Poetry Analysis: Allen Curnow's "Continuum"
Allen Curnow's “Continuum” is a poem on the continuity of poetic inspiration. The poetic source of stimulationof great poets since ages has been the landscape. The moon has been a persistent metaphor for poetic inspiration in celebrated poems like Samuel Coleridge’s “Dejection: An Ode. The poet’s quality of being a satirist is prominent here. He first asserts that the moon rolls overthe roof, and falls back.
This is to imply that his poetic capabilities are sinking. Subsequently, he goes on to substantiate that the moon does neither of these things, and he is talking about himself. When poets generally do falter in poetic output or due to lack of inspiration, they tend to blame the external circumstances. However, Here Allen Curnow asserts that the poet himself is to be blamed; for, Poetic inspiration comes from within and not from outside.
Beingsleeplessis not an excuse for writing a poem.Sleeplessness does not necessarily allow one to ruminate over a subject, or planet or subjective thoughts. The condition ofinsomniacan also be dodged conveniently by walking barefoot on the front. The speaker is then visualized as an onlooker of nature. As he stands at the porch he beholds an objective view of himself, as he discerns “across the privets/and the palms a ”washed out creation”. This portion is a dark space. The poet moves to his satiric tone yet again. This dark space contains two particular clouds, one was supposed to be a source of inspiration for the poet, and the other for his adversary-the other fellow poet.
Bright clouds dusted (query) by the moon, one’s mine
The other’s an adversary, which may depend
on the wind or something.
The clouds seem to dust the moon for the poet in his quest/query for poeticstimulation. Nevertheless as one cloud functions in his favor, the other (cloud) poses as an adversary that may shadow the cloud, accompanied by the wind. Poeticbrainwaveorcompetence must not mar the other’s inspiration, for each poet has his individualistic insight that springs from within and does depend on external features.
Creative Inspiration
The poet gets the feeling that he has overcome his writer’s block. As creativity begins in impulses, there are gaps. The next gap is a long one, and obviously the next poetic impulse is not on time. Corresponding to the inner lack of productivity, the feet outside lack warmth as the chill of the planking underfoot rises.
As the poet cringes for poetic output based on external inspiration, the night sky seems to empty all it contents down, as in an action of excreting orvomiting. The speaker then turns on his bare heel and closes the door signaling the end of his creative endeavor. This is He, the objective Author, feeding on thislitterof the scenic sky and employing his poetic tools in the process. Therefore, he is aptly the cringing demiurge.
"The demiurge is a concept from the Platonic, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonicschoolsof philosophy for an artisan-like figure responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physicaluniverse. Although a fashioner, the demiurge is not quite the creator figure in the familiar monistic sense; both the demiurge itself and thematerialfrom which the demiurge fashions the universe are the product of some other being." (Wikipedia)
The poet Allen Curnow asserts that he neither is he original, nor his poetic source of insight. This is because the motivating stimuli did not spring from Him. It is objective, when it should be rather subjective.
http://expertscolumn.com/content/poetry-analysis-allen-curnows-continuum-rukhaya-mk
Allen Curnow – ‘Continuum’
Allen Curnow lived the whole of his long life (1911-2001) in New Zealand; initially he studied theology in order to follow his father’s calling as a priest, but he later became a journalist, work that he continued for most of his working life. He edited a famous anthology of New Zealand verse, published in 1945, which provided the first coherent collection of NZ poetry. In his introduction he identified aspects of the poems he included that he considered peculiarly representative of NZ and identified what he called a “common problem of the imagination” for NZ poets. Later of his own poetry he said “I had to get past the severities, not to say rigidities, of our New Zealand anti- myth: away from questions which present themselves as public and answerable, towards the questions which are always private and unanswerable.”
‘Continuum’ is not at first reading an easy poem to grasp, but its thoughts and feelings become more accessible and clear on re-readings. The poet is unable to sleep – a situation that we must all be familiar with – and goes out of the house into the front garden (stanza 3); he stands in the porch looking at the moon and the clouds, hardly conscious of either the time or the chill that he begins to feel (stanza 5); finally he returns to bed, perhaps having written this poem (do the first two lines of stanza 6 suggest this?).
What is fascinating about the poem is the way in which he writes about himself as another person or thing – in the first stanza he identifies himself with the moon; in the last stanza he writes as if he, the poet, is describing what he did to “the author”, so that the pair walk “stealthily in step”, as if half-afraid, and certainly unsure, of what is happening to him.
There is some brief biographical material on these websites:
http://carcanet.co.uk http://bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/curnowa.html
Some points for classroom discussion
Is this just a poem about a sleepless night? Is it perhaps describing something of how a poem is created? In trying to answer these questions you may find that the poem gradually becomes clearer; try to support your ideas and responses by referring to the actual words and phrases that Curnow uses.
Suggested comparison
Ted Hughes’ poem ‘The Thought Fox’ can be found on http://www.poemhunter.com Here, the poet also writes about writing a poem; there are some interesting parallels to explore here.
http://englishlanguageliterature.com/2012/02/13/allen-curnow-continuum-notes/
Continuum- Allen Curnow
This is one of the more “abstract” poems that we’ve looked at, and because of this, my interpretation of the poem is only one of many. My interpretation combines the three main themes of the poem – the creation of poetry, rational and irrational thought, and finally the natural world (hopefully you will see how these come together in the conclusion).
The poem itself is continuous with no apparent rhyme scheme and enjambment right through its entire length – this immediately suggests the wandering thought of the narrator. It also reflects the title, “Continuum” which suggests a continuous spectrum or train of thought. On the subject of the title, “Continuum” also suggests extending out continuously, as if extending beyond all imposed boundaries into a world of irrationality.
The first stanza of the poem sets up the dichotomy between the rational and irrational worlds of the narrator.“The moon rolls over the roof and falls behind my house”is clearly a free imaginative view of the night sky. However, the poet is quick to counter this with the rational logical thought“the moon does neither of these things.”The poet, in describing the moon rolling and falling is describing himself:“I am talking about myself.”He is unable to compose poetry, and is thus in a sense rolling and falling all over the place.
“It’s not possible to get off to sleep,”suggests the narrator cannot tap into the poetic world of the imagination. He cannot escape the“subject or the planet”and cannot“think thoughts.”As a result he is unable to write poetry. He looks towards Nature for inspiration, and all that comes with Nature – freedom and irrationality. This is stressed further by"better barefoot it out front"which suggests freedom and spontaneity. Being outside, he can think freely without restraint. The third stanza then reflects on the limitations of the rational world. The narrator looks across the“privets”which suggests dense hedges, suburbia, and compartmentalization. This rationality seems to be clouding his mind – the suburbia is not wonderful and irrational, but rather it is a“washed out creation”– something bland and overused. It is ultimately described as a“dark place.”
In the line“bright clouds dusted (query) by the moon,”the poet seems uncertain about the images he is creating: “query.” The image of the moon dusting the clouds is absolutely mesmerizing – but for the poet it is unchartered territory, for he is finally creating beautiful poetry, which is not exactly rational or “concrete.” The line“A long moment stretches, the next one is not”is particularly interesting – the long vowel sounds of the first phrase are countered by the monosyllabic words of the second phrase. This creates the feeling of drifting into a dream, but then being brought sharply back to reality with the short abrupt words. The poet momentarily enters the imaginative world of irrational thought, but shortly afterwards is brought back to harsh reality.
As the poem reaches a conclusion, the sky is described as having a moment of catharsis:“for its part the night sky empties the whole of its contents down.”The heavens above and Nature are truly showering inspiration and wonder upon the poet now that he is free outside amongst Nature. However, when the narrator goes"back to bed,"he must“close the door behind on the author”, leaving his deep irrational poetic self, or even “soul” behind with nature. This is further suggested by the limited, uniform and rational words used as he returns to bed –“paces”back to bed and“in step.”
“Continuum,” on the surface is about writers block, but on a deeper level there is a battle between rationality and irrational thought. The poet looks towards Nature for inspiration for his poetry – and finds that the natural world allows his irrational mind to play around with various ideas. The only real coherent logically structured writing in this poem is at the beginning, at which point he has not as yet entered the natural world of irrationality. The message is ultimately that in order to create poetry, one must go beyond the rational reasoning and enter the imaginative world of irrationality – a world that is inexplicably connected with Nature.
http://z6.invisionfree.com/WestlakeEnglish/ar/t88.htm
Some other sites
http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25163
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Curnow