A Lengthened Epitaph Reverberating the Elegiac Tone in Tony Harrison’s Poems about His Parents

Sulekha Sundaresan; K. Sumathi

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijla.20140203.13

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A Lengthened Epitaph Reverberating the Elegiac Tone in Tony Harrison’s Poems about His Parents

Sulekha Sundaresan, K. Sumathi

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 2, Issue 3)

Received: 3 March 2014 Accepted: 8 May 2014 Published: 20 May 2014

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Abstract

Tony Harrison is Britain's principal film and theatre poet and has famously said "Poetry is all I write, whether for books, or readings, or for the National Theatre, or for the opera house and concert hall, or even for TV."2 He was born in Leeds in 1937, won a scholarship to Leeds grammar and read Classics at Leeds University. Harrison's majority of poems, explore the gulf between his own class background and his education and the powerlessness of the inarticulate. Tony Harrison belongs to those individuals who reject any existing language and literary standards and create their unique approaches to the portrayal of reality and people. His literary prowess resulted in a breakdown in the relationship he shared with his father due to his father’s lack of understanding of his literary creations. It was during this period that the mother held their relationship together, but when she passed away the bond ended and Harrison and his father became estranged. This alienation not only forms the background of his personal life but also the primary source for his literary achievements. An elegy not only refers to poems that mourn the death of someone, but poems echoing estrangement and alienation also fall under the genre of elegy. The elements of a traditional elegy mirror three stages of loss. First, there is a lament, where the speaker expresses grief and sorrow, then praise and admiration of the idealized dead and those grieving, and finally consolation and solace. These three stages can be seen to some extent in Tony Harrison’s poems, especially in the chosen ones, Bookends, Long Distance and Background Material, thus rendering them to be elegiac in tone.

Published in	International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 2, Issue 3)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijla.20140203.13
Page(s)	69-75
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Tony Harrison, Elegy, Public Poetry, Alienation, Estrangement, Grief, Elegiac Stages

References

[1]	Crucefix, Martyn. 1997. ‘Tony Harrison’. In Tony Harrison: Loiner, Sandie Byrne (ed.), Oxford: Cla-rendon Press, pp. 161-70.
[2]	Ellmann, Richard and Robert O’Clair. 1988. The Norton An-thology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. London: W.W. Norton & Co.
[3]	Eyre, Richard. 1997. ‘Tony Harrison the Playwright’. In Sandie Byrne (ed.). Gloucestershire: Clarendon Press.
[4]	Haffenden, John. 1991. ‘Interview with Tony Harrison’. In Bloodaxe Critical Anthol-ogies: 1, Tony Harrison. Neil Astley (ed.). Newcastle-upon- Tyne: Bloodaxe Books. pp 262-274.
[5]	Harrison, Tony. 1984. Tony Harrison: Selected Poems. London: Penguin Books.
[6]	Kelleher, Joe. 1996. Writers & Their Works. Devon: Northcote House Publish-ers.
[7]	Worpole, Ken. 2006. ‘Wanna you Scruff’: Class and Language, Tony Harrison, Tom Leonard and Don Paterson. In Sara Broom (ed.) Contemporary British and Irish Poetry: An Intro-duction. New York: Palgrave. pp. 10-35.
[8]	Harrison, Tony. 1984. Social Mobility in Tony Har-rison: Selected Poems. London: Penguin Books.

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Sulekha Sundaresan, K. Sumathi. (2014). A Lengthened Epitaph Reverberating the Elegiac Tone in Tony Harrison’s Poems about His Parents. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 2(3), 69-75. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20140203.13

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Sulekha Sundaresan; K. Sumathi. A Lengthened Epitaph Reverberating the Elegiac Tone in Tony Harrison’s Poems about His Parents. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2014, 2(3), 69-75. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20140203.13

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Sulekha Sundaresan, K. Sumathi. A Lengthened Epitaph Reverberating the Elegiac Tone in Tony Harrison’s Poems about His Parents. Int J Lit Arts. 2014;2(3):69-75. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20140203.13

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@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20140203.13,
  author = {Sulekha Sundaresan and K. Sumathi},
  title = {A Lengthened Epitaph Reverberating the Elegiac Tone in Tony Harrison’s Poems about His Parents},
  journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
  volume = {2},
  number = {3},
  pages = {69-75},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20140203.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20140203.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20140203.13},
  abstract = {Tony Harrison is Britain's principal film and theatre poet and has famously said "Poetry is all I write, whether for books, or readings, or for the National Theatre, or for the opera house and concert hall, or even for TV."2 He was born in Leeds in 1937, won a scholarship to Leeds grammar and read Classics at Leeds University. Harrison's majority of poems, explore the gulf between his own class background and his education and the powerlessness of the inarticulate. Tony Harrison belongs to those individuals who reject any existing language and literary standards and create their unique approaches to the portrayal of reality and people. His literary prowess resulted in a breakdown in the relationship he shared with his father due to his father’s lack of understanding of his literary creations. It was during this period that the mother held their relationship together, but when she passed away the bond ended and Harrison and his father became estranged. This alienation not only forms the background of his personal life but also the primary source for his literary achievements. An elegy not only refers to poems that mourn the death of someone, but poems echoing estrangement and alienation also fall under the genre of elegy. The elements of a traditional elegy mirror three stages of loss. First, there is a lament, where the speaker expresses grief and sorrow, then praise and admiration of the idealized dead and those grieving, and finally consolation and solace. These three stages can be seen to some extent in Tony Harrison’s poems, especially in the chosen ones, Bookends, Long Distance and Background Material, thus rendering them to be elegiac in tone.},
 year = {2014}
}

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Author Information

Sulekha Sundaresan

Affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tamilnadu, India
K. Sumathi

Vivekananda College, Tamilnadu, India

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Sulekha Sundaresan, K. Sumathi. (2014). A Lengthened Epitaph Reverberating the Elegiac Tone in Tony Harrison’s Poems about His Parents. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 2(3), 69-75. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20140203.13

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ACS Style

Sulekha Sundaresan; K. Sumathi. A Lengthened Epitaph Reverberating the Elegiac Tone in Tony Harrison’s Poems about His Parents. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2014, 2(3), 69-75. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20140203.13

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AMA Style

Sulekha Sundaresan, K. Sumathi. A Lengthened Epitaph Reverberating the Elegiac Tone in Tony Harrison’s Poems about His Parents. Int J Lit Arts. 2014;2(3):69-75. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20140203.13

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@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20140203.13,
  author = {Sulekha Sundaresan and K. Sumathi},
  title = {A Lengthened Epitaph Reverberating the Elegiac Tone in Tony Harrison’s Poems about His Parents},
  journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
  volume = {2},
  number = {3},
  pages = {69-75},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20140203.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20140203.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20140203.13},
  abstract = {Tony Harrison is Britain's principal film and theatre poet and has famously said "Poetry is all I write, whether for books, or readings, or for the National Theatre, or for the opera house and concert hall, or even for TV."2 He was born in Leeds in 1937, won a scholarship to Leeds grammar and read Classics at Leeds University. Harrison's majority of poems, explore the gulf between his own class background and his education and the powerlessness of the inarticulate. Tony Harrison belongs to those individuals who reject any existing language and literary standards and create their unique approaches to the portrayal of reality and people. His literary prowess resulted in a breakdown in the relationship he shared with his father due to his father’s lack of understanding of his literary creations. It was during this period that the mother held their relationship together, but when she passed away the bond ended and Harrison and his father became estranged. This alienation not only forms the background of his personal life but also the primary source for his literary achievements. An elegy not only refers to poems that mourn the death of someone, but poems echoing estrangement and alienation also fall under the genre of elegy. The elements of a traditional elegy mirror three stages of loss. First, there is a lament, where the speaker expresses grief and sorrow, then praise and admiration of the idealized dead and those grieving, and finally consolation and solace. These three stages can be seen to some extent in Tony Harrison’s poems, especially in the chosen ones, Bookends, Long Distance and Background Material, thus rendering them to be elegiac in tone.},
 year = {2014}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - A Lengthened Epitaph Reverberating the Elegiac Tone in Tony Harrison’s Poems about His Parents
AU  - Sulekha Sundaresan
AU  - K. Sumathi
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PY  - 2014
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DO  - 10.11648/j.ijla.20140203.13
T2  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JF  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
JO  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
SP  - 69
EP  - 75
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2331-057X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20140203.13
AB  - Tony Harrison is Britain's principal film and theatre poet and has famously said "Poetry is all I write, whether for books, or readings, or for the National Theatre, or for the opera house and concert hall, or even for TV."2 He was born in Leeds in 1937, won a scholarship to Leeds grammar and read Classics at Leeds University. Harrison's majority of poems, explore the gulf between his own class background and his education and the powerlessness of the inarticulate. Tony Harrison belongs to those individuals who reject any existing language and literary standards and create their unique approaches to the portrayal of reality and people. His literary prowess resulted in a breakdown in the relationship he shared with his father due to his father’s lack of understanding of his literary creations. It was during this period that the mother held their relationship together, but when she passed away the bond ended and Harrison and his father became estranged. This alienation not only forms the background of his personal life but also the primary source for his literary achievements. An elegy not only refers to poems that mourn the death of someone, but poems echoing estrangement and alienation also fall under the genre of elegy. The elements of a traditional elegy mirror three stages of loss. First, there is a lament, where the speaker expresses grief and sorrow, then praise and admiration of the idealized dead and those grieving, and finally consolation and solace. These three stages can be seen to some extent in Tony Harrison’s poems, especially in the chosen ones, Bookends, Long Distance and Background Material, thus rendering them to be elegiac in tone.
VL  - 2
IS  - 3
ER  -

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