The Iow Review Volume 1 Issue 2 Spring Article 30 1970 On Chrles Tomlinson Clvin Bedient Follow this dditionl works t: http://ir.uiow.edu/iowreview Prt Cretive Writing Commons Recommended Cittion Bedient, Clvin. "On Chrles Tomlinson." The Iow Review 1.2 (1970): 83-100. Web. Avilble t: https://doi.org/10.17077/0021-065x.1063 This Contents is brought you for free open ccess by Iow Reserch Online. It hs been ccepted for inclusion in The Iow Review by n uthorized dministrr Iow Reserch Online. For more informtion, plese contct lib-ir@uiow.edu.
Clvin Bedient on Chrles Tomlinson Chrles Tomlinson is most considerble English poet hve mde his wy since second World Wr. There is more see tht more long wy, medi tte, more solidity chievement, more distinction more success phrse, s, deftly turning, h mind execute difficult knot tht mkes poem thn in work complete, ny It is true tht contemporries. wy is strit; but Tomlinson would hve it so. For his is holding ction: he is out sve world for curious cring mind. And if he is nrrow, he is so nrrow s humn only serching eye mind tht feeds reflects on vision?n eye tht everything textured, sptil, neighboring, encompssing, humnly cusmry, endlessly beutifully modulted by light, dusk, wer, slow chemistry yers, comes like rin?s lso like clensing mber. The in preserving qulity everywhere present is poetry pe culirly stringent, lmost dry, but deeply meditted love; this is true wher his subject is humn beings, houses, lmplight, chestnuts, lkes, or glss. Tom linson is poet exteriority its humn correltives: trditionl, uni versl, unchngeble, trnsprencies reflection. And he is thus opposite lyric or "confessionl" poet. Yet wht mistke it would be con fuse this outwrdness with superficility. To red Tomlinson is continully sound: meet with wht lies outside self in simultneous grce vision love. chief me is, in his own " fineness reltion phrse, ships." And though his poetry is in gret mesure restricted this me, me itself is n wideness. opening me, or his strict reltion it, is one with his this originlity; is most slient in his on originlity world's We hve been ppernces. sked dmire so mny "nture" tht we cn but or poets look sigh, blnk, her it nnounced tht still nor one hs come we will with long; greet skepticism ny clims But Tomlinson is n originlity. unmistkbly originl poet. There is in him, it is true, mesure Wordsworth: t-homeness in s wise being love ginst doing, pssivity, cusmriness, wht Pter s Wordsworth's fine spoke "very limits within pprehension which lone philosophicl imginings hve ny plce in true poetry." Both poets wken, moreover, in " sort Shelley's in sense." But how phrse, thought different in ech is reltion sense thought. In Wordsworth, sense fils in thought. Nture strikes Wordsworth like bolt; it is chrred trunk tht he reflects upon. His thought looks bck sense its eltion, In hungering. Tomlinson, by contrst, mind hovers over wht eye observes; two re coterminus. Toger, y surprise sufficiency sion informs m, it is pssion for For objectivity. in present; most prt, Wordsworth if ps 83 Criticism University Iow is collborting with JSTOR digitize, preserve, extend ccess The Iow Review www.jsr.org
discovers himself in nture?it is this, course, tht mkes him Romntic poet. Tomlinson, on or h, discovers nture nture: clssicl rtist, he is ll tut, detchment. responsive The sufficiency (or something very ner it) sptil world eye, mind, hert, so unusul grtefulness ppernces sensibility s his, t once rdiclly receptive restrined, seprtes him from such poets s D. H. Lwrence Wllce Stevens?though ltter, indeed, exerted strong erly influence. This mrked contentment?which mkes spiritul up messge quiet power effluence heling work?my be illustrted one conveniently by his shorter, "The Gossmers." Autumn. A hze is gold By definition. This one lit The thred gossmers Tht webbed cross it Out shdow gin Through rocking spces which sun Climed in lefge. Now I sw for wht were y These in on glitterings grss, ir, Of certinties tht ride plot The currents in ir tenuous stride And, s y flow, must uch Ech blde, uching, know Its green resistnce. Undefined The hze utumn in mind Is gold, is glze. This poem is in on prt prble propriety mind. The self-forgetting mind?it seems hint?is in itself welth, like gold hze; mind turned outwrd, however, is welth piled upon welth, glze upon prticulr things? hze lighting up glittering gossmers. This reflection, which encloses poem, forms prt its own welth; yet it is poem only wht enclosing hze is n gossmers: bstrct richness outdone by subservient vivid interest concrete. The poem is s s good its word: procliming supremcy it sts delivers. To tenuous prticulr, intellect, it presents resistnce. living, green poem discovers s gossmers scientist might discover new chemicl; indeed, Tomlinson himself hs quoted with coveus interest from L?vi-Struss' The Svge Mind phrse pplicble his own cst " science concrete." Of course thought: phrse omits ttention: scientist grteful qulity observes, Tomlin son hs The re regrds, regrd. gossmers his host, he ir thnkful And guest. s consequence this humble this grtitude, self-bnegting ttention, Tom linson brings in humn record?s nothing else hs ever done? look n being gossmers, obscure yet precious rticulted portion spce. Impos sible, now, not know how gossmers plot currents, ride ir, tenuously stride, 84
connect resist. Modest s it is, poem scope, tresure. opening long-buried is s good s front row, micro With this before exmple us, we my view perhps pproch shrper s originlity poet nture. such Among poets, he is nchorite ppernces. To bout m he n n poetry brings unexpected, unprlleled, selflessness An scetic objectivity. eye, Tomlinson closer pushes poetry nturl thn it hs ever been before? t sme time philosophy prosyle tizes for fine with writes in reltionships spce, persudes ernestness, if not in zel. In n re crowded with hedonists, mystics, rpturous estes, he comes with chste equipped eye mind intent upon exctitude. Nture my indeed be Book; but not until now, sy chste eye, intent mind, hs book been more thn scnned. The fine difficult print, cluses, subtle trnsitions, unfmilir words?tomlinson will over pore m ll. And his lnguge will be s lerned meticulous, his dediction s pssionte, his s ego subdued, s tht true scholr?though mercifully he will lso exer cise, wht few scholrs possess, deft for form. grceful feeling The clue originlity lies in pprent incongruity between his chosen subject his temperment. In prt, subject is ll opulence visul world?jewelled glss, golden gossmers, clouds. The fiery temper ment, by contrst, is strict chste, not fr from sternness, in flourishing only n "fecund tmosphere chill," It is kin tht "temperte shrpness." grin whet which, unless it die, cnnot bring forth fruit. Ordinrily, course, men such turn temperment God, Stte, poor, science, lerning. They would no sooner turn sensul erth thn pious would turn Devil. Or if y did, y would bring scourge, not strict curios ity indistinguishble from most discrete delicte love. A nture which re is no "point" seize, s first "Four Kntin Lyrics" suggests, exists, fter ll, only senses; senses re norious pers self, strems tributry rrentil And Ego. yet wht chste temper ment desires is, precisely, be selfless. Men such mold would fll ground emerge?something else, richer. An nti-hedonist who cul something tivtes his senses, n scetic ror stedy evening, in slow Withdrwing ripples ornge, Like retret wter from se-cves...?se re ptent contrdictions in terms. Tomlinson, con politely denying trdiction, steps in mong hullblooers coolly dedictedly clers serious his own in ground region senses, in forests "furr fields" nontrnscendent spce. The result is nture s in its poetry unique clssicl s in its temperteness consecrtion fce Being Spce, ctions our nturl environment. Tomlinson looks outwrd, wht he sees his content. discovers his limits?but Seeing becomes, not himself but exctly, re y limits vse or 85 Criticism
window, not prison. Indeed, Tomlinson it is circumstnce hppy world is "or"; were it identicl with self, re would be no from solitude, uch s one reches out. nothing tht refuge Out shut cell tht solitude re is One egress, pst point interrogtion. Sun is, becuse it is not you; you re Since you re self, self delimited Regrding sun. Observer observed st prt, n, s necessry substntited poles being. The eye is first philosophers; seeing turns up soil onlogy. Beholding thus pplies spirit metphysicl blm. The "centrl clm" ppernces, ir very reness, floor gives world. So Tomlinson wlks looks, he finds it enough. Philosophiclly, he begins in nkedness?in nkedness, not in disinheritnce; for scrutinizing eye detects no twilight pst drems trnscendence, only present welth finite n ever prticulrs, shifting but shrply focused spectcle. In Tomlinson, spirit, s if ignornt wht once sustined it?plnic forms, Life Jehovh, Force, whole pn on metphysicl mind?finds bliss in trees snes tht re merely trees snes. And doubtless this n implies especilly fine, not prticulrly crude, cpcity for wonder. Tomlinson is one instnces in purest literture s distinct from contempltive, mind. No specultive, poet hs ever before regrded intricte tpestry Spce with such ptient musing plesure, with so little dred or nxiety retret through humn doorwy or under vulted ro church. On or h, neir hs ny poet been less inclined et pples in his Eden. Tomlinson holds up tpestry he is ll mgnifying glss: bsorption, but, courteously, he his And keeps plce. his evidently rewrd is sense nswered or Let multiplied being. ors?dyln Thoms, D. H. Lwrence, E. E. nture in ecsttic Cummings?mount egoism. They will not relly see her, except disrtedly, through het wves ir own desire for union; y will not be Let still ors?thoms compnioned. Hrdy, Robert Frost, worst Philip Lrkin?suspect her, dred her, hint t wrinkled flesh beneth flowered dress. They, o, will be left with only mselves. Tomlinson, putting himself by, will gin world. Wht Tomlinson vlues in humn is similr beings from fcing-wy self, rock-like, disciplined submergence in being. For most prt, people in his re eir models subservience tsk or trdition, s in "Return Hinn," "The Frmer's Wife," "The H t Cllow Hill Frm," "Oxen," "Gen ev Resred," "Millol"?or exmples discontent mbitious desiring: cstelln "The Cstle," Symbolists "Antecedents," "Blck Nude" who is sullen until she lerns "truce" eye, restless poet in "Up t L Serr," "Mr. Brodsky," Americn "whose pressed long / pondered on pssion / ws become Scot." Like hills ses his, Tom linson is conservtive through through. If he could, one feels, he would bring ll world hlt: "luminous stsis" contempltion. The dred he 86
conveys is not nture, nor even humn nture, but "rtionl" future its present busy mchines? wht is hppening erth, our host, distinctively humn source our contentment, filments cusm tht hold us lovingly plce. Better contented poverty, he believes, thn strdized prosperity: No hwk t wrist, but blessed by sudden sun And with single, flring hen tht ps chir Blooming beside her where she knits. Before door And in rinsoked ir, she sits s leisurely As spces re with hillshpes in m. Yet she is smll? If she rrests scene, it is her concentrtion Tht comms it, three centuries more Tht live in her, eyes tht frown ginst sun Yet leve intct fetures' kindliness, nonymous Composure settled ct. Sufficient her dy Is her dy's good, her sufficiency's refuttion Of tht future where re'll be wht re lredy is? Prosperity ennui, none without privilege To enjoy m both... ("Portrit Mrs. Spxn") No doubt this leves much be sid; but re is wisdom, pssion, sting in it, s well s beuty. In Tomlinson, present s ltest brimming mo ment pst hs both first-rte poet n ble defender. "Frm-bred cer tinties," "ncestrl certitude," or, s here, "three centuries more"?se, him, hve sme snctifying use s beech tree or mood light: ll re like, for humn beings, conditions n "nonymous / Composure." All con duce, ll re food for, contempltive life. The Tomlinson se portrit beholds not so much his subjects' individ ulity s ir fine or fumbled reltion time plce: he beholds, in or words, ir beholding. He is thus himself once removed?though, in nor sense, lso himself twice over. In reminder his he beholds nturl objects directly minutely?sting bck only so fr s will llow him reflect on virtue eye. In eir cse, he is poet contempltion. It is this tht gives him his strong peculir identity. The tmosphere his work is tht clm ttention. It is n in which cherishing tmosphere objects this world suddenly st forth s prt beutiful mystery founded. Whtever cn be pprehended s locus fine reltion, dwelt on with intent devotion?wher gossmers slung in hze, or womn knitting in rin-soked ir?becomes, this poet, n "Eden imge"; t once pristine permnent, it rdites being. sensibility homes everything well estblished, lights, broods. And though it comes for grce, it comes lso like grce. It consecrtes. This rre vluble qulity, never in excess but lwys temperte chste, is essence lmost every Tomlinson poem. 87 Criticism
It is this intention consecrte tht sves Tomlinson from ptient rpids senses. Indeed, it is doubtless fer sensul glutnous Ego tht gives thrust intention consecrte. lest until Accordingly?t ltely?be holding in Tomlinson hs seemed s much s discipline delight. In such re cent s "Clouds" "In Fullness Time," Tomlinson comes through s wht he impressively equl contempltes? lrge, grcious, nswering stbility. In mny his erly, by contrst, he seems trifle determined see feel chstely clmly. Indeed, so little excitement, so little spontneous joy do se convey tht ir seems rr more thn seeing discipline delight. The never description blurs, but neir does it glow, with enthusism; no sentiment ever spills over detil in generl, joyful reference. Not tht ever sensibility ppers hve been in need gret restrint. Though exquisite, it is fr from being bundnt. But disciplined it noneless is. Adding its own kind intensity is rective force Here self-rejection. contempltion is, in own word, shriving. Light, this poet sys in "Something: A Direction," is split by humn need: ccept light, you hel both light your need. At ech dwn sun is re covered in shriven light And you, returning, my shriven self As from scene, your self withdrws. So it is tht Tomlinson would mke beholding phere cool hot clouding Ego. n scesis, sl chste, chill tmos In consequence, hve something severity religious cell. Whitewshed self, chill, s close-pcked sne wlls, y re rooms for intense selfless medittion. Austerity mrks both ir ir lnguge movement. The diction hs dryness exposure mentl wer?though dryness living brk, not snes. Lerned exct, it joins concrete with cdemic bstrction: in "Gossmers," for sun is sid clim exmple, spces tht rock in lefge; if gossmers ride plot, y re certinties tht do so. descriptions, both feed rtion ccordingly, eye. Seeing psses somewht difficultly in thought sps just short n esy clrity. At sme time, out so depictions give only much emotionl wrmth s counter y with chill rtionl diction. Even when lmost entirely concrete, this delinetions remin poet's nmy: A triled lgging grss, pin-point isl cler current's fce it lens cross Drgs In At uch ripple-wrinkles. It hs rvelled imged sky till it could be A perplexity metl, spun Round vortex, sun flung f it Veining Scrcely be eye like migrine?it could... sky 88
Like window tht llows vision through only one side, this looks out lucidly wrd surfces, is blind indifferent inner life. Concrete with respect sp til things, it is bstrct feeling. Not tht it fils uch feeling; for re is delight here? delight detected resemblnce, deeper still, plesure tht comes from perceiving tht thing hs escped being simply itself?"it could / Scrcely be..." And this is sky. sy tht re is considerble imgintive life in description?n spect poetry tht we must return. All sme, Tomlinson current s one who sts over nlyzes phogrphs ginst it, lien not He neir though estrnged. ttempts become wter, s ny number poets might hve done, nor leves chinks in his description for sentiment. With Robbe-Grillet, his pssge declres tht " describe... things is delibertely plce oneself outside m, fcing m," lso tht "re is in existence in world tht is not something mn, tht tkes no notice him." So strem is itself, words merely serve its being. While Tomlinson sts over ginst wter, his s it lnguge, were, sts over him ginst on side wht fces him. Indeed, until recently, it hs even turned def er itself, ll but most discrete voiding self-echoing?s here, for instnce, tucked-wy rhyme "lgging" "drg." Meter is lso, course, self-reference sound, verse logiclly eschews it, is "free." It is not, however, free s verse D. H. Lwrence or Willim Crlos Willims is free: it is not free empthize with its subjects. Em pthie rhythm, like meter, wkens feeling: difference, course, is tht where meter is emotionlly introverted, vers libre is empthie extroverted. So meter Christin Rossetti's My hert is like singing bird Whose nest is in wter'd shoot; My hert is like n pple-tree Whose re bent with thick-set fruit... boughs turns feeling round round, like dncer in music box, while rhythm Lwrence's "Fish," Aqueous, subqueous Submerged And wve-thrilled... or Willims' "Rin," trees re become bests fresh risen from se wter trickles from crevices ir hides... 89 Criticism
sends outwrd in feeling objects. rhythm, by contrst, is neir extroverted nor introverted, but emotionlly suspended, stilled poised in medittion. It springs free hypnotic spin meter, but holds itself bck from emotionl vers libre. It is free-lncing free, not dnce new steps music vitl hppening, but free, precisely, from tug engulfing tide s feeling. Just rtionl element checks emotionl prticiption in Tom linson's so n descriptions, pproximte ccentul blnce kind snity isochronism reins in in tht moves nr feeling rhythm? rhythm rowly between mind-lulling security meter mind-dissolving fluidity free verse: Two st dmiring morning. A third, unseen s yet cross pproches upl tht hill hill's wood hide. The two hlving mutul good, both wtch sun entering slope sidewys birches... Here first two lines hve n pproximte quntity or length; y lso blnce in bet. The next three dd bet blnce one nor. The sixth, though it n drops ccent, keeps length with its two long vowels cesur. And in lst two lines, rhythm quickens bck its initil mesure. Reding Tom linson, one comes instinctively look for this sort rough yet relible recur rence. Like next bed in rosry, ccentul neces repetition provides sry sense stbility. On or h, uncertin s it shifting is, it dis courges complicities It leves mind pulse. strung, lert, witing. This condition is heightened by frequent brekge lines ginst phr sl expecttions unities. The lines end long or short, in mid ir; thus left jutting jgged, y spur mind ttention. So swn in "Cnl" we red:... Sinuously both live bird bird wter bends in white wering reflection itself, go by in grce world... objects Obviously lines here work ginst ny shring swns' sinuous motion. The swns my be ll grce, but lines, s such, re ll stiff ngles. Typiclly frgmenting sentences down phrses, n furr frgmenting some phrses, omitting expected interjecting unexpected comms, lines retrd brke mind, suspend distnce its grsp, so tht when 90
full comprehension finlly comes, it rrives, s it were, soundless cler, resonnt ccompnied by surge n ffective rhythm. Alger, n, re is in slow, inorgnic rhythm sps strts uncertin blnces no wve for surf precrious, imgintion on, no independence unomy ccent. And yet, for ll tht, it hs chrcter chrm; one tste cquires for it. Toughly flexile, it introduces new qulity in verse, s if fter centuries beting drum blood, rhythm hd t lst been found for mind. Anything more fluent fcile?so one feels while reding him?would be inlerbly flccid. Wher in short lines, s in "Cnl," or in medium lines like se, It hppened like this : I herd from frm beyond, grounded churn go down. The sound chimed for wedding mind with wht one could not see, furr fields, semless spred spce... or in longer lines he hs fvored lte, re Cloudshpes destinies, y common Chrging tmosphere dy, Mke it confronttion where plce The dremer wkes ctegoricl cll And cler cerulen trumpet ir... movement serves s kind stiffening, not only sting lines up mind but constituting in its own right n estic vlue, virility like strch in forml shirt. So it is tht, in both his reltion his subject his poetic mnner, Tomlinson is n wht is originl? more, with n tht originlity counts, tht comes seem, while we red him, more we red him, very intelligence eye, very rhythm chste beholding. And minspring this originl ity, it hs been lies in suggested, singleness contempltive purpose, rigor his ttempt mke observtion nture through medium poetry self? shriving nked, not though unthoughtful, encounter with ppernces. un Wht mkes Tomlinson n importnt poet is prtly his originlity; but course it is not his originlity tht mkes him poet. If his poetry contined observtion lone, it would be no more no less interest?though interest, eir?thn cmer set in rolling snowy field or by se. Tomlinson is in poet, prt, becuse consistent, msculine elegnce lso in be lnguge, prt cuse his feeling for rhythm. But mostly he is poet becuse he uses, excites, imgintion, becuse this is not or imgintion light grtuius 91 Criticism
kind, but steeped in feeling, orgnic, pregnnt with response life. Deeply richly conceived, re neir mere nottions stenogrphic eye, nor cold slbs reflection; y begin, y vult, y conclude in "Tht rt is feeling. selective," writes in Art s Dewey Experience, "is fct It is so becuse universlly role emotion in recognized. ct expression. Any mood excludes ll tht is un predominnt umticlly congenil with it." And unity is fundmentlly unity mgisteril imgintive mood. To be sure, no ws ever more humble or menble while still retin mgistrte his ing exercising proper powers. ttends observ imgintion ble relity with lmost ptience tht chrcterizes gives distinction his eye. Like fine tmosphere, it cn be gentle point invisibility, so tht objects plces, not poet himself, seem be communicnts feeling. And when it does grow dense, it thickens s light thickens, mking its s well s itself more vivid. closer objects Impossible imgine coopertion between mind conceiving receiving eye, imgintion tkes its cues, its colors, its composure, from Persin crpet visul world itself. From wht hs lredy been sid, it will be seen t once tht this delicte coop ertion is mtter strict principle. Indeed, it is lrgely imgintion?tht genie temptress self?tht strps re intended seeing confine. If re it is lmost in ir own re imgintive, despite. They so imgintive, spek, only becuse must y be in order s qulify poetry. Grnted ir so wy, it seems, would y be, insted, silence. only wondering Nor does this principle imgintive continment?so jelously dhered? remin Severl implicit. give shrp rp skull Romnti cism, consistently conceived s n birth frenzied egoistic imgintion bringing flse worlds its own. For "Distinctions" chides Pter for indict exmple, tht ing blue se gives wy or "pinks, golds, muves," "Frewell Vn tht Gogh" ptronizes pinter's "instructive frenzy," "Millol" glnces t "flickering frenzy Rodin." Indeed, it is fult se, s well s two or three or, tht seem exist y for ske ir chiefly doctrine. Of course, ll Tomlinson is doctrinl? bis wrd re pssivity, ceptivity, self-effcement s s it is being overwhelming vowed, deter mined, But morlly ggressive. for most prt this doctrine proves unob for reson jectionble, tht simple poetry tkes it over. In nti-romntic, however, doctrine tends tred poetry down. And, left lone on field, self's excesses itself s ex vigilnce ginst emerges cessive. His strictures re o tight, y hold ir breth in prim dispprovl. "To emulte such confusion," he writes scuffle between wind trees, One must resources impoverish But tste it is medicinl. folly, And just s first line, here, drops demolition bll on point, so tsting in second seems trifle o fstidious. Similrly, "The Jm Trp," which 92
glnces t hrmful egoistic hedonism in its picture flies immersed "Slckly sweetness," comes s so through unfirly reductive tht it mkes extremely Tomlinson, not Romnticism, seem wrong-heded. in And yet, unobtrusive down s it spped is, imgintion is, s ws suggested, precisely gift power tht mkes his poetry poetic. Though fr obviously from or being mple, hedlong, richly empowering, neir, on or h, is it fint or It is s ctive s it is pologetic. ttentive, s forceful s it is discrete. As procretive mood, it is tension coherence tht keeps brimming, still depth tht moves detil wrd us, mgnified. As subjective trnsmuttion, moreover, it is tht mkes gold, glze, detil Subtrct it from glitter., only sorry would remin. frgments Of course, frr Tomlinson sts f from more objects, conspicuous medition his emotionl imgintive presence becomes, incresing like green deepening wters. Thus bre lines like se from "The Hill," Do not cll her re, but let her go our bering question in her climb : wht does she confer on hill, hill on her? re tense with concentrtion: with conceived drm obviously imgintive conceived contempltion, mystery reltionship. Yet, wher noticed or not, this element is noneless lmost controlling conceiving lwys present lwys felt in. Even "fctul" lrgely resonte under bow. imgintion's Consider, for even so unmbitious exmple, s poem "Letter from Cost Brv": Its crisp sheets, unfolded, Give on grove, where Citrons conduct eye Pst gloom folige Towrds sne. write glow They mesmeric clrity In fissures those wlls And unseizble lizrds, jewelled Upon m. But let m envy Wht cnnot see: y This sodden, vrible green Igniting ginst gry. In knock juxtposition se two glowing gloomy lscpes, one dryly sensul, or soggily spiritul, wht fine effect is produced by mde unexpected, proud, loving preference?so deftly understble? for puritniclly pssionte English scene. It ws imgintion tht cught conveyed both similrity deep polrity se scenes, ir differ ent registers in life spirit. And course it ws imgintion tht pro 93 Criticism
duced here re fillip metphor, dding locl intensities shp ing tension whole: stimultion felt most strongly in djectives in verbid igniting, so boldly yet so rightly qulifying suggestion sodden. And elsewhere in Tomlinson one finds equl felicities imgintive power ugmenting interpreting ppernces without m?for denying exmple, rose in "Frondes seen Agrestes," Gred up in its own trnslucence Where re is no shde sve colour... or, in "Promeus," trees tht Continue rining though rin hs cesed In cooled world incessnt cods... However dverse Tomlinson my be imgintion, clerly re is no lck it in his poetry. By now it will hve become pprent tht Tomlinson is something less simple observer something more poet thn he himself seems inclined believe. The view tht he encourges himself, through his, is neir ccurte nor fully just. Listen you will conclude tht Tomlin son is but servnt or guest ppernces. Experience, on or h, you will know tht he is something more, more difficult?nmely, ir betr, ir hrvest, ir fulfillment. And this is sy tht re is notble t discrepncy, times in widening contrdiction, between wht declre wht re y do. s it They spek, were, in ignornce mselves. Thus, though y recommend pssivity, it is through ir own ctivity. Though y would tech us conserve, y mselves re cretive refore innovtive. As us y urge silence before multiple voices spce, us y impress with distinctively humn voice. And s y prise nture s our us. replenishment, y replenish So it is tht wht right h gives, left h tkes wy. In "Observtion Fct," cite specific instnce, Tomlinson cutions: Style speks wht ws seen, Or it concels observtion Behind observer: voice Wering ruff... menwhile delights us, in concluding imge, by speking wht hs never been never will be seen. I leve you To your one mening, yourself lone... he sys n upended tree in "Poem"; but wht his vehemently nthropomorphic description ctully leves in memory is not tree but creture crouching "on broken limbs / About run forwrd." "Only we / Are inert," Tomlinson writes in "In Defense Metphysics"? n, in tht "Snes re observing 94
like deths. / They uncover limits," himself shows dmirbly mind. In "Chteu de Muzot," he sys sne mss, A shriven self Looks out t it. You cnnot Add this. Footholds for foison There re none. Across snefce Only moss, flttened, tightly-rosetted Which, ignornt who gives Accepts from ll wers Wht it receives, possessed By nture sne... more thn inerti Yet in so describing it, Tomlinson obviously wonderfully dds it, finding footholds not only for imgintive "foison" rosetted moss but for trie whole prble-conceit gift, cceptnce, possession. Exmples could be multi plied. Alger, n, re is in Tomlinson rebuke ctive, cretive self tht, coming from poet, seems untured. It is s if Ctholic priest were cele brte, from pulpit, with both pssion eloquence, inwrd light: re is suicide in sermon. Wht or is so reck pressionl poet insistently lessly forgetful his own gift its prerogtives? Virtully er tking gint sure his work, Tomlinson will write: Those fcets copiousness which I proposed Exist, do so when we hve silenced ourselves. Indeed, Tomlinson would thus erse more thn his gift; he would erse humn consciousness itself. For course only truly silenced humn being is ded one. Dewey is gin point: s he observes, "nothing tkes root in mind when re is no blnce between for is n ct doing receiving"; "perception going-out energy in order receive, not withholding energy," " estic or though undergoing phse experience is n "de receptive," qute yielding self is possible only through controlled ctivity tht my well be intense." Though Tomlinson gin gin slutes "yielding," "ctivity," s rule, he leves out ccount. So in "A Given Grce" he com mences: Two cups, given grce, flot white on mhogny pool tble. They unclench mind, filling it with mselves... And severl lines lter he concludes : you would not wish m or thn y you, who re chllenged re? 95 Criticism
replenished by those empty vessels. This is true, but hlf true. For it is s only just resonble, s just prtil, sy tht it is empty vessels tht hve been filled, filled by mind. Sophisti cted poet though he is, Tomlinson yet flls in wht Husserl clls " nturl unsophisticted stpoint" consciousness, which ssumes "n " empty looking n Consciousness cn indeed be empty 'Ego.' invested, but in so fr s only it invests; s Husserl observes, it is ego tht invests " being world... with existentil from vlidity." Aprt consciousness, fter ll, world is but sweep wste energy unseen, unfelt, unherd, untsted. Of poets, moreover, it my be sid tht invest with y ppernces doubly?not only ir mind senses but with ir s imgintion well. Thus in "A Given Grce," while it is eye tht invests two it is perceives cups, his imgintion tht sees m floting in mhogny pool, mking m some thing or thn y re. Fcets copiousness do indeed exist, but only in dilectic between self objective world. It should be noted, however, tht though Tomlinson hs emphsized done more thn justice pssive spect self's liison with spce, he hs strike or notes his me s well. In mnged fct, however uneqully se my be pressed, chord his me sts complete. Thus in firly recent poem, "The Hill," Tomlinson celebrtes t s lst?quite if he hd never doubted it (s he hd perhps not)?consciousness s itself grce, grce giving. The femle figure climbing hill nmed in title is type consciousness : being-investing She lone, unnmed (s it were), in mking her thought's me tht thrust rise, is beswing nme... A still more recent poem, "Adm," provides prtil gloss: We bring To kind birth ll we cn nme... So hill sts forth, rounds out in being, through generosity ttention. The girl's grce consciousness consists in its ctive intentionlity: girl mkes her thought's me tht thrust rise. It is, fter ll n, snes tht re inert. Indeed, recoiling spring, Tomlinson o perhps goes fr when, in "The Hill," he dds:... do not cll her re: let her go on, whom sun erly is climbing up with hill's crown she, who did not mke it, cn yet mke sun go down by coming down. 96
In this instnce, course, is mnner "mking" only And speking. yet here Tomlinson, for one rre indulgent moment, encourges il solipsistic lusion. Putting by domestic uniform it usully wers in his, mind steps forwrd s lmost demi-urge, cpble mking, ttention, hevenly body slide out sky. by simple withdrwl Of course true grce ny every reltionship is neir giving nor receiving, but n interchnge blnce two. And wrd this inclusive reciprocity Tomlinson my be sid hve ripened. His erly ttempts render it do not quite come f, re, perhps, not quite sincere, self hving been mde o hollow counter-weight spce. For exmple, in "Reflections" Tom linson writes : When we s keen perceive, As bridge itself, bridge inlying drkness Of smooth wter, our delight cknowledges our debt? To nture, from whom we choose... But this would seem, rr, n instnce being chosen, declrtion self-determintion does not convince. In some more recent, by contrst, self seems genuinely erect before world it experiences. Perhps no sttement evoction?for poem is both? pristine yet not un sophisticted encounter with environment, mind spce meeting s two equl mysterious relities, could be t once more justly delicte soberly beutiful thn "Swimming Chenngo Lke." Here, s in "The Hill," nony mous humn figure is type consciousness?not, in this cse, however, con sciousness s only proud Climber Cretion, but s Cretion's Swimmer, c tive in dense, merciless element tht "yet shows kind mercy sustining him":... he hs looked now long enough, Body must recll eye its dependence As he scissors wterscpe prt And swys it ttters. Its coldness Holding him itself, he grnts grsp, For swim is lso tke hold On wter's mening, And be, between move in its embrce grsp grsping free. Not only mutulity two lien orders but being, simultneous doing in humn finds in this undergoing experience, poem crystl prdigm. So it is tht, here re in Tomlinson, self hs come in its own. And still more is this true in few ddressed rt. Despite his ni mdversions think by relity. ginst Romnticism, Tomlinson hs shown himself quite redy rt?especilly music?s spiritul flowering beyond nything fered Thus in "Flute Music" he notes: we re two men: Seeing speking The eye encloses s window? flute Governs l, its winter its silence. 97 Criticism
An erly poem, "Flute Music" my be written f s n ccident ven perhps result sturtion in Wllce Stevens. But in lter more triloquism? impressive poem, "Ode Arnold sme me sounds Schoenberg," gin. "Nturl" mening, ccording ode, does not suffice: rt stisfies by pursu " more thn common The "unfolded word" not renews " ing mening." only wintered tree" previous rt, but cretes crdles spce, filling it with ver dure. Is spce ordinrily, n, winter silence? Decisively, persusively, or nswer "No." And yet very fct tht were written be y speks pinful reluctnt "Yes." The truth is tht, beyond discrepncy between wht sy wht y re, ywns still greter discrep ncy between wht y sy fct tht y re. Let m set nture be fore us s sufficient spiritul end; still, ir very existence s ir poetry, very excess over nture, suggests tht it is rt, not nture, tht cures che being. As both beholder poet nture, Tomlinson is contempltive twice over; just in tht pprent superfluity, it seems, lies fullness tht The spirit requires. confess tht "those vessels" empty spce whet s much s wht nture rt y replenish; prompts, concludes. Not so humble or subservient fter ll, spirit relives its but re experiences, cretes m from itself lone?positing, retrospectively, spce tht once hd nourished it. The hill it climbs becomes subjective spce, memory worked over by The imgintion. essentil confession rt is, I believe, es sentil confession ll rt: tht mn is forced be, lso needs be, his own replenishment, perpetully renewed out himself. So it is tht, merely by existing, poetry completes rel but limited truth?nmely, grtefulness world senses?whose thous fces seek out drw. Tomlinson, born in 1927, is still, it my be hoped, in mid-creer. It is likely tht he will deepen?indeed, he hs lredy begun do so; it is lso likely tht he will diversify his cnon by out more such s his throwing "sports," recent, de lightful poem on personified "Rumour"; but it is not t ll likely tht he will lter his course. Nor, I think, is it desirble tht he should; for Tomlinson strikes one s poet who hs finlly won through himself, were he now be come someone else, it would seem lmost n ct violence. It ws in his third volume, Seeing is Believing (1960), tht Tomlinson first be cme both distinct distinguished poet tht he is dy. His first volume, Reltions Contrries (1951), is hunted by Yets Blke, brillint in is not though much ptches, consequence. Tomlinson next moved good del nerer himself in The Necklce (1955), which rnks, t lest, s his rel prologue chievement. It zeroes in on gret Tomlinson me, but vitites it by kind enmeled elegnce; it hs Stevens's epicuren qulity, but not his sving gus brvur. Precious in both senses word, The Necklce is book be vlued, but?o beutiful, o exquisite?not feel t 98
home in: you must prk your muddy shoes t door. The very title third volume, is over Seeing Believing, suggests homely The Necklce. improvement Here erth tkes on some erthiness tht, fter ll, becomes it; mnner is more gritty, rubs more fmilirly with world. In subsequent two volumes, A Peopled Lscpe (1962) Americn Scenes (1966), sme mnner?t once meticulous, refined prosic, (for erly is rr thn elegnce roughened lost)?is extended, s titles indicte, new subjects if not exctly new mes. It is lrgely Tomlinson se three volumes fourth tht is now, s I write, in press, tht I hve d dressed my remrks, it is this Tomlinson who, s I begn by declring, hs produced most considerble body poetry, dte, ny postwr English poet. With exception Donld D vie?who, however, turns out more verse thn poetry?no or English poet genertion so strongly gives im pression n being rtist modestly but seriously t work? poet intense eqully bout his messge his crft. dediction is unmistk deep ble; joined with his rre if quiet tlent, it hs creted not only poetry but success fter highest qulity, success, in when period successes more striking seductive poets?ted Hughes, R. S. Thoms, Philip Lrkin?hve seemed hphzrd. Of ll se gifted poets, it is Tomlinson who best survives rub wer repeted redings; indeed, only poetry improves under such tretment, like fine wood under polish. Prt reson tht Tomlinson tells slowly is tht he hs gone frr thn ny his contemporries?though Ted Hughes Thoms Kinsell follow close?in He wits in outstring outmneuvering fcility. dvnce, s it were, his reders, who, burdened with ging notions wht mkes up poetic p must lbor come brest. In pel, consequence, until Tomlinson is dmired, he must be lerted. His meticulous so ten descriptions, hrd seize with eye, his lconic medittions, his uncertin, deming rhythms, his frustrtions expecttions vrious kinds?se one must s if struggle through through scrub, until one emerges, plesed surprised, in clerings tht, in relity, re. usully Becuse both n incresed dynmic clrity more definite music, ltest re his most probbly redily ccessible; y still, however, constitute be lnguge lerned, flvor be found, cre bout Tomlinson is pprove this s difficulty. Just lter Yets mkes erly Yets seem somewht fcile obvious, so Tomlinson, s sceticizing poetry he hs, one new sense gives wht rt cn be. His is sort modifiction poetry tht ultimtely mkes it incumbent on or poets chnge, mke it new, work pssiontely t ir crft. As for sensibility tht poetry expresses, its vlue, I think, should be self-evident. The truth it hs seized upon, indeed truth tht seems ntive it, is lesson implicit in rt itself?tht contempltion is fulfillment Of course we being. hve lwys know wht needs be but we chnged; lso do well prise reverence wht is sufficient for dy vst design tht, though it impinges on us, ultimtely lies beyond our humn gency. 99 Criticism
For without this reverence we cn scrcely be committed vlue being; it is secret wht Psternk clled " tlent for life." Tomlinson is cer out seson recll us life moment conceived s n tinly end in itself; yet it is just this unsesonbleness tht puts him in hrmony with wht is in our reltions with world. lsting Chrles Tomlinson Three Bgtelles THE NIGHT-TRAIN composed solely crbon soot-roses freighted tight with million miniscule sttuettes L Notte (Night) stumbles on between unlit hlts till dylight begins bleed its jet windows white, night trin stly discomposes, rose on soot-rose, become?white white white? snow-plough tht refuses go.