Voices of World War II: Sitwell/DouglasLiterature 208: Session 8

A contradiction.

• The writers of World War II do not have quite the same reputation as those of World War I, yet like their predecessors, they write about the horror, waste and futility of war with eloquence.

War’s poetics.

• Rejecting the simple heroism of Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade," these poets attempt to make sense out of the unimaginable. Henry Reed's "Naming of Parts" conveys the incongruity of war by juxtaposing the prosaic dismantling and identification of rifle components to the beauty of the natural world: "Japonica / Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens, / And today we have the naming of parts" ( lines 4-6).

• The disparity between the mechanistic world of the militant and the vibrancy of the garden emphasizes the ugliness of war and the way its emotional devastation has infected all areas of life.

Sitwell and Douglas, poetics.

• Edith Sitwell talks about another kind of disparity--between war and spiritual faith, imagined in terms of darkness and light; the world is "dark-smirched with pain," but redemption is possible through the "innocent light" of Christ (lines 29, 33).

• In contrast to Stillwell's passionate rhetoric, Keith Douglas's tone is restrained; seeing both "stupidity and chivalry" in the fallen soldiers, he asks, "How can I live among this gentle / obsolescent breed of heroes and not weep?" ("Aristocrats," lines 13, 9-10).

Sitwell: An indictment.

• Unlike many other poems critical of war, "Still Falls the Rain" was written in the middle of the conflict rather than afterward, giving it is somewhat controversial edge.

• The poem indicts all of humankind, not just the Axis powers, for engaging in war.

Horror.

• Consider the terrifying experience of the London blitz.

• Consider, as well, the double meaning of "still" and "rain"/reign.

• The most apparent image that comes to mind is the raining of bombs, with the added implication of being caught in a storm that will not end.

Rhythm and pacing.

• The insistent repetition of the phrase “still falls the rain” takes on an incantatory effect, somewhat like a religious ritual.

• In fact, some critics consider this poem a canticle,  similar to a liturgical song.

Light, dark, Christ.

• The subtitle, “The Raids, 1940. Night and Dawn,” alerts the reader to the motif of light and dark that runs through the poem and to the association of Christ with light (“He bears in His Heart all wounds,-- those of the light that died, / The last faint spark” [lines 18 and 19]; and “Still do I love, still shed my innocent light, my blood, for thee” [line 33]).

A struggle.

• For Sitwell, the struggle is between light and dark good and evil, and all parties are diminished by their involvement in war: “Under the Rain the sore and the gold are as one” (line 15).

The Faustus connection.

• The quotation from Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus is also worth noting: “O Ile leape up to my God: who pulles me doune--/ See, see where Christ’s blood streames in the firmament” (lines 25-26). There is a faint echo here of Christ's words on the cross: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27.46).

• Like Faustus, the world is in spiritual darkness, under the reign/rain of horror. Unlike Christ on the cross, however, Faustus is responsible for his own fall from grace, just as the 20th-century world is responsible for the war.

The metaphysics.

• It is possible to the discern a few connections with metaphysical poetry here. As some critics have noted, Stilwell was an admirer of the metaphysical poets, especially Andrew Marvell. The religious subject matter, the powerful emotion, and the unlikely analogies (Christ's wounds equated with “The wounds of the baited bear,” for instance [line 21]) contains some resemblance to techniques used by Marvell and others.

Douglas and class systems.

• Douglas’s “Aristocrats” balances gentle irony with admiration and respect for a vanished breed. Consider the English class system and its demise in order to situate the tensions accordingly. The aristocratic classes of the mid-20th century were greatly diminished in power; for many, they were the object of ridicule or loathing, while for others, their airs and graces had something enviable about them.

Tone… quasi-comical.

• Here, Douglas locates aristocratic cool in a type of military composure and stoicism.

• When "[t]he noble horse…puts the pipe back in his mouth," this is a gesture of extreme nonchalance in the face of gunfire (lines 1-4). It is a humorous image, moreover, because it is a horse (and a “noble” one at that) rather than a man making this familiar movement. The humor is extended in the second stanza with the story of “Peter,” who says, with complete tranquility, “It's most unfair, they’ve shot my foot off” (line 8).

Calmness or humor?

• In this passage, Douglas echoes a well-known story about another “aristocrat,” the Earl of Uxbridge, who had a similar exchange with the Duke of Wellington during the battle of Waterloo. According to legend, the Earl’s calm statement, “By God, I have lost my leg” was met with a casual glance directed to where the cannonball had just hit and accompanied by the equally casual response, “By God sir, so you have.”

Autobiographical connections.

• Scholars have noted that Douglas’s interest in the heroic aspects of warfare spam back to his early youth, at which time he wrote a poem about this same battle. Having been so immersed in military history, Douglas is well aware of the mythic aura around the older soldier heroes, yet he is also aware that both the ruling class and the elevated rhetoric that described pre-World War I soldiers and wars are outdated.

World War I, Rupert Brooke.

• “How can I live among this gentle / obsolescent breed of heroes, and not weep?” he asks; “Unicorns, almost” (lines 9-11). Like the mythologized unicorn, these former warriors are fading into legend--and disregard.

• In the final stanza, Douglas abandons his faintly mocking tone and takes up the attitude of the most traditionally patriotic and romantic of the World War I poets, Rupert Brooke, whose "corner of a foreign field / That is forever England” (“The Soldier,” lines 2-3) can be discerned in the “stones and earth” (line 18) of the Tunisian desert that Douglas’s imagination has converted to the "cricket pitch[es]" and “drop fences" (lines 15, 16) of the English shires.

• Like Brooke, Douglas finds that something positive and redeemable can be rested from the midst of modern warfare.

Groups must prepare answers to any three questions—prepare to defend when I announce; nothing to be collected

1. Discuss the various meanings of the title "Still Falls the Rain." What effect does Sitwell achieve with the repetition of this phrase?

2. Explore the themes of light and dark in "Still Falls the Rain." How are these themes related to war what connection is there to religious faith?

3. What is the poem's attitude toward war? Who or what is at fault? What are the consequences of war?

4. Why does Sitwell quote Faust's words to Mephistopheles: "O Ile leape  up to my God who pulles me doune--/See, see where Christ's blood streames  in the firmament" (lines 25-26)? What does the Faust story or this passage have to do with the poem's concerns?

5. Why does Douglas use the word "aristocrats" to describe the military heroes of the poem. How can this word be both complementary and critical?

6. What does Douglas mean when he talks about "stupidity and chivalry" (line 13)? How is any of this connected to the pipe-smoking, unconcerned English gentleman?

7. What is the speaker's attitude toward the "aristocrats" of the poem?8. Trace the use of humor and irony in "Aristocrats."