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Dylan Thomas A Refusal To Mourn The Death, By Fire, Of a Child in London:An Ecocritical Study

Arindam Mukherjee

Abstract
Dylan Thomas A Refusal to Mourn the Death offers an anti-elegiac mood of the poet regarding the death of a child in fire-bombing in London during the Second World War. The poet here sharply refuses to mourn until the end of creation. This article explores the fundamental kinship between Man and Nature in the perspective of ecocriticism and also justifies the relevance of this poem in the modern context to view the relationship between Man and Nature as something divine and cosmic. About the Author(s): Arindam Mukherjee is an English teacher at the Andal Mahabir High School, Burdwan, West Bengal, India.

ntroduction Ecocriticism is one of the newest and exciting trends in literary and cultural studies which tries to explore the relationship between literature and environment from an

interdisciplinary point of view (see Coupe 2000, Garrad 2004, Glotfelty 1996, etc.).The close relationship that exists between the natural and social world has been textualised by many writers in their works. However, with the passage of time, the entire ecological sphere has been adversely affected due to increasing population and avarice of mankind. Human actions are persistently damaging the planets basic life support system. So the task of an eco-critic is to analyze and promote those works of art which raise moral questions about human interaction with nature. It is in this context that this paper tries to explore Dylan Thomas A Refusal to Mourn the Death with profound ecological implications. Ecocriticism in Brief The inherent relationship between Man and Nature is integral in every culture although the approach to Nature is often diversified from multiple perspective. If in the eighteenth century, the word Nature denotes a rational and intelligible order in the universe,

January 2013. Volume 1. Issue 1. Website: https://sites.google.com/site/globaljournalofell/

Global Journal of English Language and Literature

ISSN 2320-4397

4 with the adve nt of Romanticism the meaning of nature took the for m of a deity to which many writers pay their homage. In the wor ks of the romantic writers, the term nature gradually acquired the subjective realization of the soul. Later in the twentieth century, the evol ution of theory negates the existence of external nature and tries to for mulate the idea that everything in this universe is either linguistically or socially oriented. The term ecocriticism came into prominence in the late 1980s to study the latent relationship between literature and environment. Technically speaking, the term ecocriticism as a concept takes its literary bearing from three major nineteenth century American writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller and Henry David Thoreau. On the other hand, the UK version of ecocriticism also known as green studies takes its bearings from the British Romanticism of the 1790s. Another difference between these two variants of ecocriticism, as pointed out by Barry (2009) is that while the American ecocriticism is celebratory in tone, the UK green studies is minator y, warning us against the threats of nature. Actually, the word ecocriticism traces back to William Rueckerts 1978 essay Literature and Ecology :An Experiment in Ecocriticism and apparently lay dormant in critical vocabulary until the 1989 Western Literature Association meeting when Cheryl Glotfelty revived the term. In course of time, the term ecocriticism influenced the critical and pedagogical broadening of literary studies to include texts that deal with the nonhuman world and our relationship to it. Now the enigmatic question that haunts the scholars and readers still today is related to the existence of this nonhuman world. Although this nonhuman world is somewhat give n to us, theorists argue that the real existence of this nonhuman world is either linguistically or socially oriented. On the other hand, the task of an eco-critic is to secure that existence of this nonhuman or natural world. Glotfelty (1996) himself defined ecocriticism as the study of relationship between literature and the physical environment, and one of the implicit goals of this approach is to recoup the professional dignity for what Glotfelty calls the undervalued genre of nature writing. So the bold assertion of eco-critics is that external nature really exists and its impact upon us cannot be totally neglected. To put it differently, the relationship between literature and environment is directly proportional to each other. Dylan Thomas A Refusal To Mourn the Death : In the Perspective of Ecocriticism

January 2013. Volume 1. Issue 1. Website: https://sites.google.com/site/globaljournalofell/

Global Journal of English Language and Literature

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5 So far as Dylan Thomas A Refusal to Mourn the Death is concerned, a perspective of ecocriticism clearly justifies the poem as one in which the death of child has influenced Nature at the cosmic level. The poem is a beautiful juxtaposition of an elegy and an anti elegy. Apparently the form of the poem is an anti elegy, as evident in the use of the word Refusal in the title itself. But the incident of the childs death has stuck the poets heart so deep that one cannot but realize that it is an elegy. Now, one significant aspect of the poem is that this death has not only affected the poets heart from the personal point of view but also jerked the natural world at the cosmic level. Although this death of the child is only a matter of accident as a result of fire bombing, the poet philosophizes the death of the child with a profound note of melancholy and establishes the sacramental relationship between nature and mankind. Such kind of high-serious philosophy has a touch of romanticism of the wordsworthian kind, but the stylistic innova tion of Thomas makes it highly mode rn. In order to establish an underlying relationship between nature and mankind, the poet probes deep at the psychological level, and brings into the foreground a bol d experiment with images and rhymes that can touch the surrealistic level. In the view of Glotfelty, the practical question at bottom for the eco-critics is to find the grounds upo n which the two communities the human and the natural - can coexist, cooperate and flourish in the biosphere. In other words, the validity of ecocriticism lies not only in the ways of analyzing nature but also in the perception of an extension of ethics, a broadening of human conception of global community to include nonhuman life forms and the physical environment. Such kind of ecological wisdom can be certainly traced in the texture of A Refusal to Mourn the Death. The indepth reading of the poem indicates the idea that the poet has not presented nature as a visual medium to be seen and described by the human community but as a part and parcel of the macrocosmic universe that can share the sorrow and suffering of mankind. From this point of view, the death of the child is not a matter of lamentation and expression of sorrow but a matter of sublimation from narrow and mundane thinking. After her death, the child be comes united with the timeless unity of things and her soul can still be felt in the veins of the mother Earth. In this way, Thomas has beautifully synt hesized the existing bond of relationship between man and nature; and broadens our outlook to view nature as a noble part in the universe. In the be ginning of the poe m, the poe t emphatically refuses to mourn until the end of creation-

January 2013. Volume 1. Issue 1. Website: https://sites.google.com/site/globaljournalofell/

Global Journal of English Language and Literature

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6 Never until the mankind making Bird beast and flower Fathering and all humbling darkness Tells with silence the last light breaking And the still hour Is come of the sea tumbling in harness. The poe ts concept of nature here includes bot h the human and the non-human world. Further, the reference to the non-human world includes both the animal and vegetative world as suggested in the expressions Bird beast and flower respectively. Actually, the inherent purpose of the poet is to reflect upon the idea that every creation is followed by destruction, and i n this sense, the death of the child is no e xception. Death is a pre-destined concept in the universe and with the coming of the still hour, everything and everybody will come to decay. But the poets purpose here is not to transcend the power of Time by means of any poetic art like the sonnets of Shakespeare but to accept the concept of death as an elemental necessity in nature. So viewed philosophically, the two absolute realities of the universe birth and de ath - are the mediums to connect man and nature. To put it differently, there is an underlying common yardstick of measurement between the two worlds the human and the non-human. In this sense, a proper judgment of the death of child is only possible if a thorough assessment of the non-human world is made through a visionary perception of the universal pattern. Actually, the poets preoccupation with the inter-involvement between creation and destruction depicts his sacramental feeling for the unity of man and nature. Now this funda mental unity be tween man and nature is expa nded through multiple sacramental imageries in the second stanza, providing a ritualistic tone to the poemAnd I must enter again the round . Zion of the water bead And the synagogue of the ear of corn Shall I let pray the shadow of a sound

January 2013. Volume 1. Issue 1. Website: https://sites.google.com/site/globaljournalofell/

Global Journal of English Language and Literature

ISSN 2320-4397

7 Or sow my salt seed In the least valley of sackcloth to mourn. In order to concretize the theme of death and renewal, the poet has applied plethora of images from the Bible and the Old Testament. The expressions water bead and ear of corn are symbolic of the primal elements to which all return at the end. The image of water evokes the idea of baptism and birth, and holy water echoes death. So water here is a symbol of the twin - sided aspects of life. The image of corn alludes to the parables and the phase ear of corn refers to the act of listening to these parables that preached the inevitability of death. Images from nature are also used into the religious environment with remarkable artistry. For example, the expression valley of sackcloth suggests a place of public mourning because sackcloth is a dress worn by the ascetics and repentant sinners. Actually the poet here parodies the valley of the shadow of death to deteriorates the significance of conventional ritual. The word sackcloth belittles the situation caused by the human ritualistic mourning of the dead. The epithet stations of breath in the third stanza is also an analogy to the Biblical phrase stations of cross, signifying lifes journey from oblivion to salvation. It is also a reminder to the suffering a nd the last agony of Christ. In this way, the various sacramental imageries applied in the poem glorify the death of the child to establish a funda mental kinship be tween man and nature. Towards the end of the poe m, Dylan Thomas again reasserts the cyclic process of birth and death by suggesting the idea that after the death of the child, she becomes united with the timeless cycle of nature: Deep with the first dead lies Londons daughter, Robed in the long friends, The grains beyond a ge, the dark veins of her mother, Secret by the unmourning water of the riding Thames. This view of the poet closely resembles wordsworths opinion expressed in the Lucy poems in which wordsworth has also depicted that after the death of Lucy, she becomes a part of the Mother Earth: No motion has she now, no force
January 2013. Volume 1. Issue 1. Website: https://sites.google.com/site/globaljournalofell/

Global Journal of English Language and Literature

ISSN 2320-4397

8 She neither hear nor sees, Rolld round in earths diurnal course, With rocks, a nd stones, a nd trees. The poet here addresses the child as Londons daughter to point out the idea that after her death, her soul is ingrained in the veins of the mother Earth. It is for this reason that the river Thames is also projected as unmourning, thereby signifying the idea that the river has accepted the process of life and death as natural. The last line of the poem is the conclusive remark of the poet about the death of the child: After the first death, these is no other As after death, one becomes united with the elemental objects in nature, there is no cause to lament for the death of the child .Every death is followed by resurrection and it is in this way that the natural process of birth and renewal is complete. Thus the organic structure of A Refusal to Mourn the death, with the help of appropriate images and profound philosophical thought, characterizes the deep melancholic note and establishes the elemental relationship between Man and Nature. Conclusion Thus, viewed from the perspective of ecocriticism, Dylan Thomass A Refusal to Mourn the Death essentially justifies the identity of the dead child as not simply being an individual but as a member of the ecosystem. The reason is that her death has not only created a vacuum like state in the poets heart but also broadens his mind to view the dead child as being a part of nature. The reference to the second world war in the poem is one of the diminishing factors of ecology that has threatened the human beings the most. In the context of the large scale destruction of the second world war, the death of the child looks trivial. But the penetrative study of the poem makes the fundamental premise very clear, that human culture is connected to the physical world continuously affecting it and being affected by it. To sum up, Dylan Thomass A Refusal to Mourn the Deathnegotiates between the human and the non human from the theoretical perspective of ecocriticism. References

January 2013. Volume 1. Issue 1. Website: https://sites.google.com/site/globaljournalofell/

Global Journal of English Language and Literature

ISSN 2320-4397

9 Barry, Peter. An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. 3rd ed. Manchester : Manchester UP 2009. Bate, Jonathan. Romantic Ecology :Words worth and the Environmental Tradition. London and New York : Routledge, 1991. Buell, Lawrence. The Environmental Imagination : Thoreau, Nature Writing and the Formation of American Culture. Harvard University Press, 1995 Coupe, Lawrence. The Green Studies Reader : From Romanticism to Ecocriticism. London and New York : Routledge, 2000. Garrard, Greg. Ecocriticism. London and New York:Routledge, 2004. Glotfelty, Cheryll. The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. The University of Georgia Press. 1996.

January 2013. Volume 1. Issue 1. Website: https://sites.google.com/site/globaljournalofell/

Global Journal of English Language and Literature

ISSN 2320-4397