Belonging and Estrangement in the Poetry of Philip Larkin, R. S. Thomas and Charles Causley

221 Pages·2014·1.048 MB·English

by  Rory Waterman

Belonging and estrangement
in the Poetry of PhiliP larkin,
r. s. thomas and Charles Causley
Focusing on the significance of place, connection and relationship in three poets
who are seldom considered in conjunction, Rory Waterman argues that Philip
Larkin, R. S. Thomas and Charles Causley epitomize many of the emotional
and societal shifts and mores of their age. Waterman looks at the foundations
underpinning their poetry; the attempts of all three to forge a sense of belonging
with or separateness from their readers; the poets’ varying responses to their
geographical and cultural origins; the belonging and estrangement that inheres in
relationships, including marriage; the forced estrangements of war; the antagonism
between social belonging and a need for isolation; and, finally, the charged issues
of faith and mortality in an increasingly secularized country.
For Martin Stannard, and Christopher and Joan Speake
Belonging and Estrangement
in the Poetry of Philip Larkin,
R. S. Thomas and Charles Causley
RoRy WaTERman
Nottingham Trent University, UK
© Rory Waterman 2014
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Rory Waterman has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents act, 1988,
to be identified as the author of this work.
Published by
ashgate Publishing Limited ashgate Publishing Company
Wey Court East 110 Cherry Street
Union Road Suite 3-1
Farnham Burlington, VT 05401-3818
Surrey, GU9 7PT USa
England
www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Waterman, Rory.
Belonging and Estrangement in the Poetry of Philip Larkin, R. S. Thomas and Charles
Causley / by Rory Waterman.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBn 978-1-4094-7087-8 (hardcover: alk. paper)—ISBn 978-1-4094-7088-5 (ebook)—
ISBn 978-1-4724-0895-2 (epub)
1. Larkin, Philip—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Thomas, R. S. (Ronald Stuart),
1913–2000—Criticism and interpretation. 3. Causley, Charles, 1917–.—Criticism and
interpretation. 4. alienation (Social psychology) in literature. 5. Identity (Psychology) in
literature. I. Title.
PR6023.a66Z96 2014
821’.914—dc23
2013019347
ISBn 9781409470878 (hbk)
ISBn 9781409470885 (ebk – PDF)
ISBn 9781472408952 (ebk – ePUB)
V
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1 Provincial and Universal: Traditions and the
Poet-Reader Relationship 5
2 Home, Leaving and Finding One’s Proper Ground 43
3 Kissing with the Eyes Closed: Love and Marriage 79
4 Between the Wars 105
5 Searching for the Best Society 133
6 Awkward Reverence: Faith and Mortality 163
Bibliography 193
Index 207
This page has been left blank intentionally
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I would like to thank Professor Martin Stannard at the
University of Leicester for reading this study and making many valuable
suggestions. I would also like to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Council
for providing me with a full scholarship to undertake this research, and Professor
Stephen Regan (Durham University) and Dr Mark Rawlinson (University of
Leicester) for their attention and insights in the final stages.
I am also extremely grateful to the Estate of John Betjeman, the Society of
Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of Philip Larkin, and the
Estate of Charles Causley, for permissions to quote previously unpublished
archival material in this book.
Parts of this study have been published, often in very different versions, in
Explicator; About Larkin; Bonds and Borders: Critical Essays, ed. Dorette
Sobolewski (Cambridge Scholars, 2011); Dark Horse; Semicerchio; Able Muse
Review; Think Journal; Through the Granite Kingdom: Critical Essays on
Charles Causley, ed. Michael Hanke (Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2012).
Other pieces that have fed directly into the development of the book have been
published in Essays in Criticism; PN Review; The Poets’ Sourcebook, ed. Dawn
Potter (Autumn House, 2012); The Times Literary Supplement. I am grateful
to the editors who have published sections of this study, or works that have fed
directly into its development: Professor James Booth, Gerry Cambridge, Gregory
Dowling, Belinda Hakes, Professor Michael Hanke (who has been invaluable),
Alan Jenkins, Alexander Pepple, Professor Seamus Perry, Professor Christopher
Ricks, Professor Michael Schmidt, Dorette Sobolewski. I apologize sincerely if I
have missed anyone in this list.
I would also like to thank the organizers of the following conferences, for
which I put together papers related to this work: Lost in Translation, University
of Leicester, October 2009; The Artist Under the Microscope, Durham University,
November 2009; LINK Seminar, De Montfort University, Leicester, December
2009; Nightmare, UCL, March 2010; My Territory, University of Leicester,
April 2010; Bonds and Borders, University of Glasgow, June 2010; British and
Irish Poetry Since 1960, Queens University Belfast, September 2010; Poetry and
Source, University of Plymouth, May 2012.
Many others deserve thanks, including Professor Ronald Tamplin; Fran
Brearton and Patrick Villa at the War Poets Association; Professor Tony Brown
and all involved with the R. S. Thomas Study Centre at the University of Bangor;
the Special Collections staff at the University of Exeter; the Special Collections
staff at the University at Buffalo, NY; the staff at the National Library of Wales,
Aberystwyth; the Special Collections staff at the University of Hull; and the staff
at the British Library both at St Pancras and Colindale, London. I would also
viii Belonging and Estrangement
like to thank the many people I met and talked to in my pursuit of the ghost of
R. S. Thomas across north Wales, but especially David Walker in Manafon,
Mrs J. Neal in Eglwys-fach and Reverend Jim Cotter in Aberdaron. Again, I
apologize to anyone I have inadvertently missed out.
Last, but never least, I’d like to thank my parents Andrew Waterman and
Angela Waterman, and my wife Libby Peake, for their support and love, and my
father and wife for their careful proofreading.
Introduction
I feel as though I should begin with a definition. The Oxford English Dictionary
regards estrangement as: ‘separation, withdrawal, alienation in feeling or affection’.1
Such separation, withdrawal and alienation might of course either be willed or
enforced by circumstance. A man kicked out of his home and a man who has chosen
to leave his wife might both be said to be estranged from their previous lives, but the
type of estrangement they experience is likely to differ substantially because the latter
embraces it. This is an important distinction, and is often manifest in the ways the
writers focused on in this study, Philip Larkin (1922–85), R. S. Thomas (1913–2000)
and Charles Causley (1917–2003), responded to the same, or similar, phenomena –
such as relationships, isolation, geographical deracination. The sense in which most
of us understand ‘estrangement’, of course, is ‘alienation in feeling or affection’. This
has little application to Causley with regard to his Cornish background, though it is
manifest in – among other things – his response to changes to his home environment.
In Larkin’s work, there is frequently an axis or tension between belonging and
estrangement as normally understood. With Thomas it is different again. In his
earlier poems about Iago Prytherch and the like, Thomas is among rough hill-farming
people, ministering to them, and does feel compassion – yet is also not of them: is set
apart by education, accent, being an Anglican priest in a country of Methodism, and
by his personal fastidiousness; and a similar tension informs his later poetry about the
nature of Wales, of love, and of God.
In writing this study, it quickly became apparent that the exploration I wanted
to make of these near-contemporaries had a biographical shape. I therefore imagine
it as the charting of a sort of composite poetic ‘life’, from inherited environment
to death and spiritual transcendence – with the caveat that too great a biographical
focus can obfuscate one’s analysis of any literary work. Chapter 1 focuses on the
foundations and motives underpinning the poetry of Larkin, Thomas and Causley.
It looks at the ways in which they dealt with inherited literary traditions, and how
they attempted to build relationships with and challenge readers. To what extent
do they forge a sense of belonging with and/or separateness from their readers, and
how do they go about it? The second chapter considers geographical and cultural
origins, and how these writers responded to their environments. The mid- to late
twentieth century was a time of increased geographical deracination in Britain
(and elsewhere), as national and international travel became increasingly possible
and necessary. How do these poets respond to such circumstances and challenges?
The third chapter considers the belonging and estrangement that inheres in
relationships and in marriage. The twentieth century was also marked by a shift
in emphasis regarding the importance of marriage; how is this represented and
challenged by these poets? Chapter 4 focuses on the forced estrangements of
1 Oxford English Dictionary <http://www.oed.com> [accessed 3 October 2011].