Poetry special: The Death of the Bird by AD Hope“The Book Show” Transcript Friday 16 May 2008 10:00AM The Death of the Bird, by AD Hope (Alec Derwent Hope) is the final in our series of great Australian poems. AD Hope is probably the most world famous of the five poets we've featured this week. And as well as being a poet he was a critic, an academic and a satirist. He was born in New South Wales in July 1907 and died in Canberra in July 2000. His most famous poetry collection, The Wandering Islands, came about when he was quite young, and it was this collection that established his reputation. The Death of the Bird is one of his more straightforward poems. It is, quite simply, about the death of a bird. But it has also become a controversial example of how to read a poem which has been part of the purpose of this series. Like each one of our examples this program features a close reading of the poem and gives different possible interpretations. We've spoken to AD Hope fan, Clive James and visited a poetry conference in Canberra where a quarrel over the poems meaning broke out. And to pin the bird down we added migratory bird expert John Barkla into the mix. The Death of the Bird is a fitting end to this extraordinary series by Lyn Gallacher. Ramona Koval: Welcome to The Book Show on ABC Radio National and the final in our series devoted to the close reading of a group of great Australian poems. Today it's 'The Death of the Bird', by AD Hope. AD Hope is probably the most world famous of the five poets we've featured this week. And as well as being a poet he was a critic, an academic and a satirist. He was born in New South Wales in July 1907 and died in Canberra in July 2000. His most famous poetry collection, The Wandering Islands, came about when he was quite young, and it was this collection that established his reputation. 'The Death of the Bird' is one of his more straightforward poems. It is, quite simply, about the death of a bird. But it has also become a controversial example of how to read a poem. And some eof its readers have very strong opinions about what it is and isn't, and what is and isn't a legitimate interpretation of the poem. Lyn Gallacher takes us through the Bird's journey and the arguments as they range from roadkill to romance, and you'll hear a number of voices commenting on the poem, including the author Clive James. And it's Clive who gets us started, as he reads—using his voice and his interpretation—'The Death of the Bird' by AD Hope. For every bird there is this last migration; Once more the cooling year kindles her heart; With a warm passage to the summer station Love pricks the course in lights across the chart. Year after year a speck on the map divided By a whole hemisphere, summons her to come; Season after season, sure and safely guided, Going away she is also coming home; And being home, memory becomes a passion With which she feeds her brood and straws her nest; Aware of ghosts that haunt the heart's possession And exiled love mourning within the breast. The sands are green with a mirage of valleys; The palm-tree casts a shadow not its own; Down the long architrave of temple or palace Blows a cool air from moorland scarps of stone. And day by day the whisper of love grows stronger, The delicate voice, more urgent with despair, Custom and fear constraining her no longer, Drives her at last on the waste leagues of air. A vanishing speck in those inane dominions, Single and frail, uncertain of her place. Alone in the bright host of her companions, Lost in the blue unfriendliness of space. She feels it close now, the appointed season: The invisible thread is broken as she flies; With a warm passage to the summer station Love pricks the course in lights across the chart. There were just millions of them and the sky seemed to be moving with all the birds. but why is it the last? Well to find out.. we know that. when I was first reading it in the late 50s — which is a couple of years after 'the book' came out. If you can't get to the point in poetry where you can compel the reader to read the next line because of the way this line is shaped. summons her to come. And it's running out of energy—it's going to die. no brain. Year after year a speck on the map divided By a whole hemisphere. The immense and complex map of hills and rivers Mocks her small wisdom with its vast design. almost as if the bird knew. Auden could do it. I just simply loved the majesty of his rhythms. The bird's done this every years. It's the bird's last flight. it's stately. beautifully constructed. And the winds buffet her with their hungry breath. the wilderness of light no sign. He had these long. he stood watching the great swarms of birds flying south for the southern summer. The bird in the poem. because of its flow. I was about 18 years old and that was the first of Hope's poems that really caught me. if you can't force the reader to read the next line as well then you're not doing the business. you see. Alec Hope could have set up as a poet anywhere in the English speaking world after that book came out. He wasn't afraid to elevate the language so it was somewhat oratorical. without reason. Receives the tiny burden of her death. with neither grief not malice. He had this wonderful. Lyn Gallacher: Is this a poem that you would have liked to have written yourself? Clive James: You bet your life! In fact I've been trying to write it ever since. Clive. but of course the bird knows nothing. The brain is the poet's. Catherine Cole: When Alec told me about when he was visiting friends in America. Once more the cooling year kindles her heart. It's a great poem in any of the English-speaking countries.. Auden had first lines like 'The earth turns over. It's majestic. without warning. because strangely enough the book has very few specifically Australian references. I was in Manning House Women's Union in Sydney University. that's called buttonholing in the trade. Going away she is also coming home. I could go on about it for a long time. Hope could do that. 'For every bird there is this last migration'—see. Lyn Gallacher: Clive James reading 'The Death of the Bird' by Alec Hope. read the next line. He admired Yeats very much. Thank you for that. Lyn Gallacher: And 'For every bird there is that last migration' is the sentence that draws you in —you have to read the next sentence. Lyn Gallacher: Do you remember first reading it—do you remember the moment? Clive James: Yes. Clive James: Well. Try as she will the trackless world delivers No way. it's the word 'last' that does it.' You have to find out what comes next. And the great earth. and it's magnificent still. and falling very naturally on to the breath. our side feels the cold. And then suddenly. Season after season. it migrates. What happens next? And Hope could do it. It's what this bird does. for example: what bird? Where is it flying? Which continent to where? It could be anywhere.Suddenly. sweeping iambic pentameters—quite often modified with an extra syllable here and there. The guiding spark of instinct winks and dies. He always wrote in praise of Yeats. The energy of the man is in it. like an 18th century approach to the language4—or a consciously hieratic approach like Yeats. Clive James: It's magnificent. Birds migrate. because of its force. And imagine. And darkness rises from the eastern valleys. For every bird there is this last migration. but it moves. for example. as they swooped he saw just one bird just veer off. and I imagine if it was translated in any language it's a mighty poem. sure and safely guided. And in journalism your first paragraph has to get them in and if you're a poet your first line has to get them in.the only word I can use for it is a kind of rush. The whole complexity of the bird's behaviour is compared with the intensity of its instinct. and he wasn't . And he makes a sort of ceremonial of it. not the bird's. It's all instinct. almost a conversational rhythm and yet elevated diction. buff-breasted sandpipers. It doesn't feel desolate. I think. And it was such an image. So flying through 'wastes of air' appeals to me as being flying. And the great earth. is what makes it very. Alone in the bright host of her companions. what would you guess? John Barkla: Well I looked at this and I immediately felt an empathy with the migratory wading birds. Lyn Gallacher: Not the oldies. actually. Can their guiding spark of instinct suddenly wink and die? John Barkla: It's quite a common thing. Lyn Gallacher: And the 'vanishing speck'. with neither grief nor malice. John Barkla: I loved Professor Hope's reference to 'alone in the bright host of her companions.sure why this happened. Drives her at last on the waste leagues of air.000 kilometres. Receives the tiny burden of her death. A vanishing speck in those inane dominions. John Barkla: Not the old ones. And it flies 12. it weighs 30 grams. So it's an extraordinary thing for this little bird to do. it doesn't contain within it for me a kind of nihilistic desolation. And do migratory birds actually lose their sense of direction. some direction. There are very opportunities for them to regenerate their strength. professor of creative writing at RMIT. The North Americans refer to them as shore birds. and so you would get immature birds. And it flew directly south and would have flown then over the Gulf of Mexico and eventually starved or fallen from the sky. It's usually the immature birds that through lack of experience get caught up in flocks of other species that have a different migration route. or the sharp-tailed sandpiper in Australia. Lyn Gallacher: Cathy Cole. and flying. it becomes a little bit demented and loses its way. as much as it's about a bird. But that. it inspired the poem 'The Death of the Bird'. There's something in it that is very human and very much about our fate and our humanity. it's almost like us. It loses 30% of its body weight. or that we lose something of ourselves along the way. Lost in the blue unfriendliness of space. And they fly non-stop. He imagined it just somehow lost its way. Single and frail. so they're making these migrations and have very little opportunity to feed and rest.. reading 'The Death of the Bird' alongside Alec Hope himself. They have very few stops. because the birds generally never migrate on their own. the buff-breasted sandpiper that breeds in the High Arctic and would normally migrate to Argentina in South America. They're the birds like the red-necked stint. Custom and fear constraining her no longer. Lyn Gallacher: If you had to guess what particular bird species Alec Hope is talking about in this poem. And one reason for speaking to a bird expert in this program is that I wanted to find out what species of bird the poem is about. . that's what strikes me very much about the poem. tiny bird—a bird the size of a hen's egg—flying 12. The reference to 'driving her at last on the waste leagues of air' appealed to me with the.. and flying. so would fly down across the Americas. Lyn Gallacher: Migratory bird expert John Barkla. Just this notion of the way in which we travel towards something over which we may have no control.the red-necked stint is a tiny bird.000 kilometres is certainly to me a vanishing speck. the sadness of the bird's end and the fall to earth.. It's a phenomenal undertaking. how did you respond to that? John Barkla: Well a 30-gram. and it's just extraordinary that they're so far off course. uncertain of her place. turning up in Australia. Now in Hope's poem he suggests that as the bird ages. that—take a couple of examples. Catherine Cole: There's also something in it that is so human and compassionate. In the real world it very rarely would happen like that. that breed in the Arctic and then fly to southern Australia. very special as a poem.. But it's usually the young ones that get lost. Occasionally they turn up in Australia. The winds buffet her with their hungry breath. Lyn Gallacher: And I think we should tell the listeners exactly what. David Brooks: He did do that. And I think that eye of the animal looking back at the poet is something that he was trying to deal with in a number of different poems. Ann McCulloch: He would have loved that quarrel.. I think Alec would not reject that. he probably was right. It's not global. and she thinks if he'd been there. Now that's a very violent reading of a poem.. He compared this very lyrical. but I think the interesting thing when you read Kinsella's paper. I sat there for a moment as the convenor of the conference and the person chairing the paper in temporary.an assumption that that is universal. watching the argument with wry amusement. in one sense. The conference organiser was writer. it's not global at all. And so there was a kind of battle. Because I thought my goodness. was Ann McCulloch. an extremely accomplished person and translator of Mallarme. It's an assumption because it comes from a kind of hegemonic. And looked into the eye of the tawny frogmouth that had its neck broken and saw his own reflection. yes. And I don't think he would have even bothered to be on one side or the other.. If we say that there is only one way we read a poem and we in a sense universalise it and globalise the reading and the globalise the meaning of the poem. because the poem is now leaping into life. Today we're examining the secret life of a small poem which caused a large ruckus at the AD Hope Centenary Conference. He was accused of making it up about himself. it just happened. Lyn Gallacher: And perhaps this is why John Kinsella accused Henry Weinfeld's reading as 'coming from planet nice'. I thought. who's the author of a study of Hope's notebooks. David Brooks: Yes. He probably in some ways would have loved the spirit of both of those men that were involved . practices of reading. Alec would have laughed.the conclusion of John Kinsella's paper was astonishing.Lyn Gallacher: AD Hope. then what are we doing with our own space? We find ourselves invaded by this globalised reading that in fact comes from a different space. which connected it with Shelley's 'To a Skylark' and Keats's 'Ode to a Nightingale'. then we have no shared truth. and in a sense set the poem into almost a kind of sacred tradition of the Romantic lyric—quite a wonderful paper. Lyn Gallacher: Also in the audience. Lyn Gallacher: It was almost as if John Kinsella was accused of reading what was not in the poem. And I think that's partly because we might be on the edge of a kind of shedding of the skin in Australian criticism. culturally. and I didn't actually set this one up. And Kinsella's reading was utterly different. This would not be possible if the poem didn't allow it in some way or another. David Brooks: I couldn't have set it up better if I'd tried. Lyn Gallacher: But Henry was accusing John Kinsella of making the poem up about himself and that being a grab for power for himself. momentary panic. David Brooks: Well I know that that was the accusation. For a few moments it looked like it might almost come to blows. when he himself had run over. And he gave a very polished 'high criticism' account of the poem. it's much more sensitive to the poem than Weinfeld was giving him credit for. And when I heard that bit about the roadkill. what was it. Henry Weinfeld.. A visiting academic from the United States. in a sense. And if I'm right. But it's not universal and we need particular readings coming from particular places. the tawny frogmouth and its eyes looking back at the poet. came over to give a paper in Sydney in a Mallarme and Brennan conference and then went down to Canberra because what he really wanted to do in Australia was to give a paper on AD Hope. and modes of reading. There's a side of Alec that's never been explored. And then another paper was given a little bit later the same day by John Kinsella from Western Australia.centre of power. and that's the sensitivity to animals. Just as valid but was a reading that was centred in place. melancholy elegy to roadkill. It might sound strange.. and the irony is I think that this is problem that we experience in so many different levels of our being. Sydney University academic and Hope aficionado David Brooks. ending his poem 'The Death of the Bird'. Poems are violent in a lot of ways I don't think we get very far if we insist that the poems are melodies that calm us and put us into nice places. uncanny underbelly that wasn't recognised or dealt with in the other paper. He's apparently been a fascination of his since the 1970s. was the position of Henry Weinfeld saying that if everybody makes up their own version of the poem every time they read it. well.but poems are dionysiac.. David Brooks: Well. And it showed that the poem had a kind of dark. what do I now have to control? And then I thought no. to put it mildly. And look. about how you read this kind of poem. sometimes quite violently. but tempers flared over the different ways of interpreting this small bird's flight. that showed a kind of uncanny prescience in Hope's poem in terms of the environmental impact of aggressive plundering of the land here in Australia. go with it. who's been teaching in Cambridge and other places as well. as it were. And before that you heard Cathy Cole.. a tawny frogmouth.. Everything he read was in his head and to be drawn upon for its echoes and its memories. because interestingly enough to me that poem has a later correlation and it's one called 'The Anniversary'.. I remember the poem being read at Penelope's funeral. he would have sat there smiling his ironic smile. And inane dominions is a very Latinate phrase. He was a person who liked debate and ideas. in a strange kind of way.' And some young. And that's what I mean when I talk about. he was re-orienting the poem as he was reading it. And yet the language is perfectly natural. unintentionally. He collapsed categorisation. Analogy is a form of argument that gives you a poetic understanding of the mysteries of the world rather than a definitive one which depends on a branch of knowledge always being correct. She feels it close now.. and that's what Kinsella was doing. almost as if it's because that allows him to release a certain emotion that he experiences. very powerful within the circumstance. 'A vanishing speck in those inane dominions'. 15 years later —reorienting the poem. perfectly colloquial. Clive James: Strangely the bird is a 'her'. If you didn't work on assumed knowledge.. It just means empty. If we follow the bird image through various French symbolist poems.. And ironically what Alec was doing.if he loves something he makes it female. what group of people are viewing something. Ann McCulloch: I think he thought that there was more chance to understand the secrets of life through language if you didn't work on definition.that he believed that all knowledge was provisional—that is provisional on what culture is in place. Lyn Gallacher: This fluidity of mind is also what allows the ambiguity in 'The Death of the Bird' poem. the bird could even be Hope's wife Penelope. I think. David Brooks: I knew AD Hope very well and I'd been his editor for 15 years so I can't get past hearing Alec's voice reading the poem every time I read the poem it stirs something up in me. in a different sense. So he probably had the inane regions in mind. 'A vanishing speck in those inane dominions. No. Who or what the bird actually is remains uncertain. it was remarkable funeral in a way. There's a line in Virgil about..a guiding spark of instinct winks and dies. And the way that it actually connected with what it felt to be alive —and being alive meant fearing death as much as it did having the joy of existence itself. that we explore ideas that we don't quite get. Lyn Gallacher: What was that like? David Brooks: Well. And after her funeral David Brooks was left wondering exactly that. like I am very interested in the French influence on Australian literature and I can't keep completely out of my mind when I read this poem the way that it picks up themes from French poetry that give it an extra kind of meaning. the bird is a symbol for the poet. Perfectly modern. In one sense. very strong. And then Alec read 'The Death of the Bird'. I don't know whether you know that or not.. He would have loved that. He wanted to get outside little boxes. and the uncanny itself coming from Freud's essay on the uncanny. He instinctively. is it being looked at from a literary point of view of a philosophical or psychological —he collapsed all those divisions. the appointed season. It's called 'The Unknown Anniversary' and he wrote it about the anniversary we never know and that is the .. He would have thought a lot of things they were saying were a lot of nonsense in another way. 'Queen of the Night' and that was very.through the hollow halls of Diss and the inane regions. If you worked on the basis that. David Brooks: Yes.. Lyn Gallacher: According to Ann McCulloch the reason Alec Hope would have adopted this attitude is because he had a commitment to maintaining a certain fluidity of mind along with a belief in knowledge being provisional... They thought inane meant stupid. But he would have liked it. And I had never imagined that I'd read the poem as it were intellectually read it in terms of literary tradition and so forth and I'd never imagined it could be a love poem or remarkable moving in the way that it was. The combination is ideal.. because Henry was giving a very personal response to his poem. He almost certainly had Virgil in mind. he would have been pleased with Henry too. And there's a kind of presentation of himself in the poem. what time of history we're in. He was a very learned poet. A piece of music was played. green reader might have to look up the dictionary to find out what inane really means. Ann McCulloch: I think it's important that he read that at Penelope's funeral. When you read his poetry you can tell here's a man who's read classical poetry. Lyn Gallacher: Because the bird was then Penelope.in that.that's why he uses analogy so much. As for Henry. I see him as presenting himself in a sort of feminised way. And because his particular interpretation dealt with the uncanny. He wanted to open up ideas and use the power of the creative language to maybe unlock for a moment the mysteries of the universe —and the beauty of it. But there are other things too.. John Kinsella was actually wanting to open up the debate and remind us all that Alec wasn't an ordinary person. that we repeat things we don't understand. So therefore the Gospel message. The guiding spark of instinct winks and dies. And that often comes from youthful vigour. because he doesn't see death as being the means towards eternity and a life beyond this life. but somehow it lost its rhythmic force. and start to actually come into our own self and facing our own fears. that it is limited and it does end and it ends for all of us. it returns to its home. It's not without its mystery. filled with its joy. 'Mocks her small wisdom with its vast design'. we try to make sense. that's exactly what happens. even though he doesn't see death as being meaningful in the Christian sense. and its patterns and its rituals. Lyn Gallacher: How. A writer in some ways is like a ballet dancer. And the great earth. . Knowing how to preserve that is quite a trick. It actually happened to Hope. without even intent. the religion. And that I think to Hope makes it beautiful. without any reason —all the things we use and need so much to make sense of our own life in its daily living—is irrelevant to the design of the universe. I think. without even any malice. And the winds buffet her with their hungry breath. and why I'm relating that to why he read that at Penelope's funeral. because you'll see that it connects with 'Death of a Bird'. So prior to that. we remember lost love and we know it's meaningful. we start to acknowledge that it's not going to be forever and we start to be less interested in the things that hold it together — the patterns. with neither grief not malice. If I could just read a stanza from that. Lyn Gallacher: Another reading of this poem is to see it as the inverse of the Gospel passage in Matthew which says 'Not a sparrow shall fall without God's notice. We can have our memories. that he sees death and life as being beautiful. but as we draw to the end of our lives. but is rather actually contemplating the essence of the meaning of existence itself. Unknown. then. And darkness rises from the eastern valleys. the universe is indifferent to us. and we 'need not fear because we mater more to Him than a sparrow. but also filled with the fact of limitation. we have pain. It lost the essential rhythmic force. The poem is an acceptance of a life that ends.without reason. And in the end he says we really only know the meaning of one's life at the end of one's life. in the end. We think there's going to be an end to the story. I think. You could lose control of your technique just at the very moment when you most want to use it. but perhaps in the end there is just our life —not just our life—there is the life. unconditional kiss And whispers. we love. We have a control of all that we do in our life but in the end the 'hungry breath' of the universe. Yet it waits for each one of us a destiny certain and true. in this poem. We can't control it. As we are in the end indifferent to it. Receives the tiny burden of her death. there is fear of the unknowable because there's this fear that we can't change it. His later work was going to be richer and richer.. .' is invalid. And in that way the bird is given its own divinity. But as it comes to the end of its life it no longer has much value for culture and ritual. says the 'tragedy of the ballet dancer is that your body gives up on you just at the moment when you really know what you're doing. you see the feeling of that in 'The Death of the Bird' where the bird returns to its nest each year.. the politics. Clive James: There's a bit of a tragedy there. We can mourn lost love. But there is one another day Masked by the circling year Strange anniversary nobody knows what it is. the economy. that God cares about every hair on your head. That's my view. But there is an end to the story and the end of the story is the fact that it ends. It's a great lesson. yet we know for a fact that it has to be there As it brushes the cheek with a cold. That we like to think there's a design in our life and a meaning that can be put into some creed. Well how has he put it together here? It's acceptance but it's not without its fear. And to me. Only then can we possibly put any of it together. So in this 'The Unknown Anniversary' he's talking about the death that we're all going to have which is going to feel like a cold kiss in the wind. are you ready for me? I am ready for you. A male ballet dancer —I think it was Michael Soames. isn't it? We try to control. can life's limitations be turned around into something liberating? Ann McCulloch: Sometimes we may not understand.' Here. who used to dance with Margot Fonteyn. that last line of that poem is.anniversary of our own death. It's called Dance of the Nomad. Thanks to the Cultural Fund of the Copyright Agency Limited whose support made the series possible. Ann McCulloch penned a study of the selected notebooks of AD Hope. In 1991 he worked on AD Hope Selected Poems and in 2000 he edited AD Hope: Selected Poetry and Prose published by Halsted Press. the wilderness of light no sign.Try as she will the trackless world delivers No way. concluding 'The Death of the Bird' by AD Hope. Catherine Cole recently produced The Poet Who Forgot. Receives the tiny burden of her death. with neither grief not malice. . Also in the program mix was migratory bird expert John Barkla and the series producer was Lyn Gallacher. it was published by Pandanus. Ramona Koval: Clive James. That was the final of our special poetry series. And the great earth. The immense and complex map of hills and rivers Mocks her small wisdom with its vast design. It's published by the University of Western Australia Press. It's a book which documents the letters and the friendship that she and Alec shared. and we'll put the details on our website. And darkness rises from the eastern valleys. David Brooks and Cathy Cole. But here's a list of some of their publications. And before that you heard Ann McCulloch. Each of these people have written books on Alec Hope. Also he edited The Double Looking Glass: New and Classic Essays on the Poetry of AD Hope published by the University of Queensland Press. And David Brooks acted as Alec Hope's editor for many years. And the winds buffet her with their hungry breath.
Report "The Death of the Bird Analysis Poem A.D. Hope"