Ian Hamilton Finlay, Sea Poppy 2 the POET and HIS WORK

National Poetry Day postcards, Scotland 2012
teachers’ notes

Ian Hamilton Finlay, Sea Poppy 2
THE POET AND HIS WORK

Ian Hamilton Finlay was born in 1925 in the Bahamas, and died in Scotland in 2006. He is probably best known as an artist and gardener, but he thought of himself as a poet.

His first book, The Sea-Bed (1958), was a collection of short stories, and he also wrote plays, poems, and ‘concrete poetry’. In a ‘concrete’ poem how the words look is as important as their meaning. The garden he made with his wife Sue near Biggar in South Lanarkshire was called Stonypath, but he later changed the name to Little Sparta. He worked on it from 1967 until the time of his death.

Many of his works were made as collaborations with other artists and craftspeople. Finlay would devise an idea for the work, and also the text – then he would give instructions to his collaborator to make a drawing, or a painting, or a sculpture, or a booklet, or, as in this case, to set the text in a particular way.

He wrote his own texts for the works, and but often used ‘found’ texts, that is material taken from other sources such as books and newspapers. Many work features the names (and numbers) of Scottish fishing-boats.

Most of his poems were published individually under his own Wild Hawthorn Press imprint, as cards, booklets and prints – and many were also realised in sculptural form, in wood, stone, glass or neon. These might be sited in the garden at Little Sparta, or in at specific location elsewhere.

THE POEM

‘Sea-Poppy 2’ was first published as a card measuring 15.8 x 15.8cm, with green text on a pale blue background, by Wild Hawthorn Press in 1968. The poem was originally typeset by Peter Grant. The version on our NPD2012 postcards and pdf posters is used by permission of Ian Hamilton Finlay’s Estate.

The poem, like much of Finlay’s work from this time, uses the names of actual fishing-boats.

‘Sea-Poppy 1’ (1966) features a similar design, but instead of the names of the boats, only their port initials and numbers are featured (eg KY115, FR280, and so on); this was typeset by Alistair Cant.

READING THE POEM – NOTES & QUESTIONS

· How many rings of words are there?

· How many names are there? What are they?

· Do the names chosen change at all as they move towards the centre?

· Why do you think the poet has chosen fishing-boat names which feature stars?

Read the poem aloud.

· What do you notice about the way the word STAR sometimes works?

· Where do you think the poem begins and ends?

· Why do you think the title of the poem refers to a flower?

· Why do you think the list of fishing-boat names is laid out visually in this way (rather than as, say, an alphabetical list, or in the shape of a square)?

DISCUSSION

People give names to the things in the world around them – boats and houses, streets and towns, hills and rivers – and also the stars and planets. In Scotland, place-names come from several different languages, but especially English, Scots, Gaelic and Norse.

· Talk about the kind of place-names you find around you where you live.

· What languages do your local place-names come from?

· If the meanings of some place-names aren’t obvious, can you find out what they mean?

· Think about the names of nearby streets. Do they refer to local places or people, or do they refer to faraway places or people?

· Are there any local names you would like to change? What would you change them to? And why?

RESEARCH

In Edinburgh you can find branches of Comet, a Chinese restaurant called Star Sea, and a company called Mercury Asset Management. In Cardiff there is Star Street, Constellation Street and Meteor Street.

Find some names local to you that are related to planets, stars, constellations and astrological star signs.

Think about the names of

· streets

· houses

· boats

· shops

· cafés, pubs and restaurants

· businesses

If you’re stuck, try looking in the phone book, or a local A–Z.
Once you have found some, think about why they might have that name – what qualities does the name suggest?
CREATIVE ACTIVITY

Write a poem made up solely of names, and present it visually.

Select about a dozen names from the lists you made for the ‘Discussion’ and ‘Research’ activities.

Connect the names in some way – they might all be

· connected to stars, as in ‘Sea-Poppy 2’

· places in a certain part of town

· boat or house names

· words that begin with the same letter

· names in a certain language

· names of certain landscape features, such as hills or lochs

Think about how you’ll sequence them, that is, the order they come in. This could be

· alphabetically

· by location

· by size (eg hills by height)

· by length of word (eg one-syllable words, then two-syllable words, and so on)

· by sound

· randomly

Think about how you’ll present the poem visually. You could use different shapes, such as

· a circle

· a square

· a triangle

Or you could draw a grid – let’s say ten squares by ten – and write a letter in each square, ignoring any spaces between words, and not starting a new line for a new word, so the letters are still in the right order, but at first sight look jumbled.

Think about what colours to use

· for the letters

· for the background

Think about the size of your poem – it could be

· small like a postcard

· middle-sized like the page of a book

· big like a poster

Try out different ideas when you’re thinking about the layout of your poem – don’t just use the first idea you have. You could experiment

· by hand – on paper, with pens and pencils

· on a computer

· using both of the above

Once you’ve found an approach you’re happy with, you can work on it in more detail.

Finally, think about the best place to present your poem

· pinned to a wall – what else is around it?

· blutacked to a window, with a particular view outside

· placed in a certain place out-of-doors

· as the cover, or the inside page, of a folding card or booklet

· kept in an envelope, so a reader has to take it out to read it

· attached to the inside of a door, so a reader has to open the door to read it

FURTHER READING & LINKS
Books by Ian Hamilton Finlay

The dancers inherit the party : early stories, plays and poems by Ian Hamilton Finlay, edited and introduced by Ken Cockburn (Birlinn, 2004)

Works in Europe : 1972-1995, edited by Zdenek Felix and Pia Simig (Cantz, 1995)

Ian Hamilton Finlay: Selections, edited and with an introduction by Alec Finlay (University of California Press, 2012)

Other books

Ian Hamilton Finlay: A Visual Primer, by Yves Abrioux (Reaktion, 1985, revised edition 1992)
Websites

www.ianhamiltonfinlay.com

www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poetry/poets/ian-hamilton-finlay
SPL page on Ian Hamilton Finlay
www.inglebygallery.com/edition/ian-hamilton-finlay-postcards-folding-cards/
An image gallery of Finlay’s cards – scroll along to the right to find ‘Sea Poppy 2’
www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hamilton-finlay-sea-poppy-i-collaboration-with-alistair-cant-p07451
An image of ‘Sea Poppy 1’
***
Ken Cockburn
www.kencockburn.co.uk
July 2012

National Poetry Day Scotland & loads more ideas for working with poetry