Rhythms of Feeling in Edward Lear, T. S. Eliot, and Stevie Smith

262 Pages·2022·4.798 MB·English

by  Jasmine Jagger

OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 09/02/22, SPi
Rhythms of Feeling in Edward Lear,
T. S. Eliot, and Stevie Smith
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 09/02/22, SPi
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 09/02/22, SPi
Rhythms of Feeling in
Edward Lear, T. S. Eliot,
and Stevie Smith
JASMINE JAGGER
1
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 09/02/22, SPi
1
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First Edition published in 2022
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2021951885
ISBN 978–0–19–886880–4
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198868804.001.0001
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OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 09/02/22, SPi
For my mother—
I carry your music with me.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 09/02/22, SPi
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 09/02/22, SPi
Acknowledgements
My deep gratitude goes to the following people, each of whom contributed generous
ideas, suggestions, and edits in the making of this book: Steven Connor, James
Williams, Angela Leighton, Seamus Perry, and Will May. Thanks also to my dear
friend Thomas Russell for casting his eye upon countless drafts.
For funding the bulk of this research, I am most grateful to the Wolfson
Foundation. For additional funding, I am grateful to Jesus College and the Faculty
of English, Cambridge.
I am indebted to the archivists at Houghton Library (Harvard), the Berg
Collection (New York), McFarlin Library (Tulsa), Somerville College Library
(Oxford), and the Tennyson Research Centre (Lincoln), for their tireless help with
manuscript materials. My thanks also go to the patient editorial team at
OUP. The following are used by permission:
‘Edward Lear’ from Collected Poems by W. H. Auden, by permission of Penguin
Random House LLC; extracts from The Complete Nonsense and Other Verse by
Edward Lear, by permission of Watson, Little Ltd; Edward Lear manuscript letter
to Emily Tennyson (9 October 1879), by permission of Lincoln Heritage Services;
drawing by Alfred Lord Tennyson from his In Memoriam manuscript notebook
(1834), by permission of The Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; by
permission of Faber and Faber Ltd: extracts from The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volumes I
and II by T. S. Eliot; The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript by T. S. Eliot; Stevie
Smith, The Collected Poems and Drawings of Stevie Smith; manuscript ma ter ials by
Stevie Smith, by permission of the University of Tulsa; extracts from Some Are
More Human than Others by Stevie Smith, by permission of Peter Owen and New
Directions Publishing Corporation; John Lee Hooker quote, by permission of the
John Lee Hooker Estate; Human Nervous System dissected by M.A. Schalck and
L.P. Ramsdell, by permission of the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, Kirksville,
Missouri; ‘Bynogen Brings Health’, two adverts from The Athenaeum, by permis-
sion of University Library, Cambridge; ‘Dancers’ by William Patrick Roberts, by per-
mission of The Treasury Solicitor, Mishcon de Reya LLP.
At Jesus College, University of Cambridge, I would like to thank Rod Mengham
and Christopher Burlinson for their kind mentorship. At the University of
Oxford, I would especially like to thank Matthew Bevis, Stephen Gill, and Sophie
Ratcliffe, for their long- standing support, guidance, and inspiration.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to: my husband Douglas Maxwell, for
his love and companionship; my father Hugh, for always reminding me to believe
in myself; and my courageous mother Suzy, who provided endless support and
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 09/02/22, SPi
viii Acknowledgements
encouragement for this book while fighting for her life against motor neurone
disease. Rhythms of Feeling could not have been written without you.
Finally, this work has been animated and loved by not one, but two thinkers—
and my greatest debt is to my teacher, Anne Malone Stillman, la miglior fabbra,
who saw me through it all.
—J.J., 2020.
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Contents
List of Illustrations xi
List of Abbreviations xvii
Introduction 1
I. Affect and creativity 6
II. The poets’ affects 10
III. Affect and rhythm 22
IV. Rhythm and ‘relief’ 41
Lear’s Tears 48
I. Breaking 52
II. Private melody 62
III. Turtle, you shall carry me 71
IV. Too deep for tears 93
Eliot’s Nerves 98
I. Early jitters 103
II. Nerves in patterns 119
III. Sickly vehicle 130
IV. When words fail 140
Smith’s Scratches 148
I. Beast within 154
II. Scratching out 163
III. Too low for words 175
IV. Darker I move 188
Coda: Dancing Feeling 202
Selected Bibliography 213
Index 225