Exercise 2: Crux Buster, Harrison’s “On Not Being Milton”
In Tony Harrison’s poem “On Not Being Milton” he writes, “my Cahier d’un retour au pays natal” (3). According to the footnote, the French phrase comes from the title of Aime Cesaire’s poem about colonized West Indian people and a journey back to their homeland. The translated version would read, “Notebook of a return to one’s land of birth.” The first two lines of this poem set the theme of the speaker returning to his roots in the form of his poem. The inclusion of this title in its original language is deliberate. He wants to evoke the struggle of those Britan has colonized (ie West Indians) to showcase how the return to his roots is not merely a search for his past but an attempt to overcome the way western artist perceive great literature. In relation to the title, John Milton is considered an embodiment of England’s great literary tradition. So when Harrison relates his search for his …show more content…
It is the first of two lines that stands as it’s own stanza and therefore it immediately draws the reader to it. As the footnotes says the line is an allusion to Thomas Gray’s poem “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.” The line from Gray’s poem is “Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest” which is meant to say that a writer as exceptional as Milton could be buried here and no one would ever know because he never got the chance to write. However, Harrison seems to celebrate this concept rather than showcase it as morbid. First, he changes “mute inglorious” to “mute ingloriousness” which changes it to mean the condition of being inglorious. The change in wording in conjunction with the celebratory phrase “three cheers” and the exclamation point as punctuation imply that he is praising those who are silenced by the elite nature of the English language, whether it be a working class man from Leeds or a man from the West
In Tony Harrison’s poem “On Not Being Milton” he writes, “my Cahier d’un retour au pays natal” (3). According to the footnote, the French phrase comes from the title of Aime Cesaire’s poem about colonized West Indian people and a journey back to their homeland. The translated version would read, “Notebook of a return to one’s land of birth.” The first two lines of this poem set the theme of the speaker returning to his roots in the form of his poem. The inclusion of this title in its original language is deliberate. He wants to evoke the struggle of those Britan has colonized (ie West Indians) to showcase how the return to his roots is not merely a search for his past but an attempt to overcome the way western artist perceive great literature. In relation to the title, John Milton is considered an embodiment of England’s great literary tradition. So when Harrison relates his search for his …show more content…
It is the first of two lines that stands as it’s own stanza and therefore it immediately draws the reader to it. As the footnotes says the line is an allusion to Thomas Gray’s poem “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.” The line from Gray’s poem is “Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest” which is meant to say that a writer as exceptional as Milton could be buried here and no one would ever know because he never got the chance to write. However, Harrison seems to celebrate this concept rather than showcase it as morbid. First, he changes “mute inglorious” to “mute ingloriousness” which changes it to mean the condition of being inglorious. The change in wording in conjunction with the celebratory phrase “three cheers” and the exclamation point as punctuation imply that he is praising those who are silenced by the elite nature of the English language, whether it be a working class man from Leeds or a man from the West