symbolist traces in Dulce Et Decorum Est prove, even if the full blown symbolist Yeats denies Owen’s and his fellow soldier-poets’ works’ profundity and originality. Even if some of these war poets may not even have been consciously aware of this symbolist influence, they have incorporated it in their works.


Bibliography

Bergmann Loizeaux, Elizabeth. 2003. Yeats and the Visual Arts. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

Blunden, Edmund. 1969. Writers and their works. War Poets 1914 – 1918. Harlow: Longmans, Green & Co Ltd.

Bowra, Cecil Maurice. 1947. The Heritage of Symbolism. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd.

Chadwick, Charles. 1971. "Symbolism". In: Jump, D. John (ed.). 1971. The Critical Idiom 16. London: Methuen & Co Ltd.

Ellmann, Richard. 1983. The Identity of Yeats. London: Faber and Faber.

Graves, Robert. 1971. THE COMMON ASPHODEL. London: Hamish Hamilton.

Hibberd, Dominic. 1975. Writers and their works. Wilfred Owen. Harlow: Longman Group Ltd.

Kendall, Tim (ed.). 2007. The Oxford Handbook of British and Irish War Poetry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Levenson, Michael H. (ed.) and Bell, Michael. 1999. The Cambridge companion to modernism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Owen, Wilfred. 1918. "Dulce Et Decorum Est." (19.08.2009)

Yeats, William Butler. 1984. The Poems A new edition. London: Macmillan.



- The Insect

Lewis Carroll, 2007

Lewis Carroll – Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

On January 27th in 1832, Lewis Carroll was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, at Daresbury parsonage, Cheshire. His family’s strong religious heritage and his education at Christ Church, Oxford, sparked his starting a religious career (he became a reverend), but his stammer and general shyness prevented him from gaining a higher position than deacon or holding sermons on a regular basis.
His father Charles, also a reverend, apparently conveyed his sense of nonsensical humour and his interest in mathematics to him, because his son studied and, from 1855 on, taught mathematics at Christ Church, Oxford. He remained lecturer at the college up to his death in 1898 (Jan. 14th). His lectures were said to be exceptionally boring, and in fact his contributions to mathematical studies were few and not of any great significance to the academic community.
However Rev. C.L. Dodgson had a keen interest in all sorts of logical and mathematical problems and puzzles, and as a lover of games – mind games especially – invented a great deal of games himself.
He also sported a deep – and apparently nonsexual - affection towards little girls.
Alice Liddell, one of the three daughters of the Dean of Christ Church, is very often referred to as Carroll’s “great love.” She used to be his favourite child friend during her childhood, and also one of his favourite motifs for photography. (He did not only portray his child friends, but also grown-ups, adult friends, family, and celebrities, developing great skill in the new art.) Alice Liddell, whose name he borrowed for his most famous literary works, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, remained a friend, whom he wrote often and received letters from.

Dodgson’s first completed literary work was a collection of poems titled Useful and Instructive Poetry (1845), which was not published until 1954. It already hints at thoughts about dreams and the state of sleep and fantasies which Carroll later used to produce Alice.
How the actual story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland came to be is recorded in his diary. On July 4th in 1862, on an afternoon trip near Oxford with the three Liddell sisters, they urged him to tell a story, which he later wrote out, originally just for Alice Liddell to read. His friend George Macdonald (author of At the Back of the North Wind, published in 1871) however persuaded him to have it published. John Tenniel consented to contribute illustrations to Alice, and a publisher, Macmillan, was found. The book then became an immediate success.
Because of its several different possible approaches to interpretation, it has invited children and grown-ups alike to read. It has been published in over a hundred languages, and has never lost any of its popularity. There are numerous adaptations of Alice in the forms of books, comics, TV series, movies, stage plays, and even computer and video games. There is even a store dedicated to Alice in Oxford (the Sheepshop).
With Alice, Lewis Carroll has contributed an exceptional and unequaled piece of literature to the genre of children’s books, the fantastical and nonsensical elements of which have been fascinating millions of readers and inspiring other artists. To this day, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland is an important classic, the most famous nonsensical novel in the world, and might still be the most famous children’s book as well.

Bibliography
Magazines:
Derek Hudson, Writers And Their Work: 96 (1966)
Books:
Lewis Carroll, The Annotated Alice (Norwich: Fletcher & Son Ltd, 1976)
Stuart Dodgson Collingwood, The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll (Rev. C.L. Dodgson) (New York: The Century Co., 1898)
Sidney Herbert Williams and Falconer Madan, The Lewis Carroll Handbook (London: Oxford UP, 1962)