We have been watching the wonderful Tom Hollander in 'Rev' on Monday nights, BBC2
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sz26s]
In this week's episode [four] some lines were quoted from the poem by Louis MacNeice "Fanfare for the Makers". Despite having taught and lectured on English Literature, I am not really a poetry person and this poem had sadly passed me by, although there are other poems by MacNeice that I enjoy.
So in case anyone else has also missed this wonderful poem here it is:
Fanfare For The Makers by Louis MacNeice
A cloud of witnesses. To whom? To what?
To the small fire that never leaves the sky.
To the great fire that boils the daily pot.
To all the things we are not remembered by,
Which we remember and bless. To all the things
That will not notice when we die,
Yet lend the passing moment words and wings.
*
So fanfare for the Makers: who compose
A book of words or deeds who runs may write
As many who do run, as a family grows
At times like sunflowers turning towards the light.
As sometimes in the blackout and the raids
One joke composed an island in the night.
As sometimes one man’s kindness pervades
A room or house or village, as sometimes
Merely to tighten screws or sharpen blades
Can catch a meaning, as to hear the chimes
At midnight means to share them, as one man
In old age plants an avenue of limes
And before they bloom can smell them, before they span
The road can walk beneath the perfected arch,
The merest greenprint when the lives began
Of those who walk there with him, as in default
Of coffee men grind acorns, as in despite
Of all assaults conscripts counter assault,
As mothers sit up late night after night
Moulding a life, as miners day by day
Descend blind shafts, as a boy may flaunt his kite
In an empty nonchalent sky, as anglers play
Their fish, as workers work and can take pride
In spending sweat before they draw their pay.
As horsemen fashion horses while they ride,
As climbers climb a peak because it is there,
As life can be confirmed even in suicide:
To make is such. Let us make. And set the weather fair.
The photograph at the top of the page is taken from the cover of the Faber edition of
Louis MacNeice: Poems Selected by Michael Longley
What does it mean? I think it's talking about wartime when it says about "blackout", "raids" and "counter assault", but has anyone further analysed the poem?
ReplyDeleteMy reading of the poem is that MacNeice is praising/celebrating all the 'ordinary' [and that word is not used lightly by me] people who make every day life possible and bearable for everyone around them.
ReplyDeleteThose who help 'build a family':
"who compose
A book of words or deeds who runs may write
As many who do run, as a family grows..."
Or those who create beautiful things jsut for the pleasure of doing it, not merely for their own immediate satisfaction:
"as one man
In old age plants an avenue of limes
And before they bloom can smell them"
Does this make sense? I think the war time references:
"As sometimes in the blackout and the raids
One joke composed an island in the night."
and
"as in despite
Of all assaults conscripts counter assault"
are part of the general celebrating 'ordinary' people. The first quote shows how people helped each other get through the terrors of war time and the second how 'ordinary' people [conscripts] never the less fought as bravely as their enemies.
This poem was published in a collection shortly after the second world war and I would think that the war time references would have been very relevant then.
HTH. I am glad there is a Fellow Rev Watcher out there - it is a great programme which mixes humour with thoughtful moments!
Thanks, Elizannie. I understand the poem a lot better now.
ReplyDelete