Transcription
[Music] Hello everybody. Welcome to the post-war periods after the Second World War. What happened? I'm going to tell you about that, and then we'll talk about Dylan Thomas and the New Apocalypse movement.
Guys, the Second World War was a devastating event in world history. Everything that people believed in regarding nation and patriotism, heroism and human being, everything changed because of the Second World War, its Holocaust, and also the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The post-war period is a period of isolation and alienation, fragmentation, much worse than the modernist periods. It is a time when a lord of new voices also began to be heard. There was a lot of democratization of art; politics was in a turmoil at this time. So many changes! Oh my god, so many genres! As you know, in this time postmodernism came into being, but at the same time, there were so many other changes in fiction, poetry, drama, science fiction, historical fiction, Holocaust fiction, women's writing—everything emerged. Post-colonial literature—everything emerged at this time.
The post-war poets were, in many ways, trying to come to terms with their reality. They were coming to negotiate between the influence of the modernists and also the realities of the post-1950s period, and they understood that reality is not simple; it is not plain; it is very complex. Literary expression also ranged from the plain to the intellectually intense and complex. During this time, English literature began to be globalized. English literature began to be written across the worlds. English literature broke free from the confines of British or American literature to world literature. So many writers from across the world who had emigrated into England and America! So many writers writing from the earth's wild colonies! So many writers getting translated into English! It was an amazing period.
At this time, in the period of the Second World War itself, there emerged New Apocalypse poetry or neo-romantic poetry. Dylan Thomas was a main figure. As the title denotes, New Apocalypse is about the apocalypse of mankind—you know, the end. Writing in the World War period, naturally they wondered what the end would be like, and it was also neo-romantic. There was a revival of romantic motives like nature, childhood, innocence. There are, apart from um, Dylan Thomas, other poets also. Shall I read out their names for you? Dylan Thomas, Vernon Watkins, George Barker, Philip O'Connor, Ian Bancroft, Norman McCaig. Have you heard these names? They are not as famous as Dylan Thomas. They were all neo-romantic poets. These poets became famous, and they came to be acknowledged as a group because of some anthologies. There were three anthologies. Do you know the titles? *The New Apocalypse* came in 1939; *The White Horseman* came in 1941; *The Crown and the Sickle* came in 1945, edited by J.F. Henry, uh, Henry Treece, etc. So these are important aspects of the New Apocalypse movement and its rise at this time. New Apocalypse kind of ended with the anthology *New Lines* by Robert Conquest, which marked the beginning of the Movement poets.
1930s [Applause] Arden Group; 1940s Dylan Thomas and Apocalypse, New Apocalypse poets; 1950s Movement poets, also Angry Young Man movement along with them.
Dylan Thomas was born in the year in which the First World War began, 1914, and he was born in Swansea in Wales, and he was typically Welsh, Celtic poet. He wrote in English with a unique style, an individual voice, and his first collection of poems is called *18 Poems*, published when he was just 20 years old. His most famous collection, containing all his major poems, is *Deaths and Entrances*, 1946. Okay, very important. Dylan Thomas was a performer. He read poetry; he did radio shows; he was also a bohemian artist—make-up, it means drinking and wavered life—and Dylan Thomas, uh, became a celebrity. He was the first poet to become a celebrity by his poetry recitation or reading. He toured America with his reading programs, and he was also a hard-drinking, uh, bohemian at this time, and eventually he died early at the age of 39, also.
So let us now talk about Dylan Thomas's poetic style. Remember, guys, poetry is nothing unless it is read every day before you go to sleep. Perhaps read some poems, and you should have a timetable for it, a schedule for it. Okay, today I'll read Dylan Thomas; tomorrow I'll read… You can do one thing also: you can read aloud and make a video or audio, and you can start a blog with it. You can start your own YouTube channel with it—every day at 10, your own poetry recitation. How is the idea? I will look forward to subscribing to your channel. Okay, so do something and read. You know, starting a channel, etc., will push you to do it every day, and who knows, you will become a famous reciter like Dylan Thomas. So read it! His poetic style is, uh, perfect for reading. He goes against the trend of social criticism at this time and writes with emotional intensity. Dylan Thomas's poetry is good to be read because it has emotional intensity, and it has a metrical perfection, more traditional than modernist. He was, and he gave importance to sound and rhythm, so it is good for reading. He uses rich imaginative language, deeply symbolic imagery, and influence of French Surrealism—surrealistic poems. He was influenced by G.M. Hopkins, and he wrote a lot about the human body, sin and redemption, Old Testament. These are some of his pet themes. Now many of you would know some of his major poems: *A Poem in October*, *Fern Hill*. These are very famous. *Fern Hill* is an autobiographical poem that he, uh, wrote about his remembrances or reminiscences about his childhood in his aunt's farm. Fern Hill is his aunt's farm. As an adult, he is remembering those days and lamenting the loss of childhood. *Fern Hill* is a poem in two parts. It is in the first part that he writes about his memories as a child, and in the second part he writes about his lost innocence and childhood. *Poem in October* is also autobiographical. It is written about his birthday, the 30th birthday. He is going up a hill, and he is looking at the world around him, remembering his past again—childhood picture of the old childhood, early past juxtaposed with his adulthood, and it's a spiritual reflection that you see here. There are many other poems. *Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night* is a famous poem that is prescribed in universities, and he's talking to his father while he's dying. Then *Under Milk Wood* is a radio play that he has written. Did you know Dylan Thomas wrote short stories? *The Map of Love* and *Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog* are two, uh, short story collections that he has written.
And after Dylan Thomas and the New Apocalypse, we have Philip Larkin and the Movement poets. Philip Larkin's Movement poet poetry was against the neo-romanticism of Dylan Thomas. Philip Larkin was a classicist, and he wrote, uh, in a very serious, somber, solemn tone about contemporary reality. Movement poetry flourished in the 1950s, and the main figures were Philip Larkin, Tom Gunn, Elizabeth Jennings, Donald Davie, etc. The term "The Movement" was coined by J.D. Scott. Did you know that? I told you they were against Dylan Thomas's style, so they were anti-romantic; they were witty, colloquial; they were also anti-modernist. They did not write in the elitist style, experimental style of modernism. No, no. They wrote in a very conversational, colloquial style and a very sardonic tone. Sardonic means very solemn, serious tone. They, they were not very conventional in their style, but they were not very innovative either, and they did not describe nature for its own sake. I am describing the Movement in negative terms, am I not? D.J. Enright was an editor of, uh, an anthology. *Poets of the 50s* was an important anthology of the Movement poets. D.J. Enright was the editor, but D.J. Enright also wrote Movement poetry. Did you know D.J. Enright was a student of F.R. Leavis? He was a professor in Egypt, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, and he has written some poems. Have you heard of *Dreaming in the Shanghai Restaurant*? *Dreaming in the Shanghai Restaurant* is by D.J. Enright. Philip Larkin is very famous, a poet. He was also a novelist; he was a jazz critic; he was a librarian, and Philip Larkin wrote poetry as a librarian. He was a librarian by profession. You might already know his major poems like *Church Going*, *Annunciations*, *Church Going*, *Toads*, *Ambulances*, etc. Before we talk about that, I should tell you a little more about his poems. He represented a sense of loss, a beauty departed in his poems. He talked about everyday modern life in a colloquial language with a personal tone, and he edited *The Oxford Book of 20th Century English Verse*. His first collection, *The North Ship*, is a little famous. *The Less Deceived* is another collection. And let me now talk about some of the important poems. *The Whitsun Weddings* is a journey that is taking from, um, on a train from Hull to London, and he's describing the scenery outside. *Church Going* is when he is going into a church and wondering what will become of religion, what will become of churches. He is saying that probably churches will not remain, but then he also says churches will be necessary because in this world when everything is falling apart, we need this serious house for some serious discussions, so probably churches will remain. So there is an ambivalence here in *Church Going*. *Ambulances* is a poem that conveys the loneliness of age and death—death will come to everyone, and ambulances are an objective correlative for death.
Then Donald Davie is an important poet who wrote poems like *Remembering the Thirties*, *Would Pigeons at Rahini*… Why am I saying these titles? Because these are prescribed in universities. *Under Brig Flats* is a very major book. *Under Brig Flats* is a history of the 30 years of British poetry that went before. Elizabeth Jennings is a Movement poet with a difference. Elizabeth Jennings wrote Movement poetry style only, but she wrote two themes that are not at all used in Movement poetry by other poets: one is she writes about, um, Roman Catholicism; second is she writes about mental disorder. These two are themes that are very new in Movement poetry. Then there is Tom Gunn. Tom Gunn, uh, is a Movement poet who wrote the very famous poem *On the Move*—"Man, you gotta go"—and he has also written, uh, poems, uh, based on AIDS, etc. All these poets talked about the contemporary society.
A poet who is somewhat related to Movement poetry is Ted Hughes. He is not a major Movement poet, but he was a poet laureate, and he, uh, had some themes related to Movement poetry. Uh, he studied archaeology and anthropology. He married Sylvia Plath, as you know. It was she who encouraged him to write poetry, and he has written many famous poems, uh, in collections like *The Hawk in the Rain*, *Lupercal*, etc. All of you know that he's a poet of animal vitality, animal life and vitality. This was the time of the Second World War; the world was being torn apart by the Second World War—so much bad, kind of violence—and he's juxtaposing human violence with animal violence, which is more natural and necessary. *Hawk Roosting* is a very major poem of this kind. He has also used, uh, predators in his poems—jaguar, pike, etc.—to represent animal, uh, violence and vitality. Another poem which is not related to violence but it is related to writing of poetry is *The Thought Fox*. He's comparing the coming of a fox, the approach of a fox, very cautious approach of a fox, to the approach of poetry—how poetry comes to the poet is like how a thought, a fox, approaches. And then he has written many other important, uh, poems like *The Crow Poems*, which are very important because of the metaphoric way in which they talk about, uh, contemporary life in through the metaphor of the crow, which is an archetypal, mythic symbol of every man. Then he has written *Birthday Letters*, that is the collection in which for the first time he revealed his relationship with Sylvia Plath, which led to the suicide of the lady poet. He has written some children's books like *Iron Man*. *Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being* is a book of literary criticism, and, um, in a nutshell, Ted Hughes' poetry represents not only the po—the power and vitality of the animal world, uh, as against the civilization of death of modernity, but also he talks about God and primitiveness. Primeval elements are there, and also the ever-present nature of evil. Evil is ever-present in human life. So ultimately, in this world of confusions, personal survival should be our goal. Personal survival is very necessary in this fragmented, violent world that which we live in now.
There is another group of poets I need you to know that is called The Group. Have you heard of the group called The Group? There were an informal group of poets in London who were active from the 50s to 60s period. Philip Hobsbaum was a major figure. Philip Hobsbaum, Peter Porter—have you heard? He is a very important poet, actually. Peter Porter is an important poet of, uh, The Group. Alan Brownjohn and George Macbeth. They are not that famous because they don't have a common manifesto or anthology, but, uh, that they were a major group of poets at this time.
So guys, I have talked about a lot of poets today. You have to read on your own. These are all very interesting poets and very important poets. Now from here I will talk to you about other contemporary poets also. There are so many poets that we need to know. Make sure you, uh, read them. There is another very interesting way to catch up with these poets. Shall I tell you what it is? Listen to recitations in YouTube. There are very good recitations of poems, contemporary poems in YouTube. Ted Hughes' recitation or Ted Hughes' poems like that. If you Google search, you will be able to find out. Make a playlist or something out of it, and then you, when in your leisure time, you can listen to all that. Okay, that, that's an amazing way in which you can catch up with these contemporary poets. So I hope you enjoyed this discussion. Uh, I have many more videos coming up. Please make sure you watch them in the correct order. Every day at six, VideoPedia is also followed by, uh, reels and shorts with answers these days. Please make sure you watch them and follow them. Make a note of everything, and with these free videos itself you will be able to become amazing scholars. Many people have passed NET with their self-learning with the help of these videos. Did you know, guys? 100 students have written to us, have approached us after the exam saying, "Ma'am, because of your classes we have passed"—not only from YouTube, from our paid courses also, because in paid courses you get to know all this really thoroughly. I go over everything in very great detail, so it is not a small thing we are doing, guys. This is a huge thing that we are doing, and, uh, be with us, follow all this, and next time we should make the hundred one thousand. Okay, so all the best. Welcome to our family. We are there to work for you, and you're making the best out of it. This is a great collaborative effort that we are making, and I'm sure it will have great results. So thank you everyone for your cooperation, support, encouragement, and love. Happy reading. Bye you.