C. Day-Lewis

1
C. Day-Lewis

• A Poet and Author

2
History and Brief Biography

• Cecil Day-Lewis was an Anglo-Irish poet, critic,
  and educator. He also gained fame as a detective
  story writer under the name Nicholas Blake.
• 1904- He was born at Ballintubber, Queen's County
  Ireland, April 27th. After his mother died, he
  was brought up in London by his father, with the
  help of an aunt.
• 1927- He graduated from Wadham College, Oxford
• 1935 to 1938- In his youth Day-Lewis adopted
  communist views, becoming a member of the
  Communist party. His early poetry was marked by a
  preoccupation with social themes.
• 1935- Day-Lewis decided to supplement his income
  from poetry by writing a detective novel because
  he needed the money to repair the roof of the
  cottage he was living in. His novels, as
  mentioned above, were published under the
  pseudonym Nicholas Blake. His books became quite
  popular. From the mid-1930s onwards, Day-Lewis
  was able to earn his living by writing.

http//www.student.britannica.com/eb/art-57770/C-D
ay-Lewis-1968
3
History And Brief Biography

• 1941- he distanced himself from his influence
  from Auden and reached his full stature as a
  poet. These poems reflected his personal life.
• 1950s and 1960s- He was professor of poetry at
  Oxford, and a lecturer at several universities.
• 1968- He was appointed Poet Laureate. A Poet
  Laureate writes poems for states occasions and
  other government events. In Britain, the Poet
  Laureate is known as the poet of the Monarch. He
  was Poet Laureate for Britain between 1968 and
  1972 (his death).
• 1972- Day-Lewis died on May 22, in the
  Hertfordshire home of Kingsley Amis and Elisabeth
  Jane Howard, where he and his wife were staying.
  The cause was pancreatic cancer. A great admirer
  of Thomas Hardy, he had arranged that he should
  be buried as close as possible to the author's
  grave in Stinsford. His epitaph reads "Shall I
  be gone long? / For ever and a day / To whom
  there belong? / Ask the stone to say / Ask my
  song"

4
Selected Works
Poetry collections Transitional Poem (1929) From Feathers To Iron (1932) Collected Poems 19291933 (1935) A Time To Dance And Other Poems (1935) Overtures to Death (1938) Short Is the Time (1945) Collected Poems (1954) Pegasus and Other Poems (1957) The Whispering Roots and Other Poems (1970) Essays A Hope for Poetry (1934) Translations Virgil's Georgics (1940) Virgil's Aeneid (1952) Eclogues (1963) Children's novels Dick Willoughby (1933) The Otterbury Incident (1948) Novels written as Nicholas Blake A Question Of Proof (1935) Thou Shell Of Death (1936) There's Trouble Brewing (1937) The Smiler With The Knife (1938) The Beast Must Die (1938) Malice In Wonderland (1940) - published as The Summer Camp Murder in America The Case Of The Abominable Snowman (1941) Minute For Murder (1946) Head Of A Traveller (1949) The Dreadful Hollow (1953) The Whisper In The Gloom (1954) A Tangled Web (1956) End Of Chapter (1957) Penknife in my Heart (1958) The Widow's Cruise (1959) The Worm of Death (1961) The Deadly Joker (1963) The Sad Variety (1964) The Morning After Death (1966) The Private Wound (1968)
5
The Conflict - 1904

• I sang as one
• Who on a tilting deck sings
• To keep their courage up, though the wave hangs
• That shall cut off their sun.
• As storm-cocks sing,
• Flinging their natural answer in the wind's
  teeth,
• And care not if it is waste of breath
• Or birth-carol of spring
• As ocean-flyer clings
• To height, to the last drop of spirit driving on
• While yet ahead is land to be won
• And work for wings
• Singing I was at peace,
• Above the clouds, outside the ring
• For sorrow finds a swift release in song
• And pride it's poise

6

• Yet living here,
• As one between two massing powers I live
• Whom neutrality cannot save
• Nor occupation cheer.
• Nor such shall be left alive
• The innocent wing is soon shot down,
• And private stars fade in the blood-red dawn
• Where two worlds strive.
• The red advance of life
• Contracts pride, calls out the common blood,
• Beats song into a single blade
• Makes a depth-charge of grief.
• Move then with new desires,
• For where we used to build and love
• Is no man's land, and only ghosts can live

7
Analysis Of The Conflict
An Analysis of The Conflict The
Conflict is a poem written by Cecil Day-Lewis. It
follows the rhyming scheme abca. The poem is in
first person and is directed to an audience.
Day-Lewis is exploring concepts of individuality
versus suppression. The poem sounds almost like a
desperate tone. The poem demonstrates
individuality through singing, As storm-cocks
sing,Flinging their natural answer in the winds
teeth,And care not if it is waste of breath
(4-8) Through activities, As ocean-flyer clings
/ To height, to the last drop of spirit driving
on. (9-10) The individuality presented here is
suppressed Yet living here ... Nor such shall
be left aliveThe innocent wing is soon shot
down. (Ellipsis mine) (20-28)
8
Analysis Of The Conflict

• Day-Lewis uses imagery to paint
  scenery, but nothing else. in the blood-red
  dawn. The Conflict expresses how individuality
  is usually suppressed.
• The poem uses abstract diction such as,
  two massing powers I live, (18) private stars
  fade in the blood-red dawn (23), and song into
  a single blade(27). Figurative devices includes
  personification in the winds teeth (6),
  last drop of spirit (10), metaphors Beats song
  into a single blade(27), and numerous other
  devices. It does not include very much if at all
  any amounts of rhetorical devices.
• The length of a sentence usually
  lasts one to two syntaxes. A syntax lasts exactly
  4 lines and no longer. There are unusual
  sentences which seem not to fit in the rhyming
  scheme of the poem. These include And pride its
  poise(16). The word poise is meant to rhyme with
  peace. Peace and poise does not rhyme. Also the
  line Makes a depth-charge of grief (28) does
  not rhyme with its supposed rhyme life.
• The Conflict is a poem expressing the desire and
  suppression of individuality. It uses imagery and
  figurative language to illustrate its meaning.

9
A Failure

• The soil was deep and the field well-sited,
• The seed was sound.
• Average luck with the weather, one thought,
• And the crop would abound.
• If harrowing were all that is needed for
• Harvest, his field
• Had been harrowed enough, God knows, to warrant
• A record yield.
• He gazed from a hill in the breezy springtime
• That field was aflow
• With wave upon wave like a seas green shallows
• Breathing below
• He looked from a gate one summer morning
• When the mist uprolled
• Headland to headland those fortunate acres
• Seemed solid gold

No wickedest weather could thus have turned,
As I were overnight His field to so wan and
weedy a showing Some galloping
blight From earths metabolism must have sprung
To ruin all Or perhaps his own high hopes
had made The wizened look tall. But
its useless to argue the why and wherefore.
When a crop is so thin, Theres nothing to
do but to set the teeth And plough it
in. (Day-Lewis, Cecil, 1992, 910)
10
Analysis Of A Failure
The poem Failure by Cecil Day-Lewis,
simply put, shows us an example of how we often
put a tremendous amount of work and care into the
things that we do in hope of success, only to
have them fail in the end. He shows us this
through the failure of a crop. What is important
to note about this is that the poem spends some
time focusing on the failure, but then quickly
moves on to something else, pointing out that a
failure is irreversible, and that we should not
brood over it, but merely begin again.
The first two stanzas in the poem describe the
process of setting up what it is that needs to be
accomplished, then the next two move on
describing a stronger and stronger prospect for
success. In this case, what has been done is the
planting of the seeds needed for the crop to
grow, as well as a hope for good weather. The
poem then goes into explaining everything that
has been done to ensure success in the line If
harrowing were all that is needed for Harvest,
his field Had been harrowed enough, God knows, to
warrant A record yield.
11
Analysis Of A Failure
The next two stanzas describe first off
the farmer gazing at his crop from a hill, and
noting how his field is flowing with wave upon
wave of prepared crop. He compares it to a seas
green shallows. The poem then goes into
explaining how he once again looked on his crop
one summer morning, and expresses an even
stronger sense of upcoming success with the lines
Headland to headland those fortunate acres
Seemed solid gold. The next three
stanzas radically change in feeling. We are
ripped away from hope, and introduced to failure.
The fifth stanza describes how as the day of
harvest neared, his crop had ceased to grow. The
poem then moves on to the farmer explaining how
he tossed and turned all night while his field
was wilting. He then describes what he thinks
could be the cause of the destruction of his crop
Some galloping blight From earths metabolism
must have sprung To ruin all Or perhaps his own
high hopes had made The wizened look tall.. He
first blames earth and nature, then turns to
blame himself, suggesting that perhaps his high
hopes made his eyes fool him. All of these
aspects describe the failure of his crop.
12
Analysis Of A Failure
The last stanza is the most important of
all in regards to meaning. It explains that is
useless to obsess and argue about why a failure
happens to us. It says When a crop is so thin,
Theres nothing to do but to set the teeth And
plough it in.. This is essentially saying that
because his crop is ruined, there is nothing left
to doubt to plough it in. It is dead. There is
nothing he can do to change it, but move on.
Overall, this poem is about failure and how
we need to accept it and move on. I believe that
Cecil Day-Lewis simply uses a farmer and his crop
as an example to describe how we should view a
failure. The point of view in this poem can be
applied to every kind of failure.
13
Analysis Of A Failure

• Poetic Devices
• Simile- He compares the crop to a seas green
  shallows That field was aflow
• With wave upon wave like a seas green shallows
• Metaphor-
• Headland to headland those fortunate acres
• Seemed solid gold
• Enjambment -
• His field to so wan and weedy a showing
• Some galloping blight
• From earths metabolism must have sprung
• Personification-
• Some galloping blight

14
A Chrysanthemum Show
Heres Abbey Way here are the rooms Where
they held the chrysanthemum show Leaves like
talons of greenfire, blooms Of a barbarous
frenzy, red, flame bronze And a schoolboy
walked into the furnace once, Thirty years
ago. You might have thought, had you seen him
that day Mooching from stall to stall, I was
wasted on him the prize array Of flowers with
their resinous, caustic tang, Their colours that
royalty boomed and rang Like gongs in the
pitchpine hall. Any tongue could scorch him even
hope tease As if it dissembled a leer Like
smouldering fuse, anxieties Blindwormed his
breast. How should one feel, Consuming in
youths slow ordeal, What flashes from flower
to flower?
Yet something did touch hum then, at the quick,
Like a premature memory prising Through flesh.
Those blooms with the bonfire reek And flaming of
ruby, copper, gold There boyhoods sun
foretold, retold A full gamut of setting and
rising. Something touched him. Always the scene
Was to haunt his memory Not haunt come
alive there, as if what had been But a flowery
idea took flesh in the womb Of his solitude,
rayed out a rare, real bloom. I know, for I
was he. And today, when I see chrysanthemums,
I half envy that boy For whom they spoke as
muffled drums Darkly messaging, All decays But
youths brief agony can blaze Into a
posthumous joy. (Day-Lewis,
Cecil, 1963, 487)
15
Analysis Of A Chrysanthemum Show
The Chrysanthemum Show by Cecil Day-Lewis is a
poem based on the rhyming scheme abaccb. It
describes an event thirty years ago when
Day-Lewis saw a boy tending to chrysanthemums.
The boy was struck with an emotional blow,
something that was to haunt the memory. When this
happened the boy struck back and rayed out a
rare, real bloom. (34) Day-Lewis reveals that
the poem is actually his memory and that he
envied his youth. He dismisses the anger he
experienced as youths brief agony can blaze /
Into a posthumous joy. (40-41) Day-Lewis
communicates in first person. He speaks to an
audience. He speaks formally with dramatic
pauses. He speaks with concrete words describing
the scene. Illustrating his memory is achieved
through figurative language including similes
Like smouldering fuse, anxieties, (17)
metaphors Of his solitude, rayed out a rare,
real bloom(34) , imagery Of a barbarous frenzy,
red, flame bronze (4) and onomatopoeias Their
colours that royalty boomed and rang (11). It
demonstrates feelings of insecurity Any tongue
could scorch him even hope tease (13) and
feelings of hopelessness Like smouldering fuse,
anxieties (15) . It also shows how youth is
desired only when in adulthood, only when it is
unreachable.
16
Analysis Of A Chrysanthemum Show
The poem is a formal poem using larger
intellectual words, not common in everyday such
as resinous and caustic. In the poem he used
imagery when describing the chrysanthemums,
however not of the surroundings or characters. He
paints feelings and sensations using lines such
as, Any tongue could scorch him even hope
tease As if it dissembled a leer Like
smouldering fuse, anxieties (14-17) To
conclude, The Chrysanthemum Show is a plea for
youth and a dismissal of youths ordeals. Imagery
and numerous rhetorical devices are used to
create this effect. Day-Lewis, Cecil . "The
Crysanthemum Show." Modern Verse in English. Ed.
Cecil, David Tate, Allen. Great Britain Eyre
Spottiswoode LTD, 1963.
17
Bibliography

• "Day-Lewis, C.." Online Photograph. Britannica
  Student Encyclopædia. 9 June 2008
  lthttp//www.student.britannica.com/eb/art-57770gt.
• Gardner, H (Ed.). (1992). The New Oxford Book of
  English Verse. Frome, Somerset Butler Tanner
  Ltd.
• Day-Lewis, Cecil . The Crysanthemum Show.
  Modern Verse in English. Ed. Cecil, David Tate,
  
• Allen. Great Britain Eyre Spottiswoode
  LTD, 1963.
• "Cecil Day-Lewis." Wikipedia. 2008. Wikimedai
  Foundation Inc.. 9 Jun 2008 lthttp//en.wikipedia.o
  rg/wiki/Cecil_Day-Lewisgt.
• (2000). Cecil Day-Lewis. Retrieved June 11, 2008,
  from Kirjasto Web site http//www.kirjasto.sci.fi
  /nblake.htm
• (2006). Cecil Day-Lewis. Retrieved June 11, 2008,
  from Poets Grave Web site http//www.poetsgraves.
  co.uk/day-lewis.htm
• Cecil Day-Lewis Poem. Retrieved June 11, 2008,
  from The Stormcock Community Web site
  http//www.stormcock.net/node/280