R 141 F

Poets can be characterised as people who have an intense sensitivity to social issues and who with their gift for language are able to convey their thoughts and feelings to their readers. Stephen Harold Spender is no exception. Born in 1909, he attained literary acclaim in the thirties. His poetry is defined by the events of that period in history. Politics in the thirties was dominated by Nazism and Marxism. Spender was born to an upper class English family yet his sympathy for the poor and his desire for a more just distribution of wealth caused him to lean towards socialist ideals. He longs for a fairer world, one that is classless and free of poverty. Like other poets of that era, the Spanish Civil War caught his imagination and so in February of 1937 he moved to Madrid to witness the war first hand as a journalist. The romantic beliefs he has about the socialists fighting against Franco is soon shattered as he sees the horrors of war for himself. He soon becomes disillusioned by the tremendous loss of innocent lives and he comes to believe that nothing can justify the massacre of young men that is taking place all in the name of politics.

The early part of the twentieth century is a period of great advancement in science and technology. Unfortunately much of this technology is used to invent war machines that cause mass death and destruction. Spender is suspicious of technology which he sees as an instrument for the destruction of nature. He loves nature and especially adores the English landscape. His patriotic feelings towards pre-industrial England are seen in the powerful language he uses in many of his poems to describe the English countryside. This rather naive idealising of England came to be known "Little Englandism". In many of his poems, especially those dealing with the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, he contrasts war and destruction to the beauty of untouched landscapes by using striking images to depict the landscape as an antidote to war. In "A Stopwatch and an Ordnance Map" Spender describes a young soldier who wounded in battle crawls under an olive tree where he dies. The olive tree, whose fruits nourish and whose branches are an international symbol of peace ironically becomes a grave and the site of an ugly war .

In the poem "Air Raid across the Bay at Plymouth" Spender's antiwar, anti technology and patriotic feelings towards England are depicted using vivid imagery. The aeroplane, described as "Delicate aluminium girders" built by man as testimony to mans ingenuity drops bombs and destroy the God made beauty of the landscape.

In 1939 the Second World War breaks out, a war much bigger and more destructive than the Spanish war. Spender falls into despair and in his poems he manifests his disappointment in humankind. In the poem "June 1940" war has broken out in France but the English landscape is still beautiful and untouched but not for long. War soon kills millions and the world is reduced to "....man's black malicious box". The poet's despair and disdain for humanity is expressed colourfully. "I am cold as cold world alone/ Voyaging through space without faith or aim...".

Spender is not considered a great poet by everybody yet no one can deny that he has an excellent command of the English language with which he conveys dismay at man's cruelty to man. In his view nothing can justify the destruction of what God has created. His feelings towards technology are ambivalent. He sees it as an inevitable consequence of man's ingenuity but he laments its use in war. His last poems describe a pessimistic view of humankind with whom he is disillusioned.

In summary Spender can be described as a traditionalist, a man reluctant to embrace change. He admires the past, the pre-industrial beauty and serenity of the natural landscape and he believes that war is never justified. He abhors war and according to him humanity never learns from history and war is bound to repeat itself. It is a pessimistic view which unfortunately has been proved correct time and time again.