Poetry

Thomas Robert Malthus, 1766-1834.

“In this famous work, Malthus posited his hypothesis that (unchecked) population growth always exceeds the growth of means of subsistence.  Actual (checked) population growth is kept in line with food supply growth by “positive checks” (starvation, disease and the like, elevating the death rate) and “preventive checks” (i.e. postponement of marriage, etc. that keep down the birthrate), both of which are characterized by “misery and vice”.  Malthus’s hypothesis implied that actual population always has a tendency to push above the food supply.  Because of this tendency, any attempt to ameliorate the condition of the lower classes by increasing their incomes or improving agricultural productivity would be fruitless, as the extra means of subsistence would be completely absorbed by an induced boost in population.  As long as this tendency remains, Malthus argued, the “perfectibility” of society will always be out of reach”.

Source:http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/malthus.htm

I have given this introduction to help you understand the following poem by Avison that your are to analyze, paying attention to punctuation, and how the poem is ‘countering’, that is arguing against, Malthus’ ideas. Remember we now live in a time of great population growth, but diminishing food and water supplies.

To Counter Malthus

None us in this so

burdened earth has known

how to live, let alone

who is too many.

Presence, each day

afresh, you give a

purifying signal to

sting us alive.

Vast territories and seashores

still bear these thronging

strangers. May none die

without somebody caring.

To know even one other is

costly. And being known.

Alive, among so many

more now? a concern…

Hunger makes men desperate, threatens

to congeal the quandary. Yet

Presence abides untouched

in the churn of Quantity.

Les Eboulements is on the St. Lawrence River, Kamouraska Region, Eastern Townships, Quebec

This painting is called ‘From Tessa’s Window’ and it shows a typical snow scene that can help illustrate some of the sonnets by Lampman.

Analyze this poem, thinking of the five senses that are referred to, thinking of the movement that occurs. Write an analysis that is line by line.

Edublogs seems to be going off and on since they upgraded on October 3rd. Finally I got back on, at 10 a.m. on October 7th. Let’s see if it stays up.

Welsh History

We were a people taut for war; the hills
Were no harder, the thin grass
Clothed them more warmly than the coarse
Shirts our small bones.
We fought, and were always in retreat,
Like snow thawing upon the slopes
Of Mynydd Mawr; and yet the stranger
Never found our ultimate stand
In the thick woods, declaiming verse
To the sharp prompting of the harp.
Our kings died, or they were slain
By the old treachery at the ford.
Our bards perished, driven from the halls
Of nobles by the thorn and bramble.
We were a people bred on legends,
Warming our hands at the red past.
The great were ashamed of our loose rags
Clinging stubbornly to the proud tree
Of blood and birth, our lean bellies
And mud houses were a proof
Of our ineptitude for life.
We were a people wasting ourselves
In fruitless battles for our masters,
In lands to which we had no claim,
With men for whom we felt no hatred.
We were a people, and are so yet.
When we have finished quarrelling for crumbs
Under the table, or gnawing the bones
Of a dead culture, we will arise
And greet each other in a new dawn
Armed, but not in the old way.

R. S. Thomas (1913 – 2000)

Read this poem and blog about what  view of the past, present, and future of the Welsh people  R. S. Thomas shows.

This will be a blog on poetry. Instead of the traditional written on paper tests we will blog about poems that I will put on my blog here. You will also have access to each other’s blogs and be able to comment. In the next week, hopefully we will iron out the difficulties.

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