History - John Burnside

Society

Throughout Burnside’s oeuvre there is a sense of the liminal, the provisional and the transformative.

‘History’ directly addresses ideas regarding society and the reaction of society to terrorist attacks and traumatic events as a whole. This is both in the form of societal identity, and through the way in which society reacts, used as a form of social commentary to urge society not to repeat its mistakes

Natural vs man-made

Burnside creates a dichotomy through the repeated juxtaposition of antithetical images - operating in contrasts of the land against the sea; the human world against the natural world; war and peace; pessimism against hope. This use of oppositions in a contrasting manner projects a tableau vivant of the inherently multifaceted nature of human and natural life

Fragility of human society vs the endurance of nature

The consciousness of mortality and ephemerality highlights different aspects of the ‘cherished world’ by presenting our existence as precious but also limited. Highlights the innate value of all life

vulnerability of nature is paralleled to that of a child ‘first nakedness’

Context

The poem is significantly dated September 2001 in the epigraph, soon after the attacks of the Twin Towers in New York. The large events of history, here symbolised by war planes, can only be understood in context; how the past impacts upon the present, how it affects individuals

‘finding evidence of life in all this’ = perhaps discovery of 9/11 survivors

Structure/form key points

• Structural fluidity is conveyed through the lack of rhyme scheme and consistent metrical pattern, lack of structure and confused thoughts. The ambiguity could also represent the ambiguity of human identity

• Enjambment throughout renders the borders of the line fluid, making it difficult for readers to discern where each clause ends, representing the indeterminacy of humanity

• Free verse – the structure, length, spacing and placement of lines on page is quite erratic
  (mimic literal falling of twin towers. also link beach idea to the theme of nature and how this is linked)

• Spatial drifting of lines across the page appears visually fragmented, perhaps as a reflection of uncertainty and untethered thoughts: frequent line breaks mean that words and phrases are disconnected, which ultimately lends itself to a tentative reading. This sense of fragility and fragmentation is intensified through the structural isolation of ‘people’ upon its own line, as a visual representation of how alone people may feel within a world shaped by violence and war. The content of the poem can be seen to mirror this structural fragmentation and fractured sense of loss throughout, only finding ‘smudges of weeds’ and partial ‘evidence of life’

• The voice is that of the speaker using the first person singular pronoun ‘I’, although he refers also to ‘we’, as if pulling in all humankind. This makes the reader feel as though they are playing a more active role in the poem’s message and hopefully increases the magnitude of his message - Burnside questions how we may live responsibly after violence (‘do no harm’)

• Frequent line breaks working in opposition to the logic of syntax show difficulty in articulation and represent the multifaceted nature of life. The blank space created by these broken lines reflects the space between what we know and what we don’t understand, the space between life and death

‘Pebbles’ vs ‘dread’ ‘fear’

• He employs frequent imagistic contrast between the tangible and the intangible, for example using vivid descriptions of his immediate surroundings on the beach, such as the concrete 'pebbles' and 'jamjars', contrasted by the poem's deeper engagement with existential concerns and the abstract concepts 'dread' and 'fear.' (this juxtaposition could explore the difficulty he has managing these complex emotions within everyday setting)

• Burnside illustrates the complex interplay of oppositions to explore how our world is provisional and subject to change, and that this acknowledgement of finality gives life even more value.

• Commentary on how it is the most important things in our life that tend not to be physical objects

‘The sea, the sky’

• Asyndetic listing creates an almost euphonic quality, exploring an appreciation for nature, and concern for its protection

• This is enhanced by the sibilance of ‘sea’ and ‘sky’, which evokes a softness or delicacy to expose the ease to which natural beauties in the world can be damaged by humans

• Underscores further the innate value of all living beings and the climate with which we live in

‘Kite’

• Innocence imagery of childlike play

• Used cyclically within the poem and expresses a gravitational relationship with the planet; the kite represents freedom and aspiration yet it is grounded by responsibility to represent paradoxical and conflicting emotions in life

• A kite is pulled by larger forces, the intangibles in life that shape who we become (contrast between the concrete and the abstract). Microcosmic (like the fish) for all human life – tugged around and shaped by different pushes and pulls, just as a kite is moved by the wind. (could reflect Burnside’s feelings of helplessness, or alternatively the way in which he feels he lacks control)

• Juxtaposing image at the end of the poem in which the perspective of the child is facing down, ‘sifting wood and dried weed from the sand’, only preoccupied with what is directly in front of him in the present. The parents however are facing upwards towards the ‘kite’ and the ‘sky’, reflecting the broader world view of adults, the way in which we are affected by the world around us

• Kite running in the East/Asia is a very popular activity, particularly in countries like Afghanistan. When the Taliban took over Afghanistan they banned kite-flying as ‘un-Islamic’. This links explicitly to the 9/11 epigraph and theme of terrorism (horrific acts of terrorism discussed through images of childhood play - difficulty confronting these atrocities within an everyday setting)

‘Jamjars of spawn and sticklebacks’

• The second half of the poem celebrates the ordinary, which now seems even more vulnerable. This is emphasised by the long single sentence, with its isolated phrases spaced across the lines; it is a delicate web of meaning on the page.

• Contrast between the concrete and the abstract, taking comfort in tangible and familiar things. Could be critical of materialism (‘we are confined by property’)

• ‘jamjars’ references confinement vs freedom, acting as a microcosm for human life, and the ways in which life and social constraints refine us

‘Today’

• The use of the word ‘today’ as the opening line of the poem directly juxtaposes the title ‘history’ to explore their inextricable link. in doing this, Burnside not only recognises the influence of historical events upon current life, but also offers an alternative, more positive, perspective that each day acts as an opportunity to create new history. ‘Today’ may therefore function as a form of social commentary that urges society to learn from former atrocities, as alluded to by the epigraph, significantly dated September 2001 as a reference to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

• Structurally isolating ‘today’ upon its own line draws emphasis to its power, however this isolation may simultaneously reflect psychological alienation - a symbol of how alone people feel in a world full of war and death

• sense of hope, link to ‘light’ imagery (‘attentive to the irredeemable’ - intertextual allusion to Christ as the redeemer perhaps)

‘Muffled dread’

The poem does not explicitly state certain emotions, inwards introspective tone - discusses feelings that may be repressed, ‘muffled’, or unable to be articulated