bunpeiris Literature

QUESTION [Undergraduate level, B.A. in English]

“Examine how international writers writing in English attempt to portray the social, cultural and political issues unique to their countries of origin, through the medium of poetry. Discuss with reference “Prayer Before Birth” by Louis Macneice,  “A worker Reads History” by Bertolt Brecht and “Slave’s Dream” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

ANSWER
By bunPeiris
Internationally renowned poets could well attempt to portray the social, cultural and political conflicts in their countries of origin, but such portrayals could as well be universal in their very essence too. And when not, such conflicts are at least semi-universal. That is to say, hemispheric. Either such conflicts are well dealt in affluent northern hemisphere or widlely spread in the poverty-stricken southern hemispere of our world.

Furthermore, notwithstanding the origin of the work of art or literature, they could reflect the most vital aspect of our very existence too: humanism. Once it is granted that humanism is a belief in individual freedom and independence as well as the responsibility and duty of human beings to one another, a common thread could be found in all prescribed poems. The poems titled, “Prayer Before Birth” by Louis Macneice (1902-1953) and “A worker Reads History” by Bertolt Brecht and “Slave’s Dream” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) too illuminate a definite streak of humanism.

Frederick Louis MacNeice CBE (1907 –1963), a British poet and playwright froM Northern Ireland in his poem titled “Prayer Before Birth” expresses a humane opposition to totalitarianism.
“I am not yet born; O here me,
Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God
come near me.

It is possible MacNeice would have penned the poem with the thoughts of long decades of oppression of Ireland by England, discrimination of Irish Catholics at the hands of English Protestants and Irish troubles in his mind. In such a perspective, it can be said that the poem portrays the social, cultural and political conflict unique to his country of origin. Nevertheless, the southern hemisphere of the world is splattered with countries that yearn to break free from the shackles of totalitarianism. As such it could be argued that the conflict is not merely national but universal. Then again, the conflict is presented in a perspective that reveals the foremost innate desire of every human: freedom. The poem expresses the wish of an unborn, still to be born, a fetus in the very womb: all it wants is a county free of totalitarianism. Therein is a poet who speaks against the suppressive totalitarianism. In this sense, the poem lends credence to its humanism.

Bertolt Brecht’s (1898-1956) poem titled ‘A worker Reads History” (1936) is a pure lamentation over the failure of the historical records to recognize the contribution, as dictated by the duty, of the common citizens, the workers, that is to say it is builders, masons, and laborers of all sorts, and last, yet not least the soldiers who make it possible for kings to build motherlands and conquer others’ lands

In spite of the leadership of the ruler, the body of workers being the main contributor to the advancement of the humanity, Brecht questions why should all the credit go to emperors and kings:
“Who built the seven gates of Thebes?
The books are filled with names of kings.
Was it the kings who hauled the craggy block of stone?

In 1936, Germany was a rising industrial and military powerhouse under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. The incredibly rapid rise of Germany was then credited solely to Hitler who would make the world go in flames in the time to come, during 1939-1946. Brecht may have composed the poem with thoughts of Hitler simmering in his mind. In this context, his poem could portray social, cultural and political conflicts in his motherland. Nevertheless, the rulers making certain that all the credit of victories and achievements of their countries attributed to them, is a phenomenon that is universal.  At the same time, the situation being seen worldwide, especially in the poverty-stricken lands or in the southern hemisphere, the poem brings forth the essential humanism.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) a Caucasian American, writing “The Slave’s Dream” reveals the yearning of a Caffre [Negro] slave to return to his homeland:
“Wide through the landscape of his dreams
The lordly Niger [River Nile] flowed;
Beneath the palm-trees on the plain
Once more a king he strode.”
In other words, the slave yearns for liberty, the longing of which is inherent in the humanity:
“The forest, with their myriad tongues,
Shouted of liberty;”

In this poem Longfellow presents a conflict in the era of slavery in U. S. A (1619–1865). But then slavery is not a conflict unique to America; it was practiced in many countries of contrasting civilizations in different eras. Longfellow’s “Poems on Slavery” that contain “The Slaves Dream”, a poem that run against then established practice of slavery, may have provoked the wrath of the slave owning European settlers and planters of tobacco, rice, indigo, cotton , and sugar plantations of the southern states of America. Nevertheless, Longfellow, an educationist (a highly respected professor at Bowdoin and later at Harvard College turned a prolific writer) would not be restrained in enlightening the public of the main conflict afflicting his land. Moreover, the poem is basically one of humanism, since the poet has chosen to present the yearning of freedom of millions put into the slavery, U.S. A. being a vast land that saw import of 6 to 7 million black slaves during the 18th century alone. 

In this perspective, in can be concluded that Internationally renowned poets writing in English even while making attempts to portray the social, cultural and political conflicts in their countries of origin, in the end bring into limelight the conflicts of universal dimensions. Furthermore, such are the conflicts illuminated in their poetry, most often they do reflect the most vital aspect of very existence of humans: humanism.

It is in such a perspective, that an attempt has been made herein to present an argument in line with Germany’s most celebrated writer, Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s  famous dictum: “National literature does not mean much at present, it is time for the era of world literature and everybody must endeavor to accelerate this epoch” (Eckermann 198, 31 January 1827) (The Goethean Concept of World Literature and Comparative Literature)

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Works Cited

“The Goethean Concept of World Literature and Comparative Literature.” n.d. Purdue University. Ed. Hendrik Birus. 3 August 2019. <https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1090&context=clcweb>.