{"id":428,"date":"2020-09-07T07:31:31","date_gmt":"2020-09-07T05:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/?p=428"},"modified":"2020-09-07T07:31:31","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T05:31:31","slug":"countries-parting-ways-like-lovers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/?p=428","title":{"rendered":"Countries Parting Ways Like Lovers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Albus McInerney edits a literary magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n

We have been lost without Marianne. The equilibrium of argument and opinion in our little coterie is askew. We haven\u2019t experienced deadlock or actual ill feeling, but a certain dynamism has departed, and the disagreements that used to drive our decision-making have been replaced by diffidence.<\/p>\n

Dimitri, who developed the strongest rapport with Marianne, has proposed a potential replacement, a specialist in colonial literature, who \u2013 from her academic perch in Banjul \u2013 has sent us a rather entertaining analysis of a poem by John Betjeman. Submitted for publication, it has also served as a sort of job application.<\/p>\n

The choice of poem is perhaps a tad eccentric. The Irish Unionist\u2019s Farewell to Greta Hellman in 1922<\/em> may not be everyone\u2019s Betjeman cup of tea. It\u2019s about a romantic path not taken: the poet unsparingly observes the wisdom and rightness of a rejection. This might conventionally have been rendered with the utmost melancholy and book-ended with a dying fall \u2013 but Betjeman goes at it at a hundred miles an hour.<\/p>\n

Oh! The fighting down of passion!<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh! The century-seeming pain \u2013 <\/em><\/p>\n

Parting in this off-hand fashion<\/em><\/p>\n

In Dungarvan in the rain.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018That\u2019s a gnat\u2019s whisker away from doggerel,\u2019 Kim said with uncharacteristic vigour.<\/p>\n

The Dungarvan in the rain<\/em> trope ends each of the five verses, which are dense with closely observed and creatively communicated detail \u2013 something our prospective colleague dealt with succinctly in her analysis.<\/p>\n

Patrice wasn\u2019t persuaded by her argument that the poem is about Britain and Ireland. The woman\u2019s \u2018golden hair\u2019 described in the first stanza appears again at the end, as \u2018streaming gold\u2019. Her smile is \u201cslow and sad\u201d and her eyes are \u2018slanting blue\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018She\u2019s just a woman,\u2019 he said. \u2018She isn\u2019t a whole country.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Isn\u2019t that a bit literal, Patrice?\u2019 Dimitri asked. Sometimes Dimitri\u2019s tone is more sarcastic than sardonic.<\/p>\n

\u2018The country and the woman cannot be treated separately,\u2019 Kim said. \u2018Betjeman was threatened with assassination when he was posted to Dublin as a British diplomat in the 1940s. He sets the scene in 1922 \u2013 which offers a rather sinister context. Consider:<\/p>\n

Gusts of Irish rain are sweeping<\/em><\/p>\n

Round the statue in the square;<\/em><\/p>\n

Corner boys against the walling<\/em><\/p>\n

Watch us furtively in vain,<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>I completed (no doubt redundantly) the rest of the verse:<\/p>\n

\u00a0And the Angelus is calling<\/em><\/p>\n

Through Dungarvan in the rain.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s a description of two people,\u2019 Kim said, \u2018but also a country at a particular stage in its history \u2013 immediately after separation from Britain.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Which is the author\u2019s point,\u2019 Dimitri said.<\/p>\n

\u2018She doesn\u2019t make the point in a very rigorous way,\u2019 Patrice sniffed.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think she examines key themes very . . . competently.\u2019 I might have chosen something more fulsome than \u2018competently\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018Can you tell us more about her?\u2019 Patrice asked.<\/p>\n

\u2018She\u2019s been in prison,\u2019 Dimitri said.<\/p>\n

There was across the Zoom-sphere a great silence, until Patrice asked, \u2018Prison?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018She led a protest,\u2019 Dimitri explained. \u2018She got some of her students to follow her from the university down to the centre of town where they picketed the bus station.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018The bus station?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018The protest was about bus fares.\u2019<\/p>\n

And so, we considered the lady from Banjul\u2019s choice of poem in a new light. Perhaps her perspective on a doomed love affair in the very south of the south of Ireland in 1922 was illuminated by experiences different from ours.<\/p>\n

\u2018The metre is all wrong, though,\u2019 Kim said, wrenching the discussion back to the mechanics of verse. \u2018Once he sets off from the opening couplet, he simply can\u2019t slow down. It\u2019s a high-speed elegy for lost love \u2013 and speed doesn\u2019t mix with heartbreak.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018It is the metre of a rainy afternoon,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n

\u2018In a rainy country,\u2019 Patrice added.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s about love in a cold climate,\u2019 Dimitri said.<\/p>\n

\u2018And our colleague from Banjul has thoroughly analysed the underlying themes,\u2019 Kim acknowledged. \u2018I do disagree with her conclusions, but I\u2019d be happy to take that up with her in person.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018As would I,\u2019 Dimitri said.<\/p>\n

Patrice seconded.<\/p>\n

\u2018Then, we have a new member of the team,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n

After this, with a sense of considerable contentment, we moved on to other business.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Albus McInerney edits a literary magazine. We have been lost without Marianne. The equilibrium of argument and opinion in our little coterie is askew. We haven\u2019t experienced deadlock or actual ill feeling, but a certain dynamism has departed, and the disagreements that used to drive our decision-making have been replaced by diffidence. Dimitri, who developed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[89,88,87,85,86],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/cropped-banner-K1-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions\/429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}