Poetry Corner
from Dart
Who’s
this moving alive over the moor?
An
old man seeking and finding a difficulty.
Has
he remembered his compass his spare socks
does
he fully intend going in over his knees off the military track from Okehampton?
keeping
his course through the swamp spaces
and
pulling the distance around his shoulders
and
if it rains, if it thunders suddenly
where
will he shelter looking round
and
all that lies to hand is his own bones?
tussocks,
minute flies,
wind,
wings, roots. ..
He
consults his map. A huge rain-coloured wilderness.
This
must be the stones, the sudden movement,
the
sound of frogs singing in the new year.
Who’s
this issuing from the earth?
The
Dart, lying low in darkness calls out Who is it?
trying
to summon itself by speaking...
Alice Oswald, born in 1966, studied Classics at
New College and in 2002 was awarded the T.S. Eliot Prize for her book-length poem,
Dart, about the people of the River
Dart in Devon. This is the opening to that poem, which sees an “old man seeking
and finding a difficulty” on a walk to the Dart’s source. The walker here is
alone in a “rain-coloured wilderness”, at the source of the river – which is “trying
to summon itself by speaking”. There are parallels to be drawn with the poet,
affirming identity with words. Poetry can often seem to circumnavigate meaning –
to be almost coy in delivering its message. But this is also its strength,
allowing the reader – like the solo walker – to interpret the map as she or he
wishes. Poetry, too, is a way of “seeking difficulty”.
Come and read more of Oswald’s work in our
seminar on the 2nd April, 1-2pm.
