The World as Event: The Poetry of Charles Tomlinson by Brian John (review)

136 LETTERS IN CANADA 1989 investigator of contradictions and dilemmas in both personal and cultural spheres- a writer still worth reading, if we can read him as well as Judith Scherer Herz does. (MARGARET PROCTER) Brian John. The World as Event: The Poetry ofCharles Tomlinson MeGill-Queen's University Press. 128. $29.95 One of the notes to this elegantly written book cites Tomlinson's poem 'Instead ofan Essay' (The Flood, 1981), in which the poetlinks himselfwith Lawrence and Shelley, 'exiles who had in common I Love for an island slow to learn ofitI Or to return that love.' Tomlinson's 'exile,' his sense of unjust treatment at the hands of critics in his native Britain, and what he once called his 'mental emigration' to the United States: these have been recurring themes in critical writing about the poet for a verylong time. In 1972 Donald Davie called the underrating of Tomlinson a scandal, and confessed himself in despair. Brian John cites Davie in his introduction, and takes up the issue again, arguing that 'Tomlinson is, unquestionably in my judgment, among the major contemporary British poets.' In practice, John's claims are mostly circumspect and sensible. While never quite able to free himself from the value system of the canon that has excluded Tomlinson, he repeatedly draws attention to the substance of the poet's achievement- some ~elve volumes of poetry to date- and to the inherent interest of his voice and concerns. Focus on those things, rather than on Tomlinson's value as a poet compared, say, with Larkin and Hughes, surely offers the best way to remedy the 'scandal' of his reputation. What John has to say about a recent poem, 'Winter Journey' (The Return, 1987), is a substantial advance in this direction. The analysis is astute and the critic's deference to the text is carefully judged. In a book given over largely to thematic interpretation, this is a high point. And there are others, too: John's discussion of 'Departure' (The Shaft, 1978) partakes of the same subtlety and eloquence. Even in this case, however, the burden of arguing Tomlinson's value persists, and proves somewhat distracting to the reader. 'Departure' is introduced to us as 'a superb, slightly later poem.' The description, we are told, is 'marvellously' precise. And as one reads one becomes conscious of the almost habitual inclusion of laudatory epithets; poems are 'superb,' 'superbly accomplished ,' 'finely felt,' or merely 'fine,' and Tomlinson's manner is 'witty and accomplished.' One's objection to this sort of thing is not that the words are wrong or inappropriate, but simply that they are critically unhelpful, presupposing as they do a non-existent axiological consensus among all readers. There is little to be gained from asserting Tomlinson's excellence; we HUMANITIES 137 have had thirty years of that, and the 'scandal' of his underrating appears to continue. The poet himself tells us that the way to plenitude is by 'the thread of patience' ('Eden'), and the proper task of his critics must be to persist in discussing and analysing his poems in such a way that their 'accomplishment' and fineness will be plainly manifest. Despite its frequent and sometimes impressionistic judgments ofvalue, BrianJohn's book does reveal the bracing complexity of Tomlinson's poems at the lexical and semantic levels. It is also a perceptive exploration of the man's world-view and poetic. The chapter on Tomlinson's most important mythic preoccupation- Eden- expands helpfully upon the connection· between plenitude and pain that has become very visible in recent poems, particularly 'History of a Malady' (Notes from New York, 1984). Because this book is in part a defence of Tomlinson, its author is bound to take on what is probably the most serious and enduring criticism levelled against the poet: namely, that his voice is that of a chilly aesthetician, and that the landscapes ofhis poems are lamentable for their lack of humanity. The charge is a difficult one to rebut. Of course, it is possible that it needs no rebutting, being based on an apriori assumption of what poetry should be and do; but John draws attention to what Tomlinson has called the 'element...