'poetry, the word at its most eloquent, is one medium which could concentrate our attention on our worst experiences without leaving us with the feeling, as other media can, that life in this century has had its affirmative spirit burnt out'

“The charred head of an Iraqi soldier leans through the windscreen on his burned out vehicle, Febuary 28th. He died when a convoy of Iraqi vehicles was attacked by allied forces”.

Poetry, which has been described as a crisis without a story, allows the poet to take a fragment and turn it into a moment of intense feeling thereby showing the reader a new way of looking at the world. A Cold Coming does this from line 10 onwards

I read the news of three wise men

who left their sperm in nitrogen

three foes of ours, three wise Marines

with sample flasks and magazines,

(lines 22-24)

Here we see Harrison recording the voice of the charred Iraqi, bringing into play a certain comedic element along with the religious, although we know this to be a fantasy conversation, Harrison introduces facts that not many people reading the newspapers would have learned.

It has been argued that the lyrical resentment of war poets such as Wilfred Owen may have influenced anti-war polemics such as A Cold Coming.

However during an interview with the Guardian newspaper Harrison states that has been able to make use of his own periodic descents into darkness, into depression as another instrument of discovery

"Death gives us all our appetite. Eros and Thanatos. The idea of death gives us our sexual impulse. It's not a canceller of appetite, it's an enhancer. If you really are aware of it, then it gives you an immense capacity for living in the here and now. Feeling your sorrows to the full, as well as your joy. And most people have more sorrows than joys."

Tony Harrison has acknowledged the pessimism of his own poetry,. Even so, poetry is a valuable form of communication because of the continued cultural value placed upon it by society and its continual impact upon society, because of its capability of expressing complex human emotions, and because of its quality of inviting moral and social inquiry.With lines such as

Stars and Stripes in sticky paws

May sow the seeds for future wars

Each Union Jack the kids now wave

May lead them later to the grave

(lines 134-136)

Harrison uses the image of children’s flag waving patriotism in such a way as to raise the moral eyebrows of his critics, perhaps Harrison is taking from the poet Wilfred Owen who once stated that all poets can do is warn

A Cold Coming carries a very definite warning about the futility of war, Here, we see Harrison condemning the nations misplaced patriotism with the lines.

But cabs beflagged with SUN front pages

Don’t help peace in future ages

(lines 131-132)

His [Harrison’s] ability to portray not only the macabre, but also the sarcastic humour in the simple, but effective rhyme we see in A Cold Coming can, perhaps, be associated with Harrison’s likening the rhyme of a poem to his ‘life support system’, Rosemary Burton argues, in Bloodaxe’s Critical Anthologies: 1, that Harrison subscribes to an idea put forward by the poet John Donne in his poem The Triple Fool 

I thought, if I could draw my pains

Through rhyme's vexation, I should them allay.
Grief brought to numbers cannot be so fierce,
For he tames it, that fetters it in verse.

(lines 8-11)

Burton then goes on to say that the verse allows us to explore dark subjects without being defeated by the darkness, although this statement refers to Donne’s verse  it is possible to apply it to not only Harrison’s poetry, but poetry in general

In Harrison’s poem Initial illumination, which takes its title from the illuminated manuscripts which flourished in ecclesiastical, monastic, devotional, courtly, legal, and academic contexts throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance period,not only does the visual style of the poem differ from A Cold Coming, but also the rhyme scheme ( Harrison uses ABAB and 10/11 syllables). Although the theme of the poem is war, or rather anti-war. Harrison takes the reader from a simple train journey, through a Britain during the ‘Dark Ages’ and ending with an almost news report on the effects of the bombing of Kuwait. In opening the poem Harrison himself questions the validity of poetry rhetorical

doubtful, in these dark days, what poems can do,

(line 6)

Following this with a brief lesson of historical facts surrounding Lindisfarne and the Saxon scribe Eadfrith. This could perhaps lead to difficulties for the uninitiated reader of poetry taking him/her away from the poems true meaning. However the poet John Burnside tells us that difficult poetry, like good philosophy, offers us no answers and cures us of nothing, but it does ask us to think, to feel and - most important - to imagine. Harrison forces the reader to visualise, as in A Cold Coming the effects of war, far more than a news report could, combining imagery such as

Candlepower, steady hand, gold leaf, a brush

were all that Eadfrith had to beautify

the word of God much bandied by George Bush

whose word illuminated midnight sky

(lines 25-28)

With

let them remember, all those who celebrate

that their good news is someone else’s bad

           (lines 35-36)

In doing so the reader gets a picture of how Harrison interprets’ the events of 1991, in a far more personal way. The poet George Szirtes argues that Poetry's only obligation is to the truth. Whether this truth is widely popular or not is irrelevant. It should be the best truth possible and that is the only quality that gives it any hope of survival.

As a medium then ,poetry presents the reader with far more options than the history books, among its many uses it has been claimed to act as a political footnote, because as the American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti states that poetry, in particular Socialist poetry [Harrison’s political views are well documented he appears in Andy Croft and Adrian Mitchell’s anthology of Socialist poetry], still remains

 ‘…the common carrier

  For the transportation of the public

  To higher places

Harrison quotes Nietzsche’s observation that ‘Art forces us to gaze into the horror of existence, yet without being turned to stone by the vision’ While Peter Robinson of Hull University  states that “At the heart of Harrison’s public art is his poetic gaze, the poetical countering of anything that acts to diminish our humanity”. Finally the reader can see that the gaze of the poet squares up to the horrors that lie in wait for us and continues speaking.

It can be argued that Harrison’s poetic outlook provides the reader with a way of looking at things from which they might otherwise turn away. While doing so Harrison has the ability to portray the emotions and events of life in simple language.

Relying upon the response of the reader this leads to the poems themselves being staggeringly simple but portraying things that could not be put into words on endless pages of prose. This is the achievement of the public poet. The world of poetry is full of reasons that answer the question set by this essay all of which echo the primary function of poetry and that is to make us more aware of ourselves and the world around us.

.

                              Bibliography

Baudrillard, Jean. Symbolic Exchange and Death, Literary Theory An Anthology, eds Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.

Burton, Rosemary Tony Harrison: An Introduction, Bloodaxe Critical Anthologies.ed Neil Astley Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe, 1991.

Ferlinghetti Lawrence, Red Sky at Night, Socialist Poetry, eds Andy Croft and Adrian Mitchell Nottingham: Five Leaves 2003.

Harrison, Tony The Gaze of The Gorgon Newcastle: Bloodaxe, 1992

Marsh Nicholas, How to Study Literature. London: Macmillan, 1987.

Shiach, Don. The Critical Eye, Appreciating prose and poetry Surrey: Thomas and Sons, 1984.

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Forbes, Peter, The mother-bear stirs, Guardian Newspaper: Tuesday October 27, 1992.

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