By D.P.G. Sheridan
Over the course of my research, I have come across numerous listings of poets. Poets who form this list, or that list, or some other list, but the lists are everywhere. Whoever creates the list, creates the criteria for inclusion, but it should be noted that many lists seem to be rather random as well. The creator includes a group of poets merely because he, or she, likes them, and maybe there is some loosely overriding connection between them, but there really should be better purpose, or reason for the list besides the arbitrary notion of liking a poet, while disliking another. If that were the case, then I would include poets on my Great War lists who were long dead before the war and failed to conform to prediction poetry, or not even born by then, merely because I liked them.
Randall Stevenson wrote in his book, ‘Literature and the Great War – 1914-1918’, that poets from the Great War would become canonized as “war poets”. He gives a list of his own by way of demonstration, but we could certainly add many to his list. “Including Edmund Blunden, Ivor Gurney, Wilfred Owen, Issac Rosenberg, Charles Hamilton Sorley, Siegfried Sassoon, and Edward Thomas – later canonized as ‘war poets’ – this new generation came to seem a distinctive, influential grouping in English poetry.” (Stevenson 122) As an Australian, I might create a similar list, such as, Leon Gellert, Frank Westbrook, Oliver Hogue, James D. Burns, Edwin Gerard, Leslie George Rub, and Tom Skeyhill, as ‘war poets’. My list could be much bigger as well, but the example is enough. Suffice it to say, there are many reasons to create a list, but there must be a reason beyond the arbitrary.
The Australian Great War Poetry project has produced several lists over the last few years, and each of these lists have been most useful in the development of research practices and information storage. The first list I made was quite simple; it included any poet from the Great War period who I either knew was Australian or I suspected to be Australian. This list gave me a place to start, and it wasn’t long before I could begin sorting out the chaff from the hay. Once I confirmed the chaff, I was able to disregard them and move on. The next lists I created were to sort out those poets who were Australian born and those who weren’t. I should mention here, that the inclusion criteria for being an Australian Great War Poet held that the poet, wherever they were born, had to be writing between 1914 and 1939, and be writing about the Australian Great War experience of war.
The next set of lists I created were the nine lists which divided the poets into groups which made them easy to find. The nine lists are: Active Soldiers, Active Nurse, Civilian Male, Civilian Female, Unknown Male, Unknown Female, Foreign Pro-Poets, Anon, and Prediction Poets. These nine lists ended up forming the basis of the categorisation process. However, they were also adapted into a new system which relegated them into two final lists. These two lists are the AGWP Canon and the AGWP Register. Within the Canon, the same sub-structured nine lists still exist. The reason for this is so that the poet may be easily found. The nine lists do not exist in the Register per-say, and the reason for this is because the Register functions as a place where poets are listed for serious consideration. In fact, not enough information is known about the poet to include or exclude from the Canon. Inclusion in one of the nine sub-lists would naturally send the poet to the Canon.
So, the two main lists operate as follows:
The AGWP Register is the official list of poets who are under serious consideration for membership in the AGWP Canon. Inclusion on this list indicates the poet’s status as a poet of interest for the Australian Great War Poetry project. For the most part, the names on this list will eventually be put into the Canon, but it is not yet known which of the nine sub-lists the poet should be placed. Where it is known, these poets are given listings, but it is the norm that they can only be segregated into male and female, and not always. The Register is sub-divided into Strong and Weak categories. As poets in the Register reveal more information, they can move from the Weak category to the Strong.
The AGWP Canon is the official list of recognised AGWP poets. Inclusion on this list indicates the poet’s official status as a member of the Australian Great War Poetry project. These poets may be said to form the official listing of Australian Great War Poets, and it is from this group that the main body of research may be done, for the reason that enough is known about them to be able to speak affirmatively and authoritatively.
With all this in mind, it may be understood that the poet’s place in literary life is confirmed by a rather obvious three stages. The first stage is the poet’s writing of the poem. This is when and where the creative response to life takes place and the poet records the feelings in sculptured words as some sort of outpouring of emotion and witness. The second stage is the poem’s public reading. This must happen in order for the third stage to take place, but sometimes the poem is never read by others, instead, it is lost in the poet’s diary or notebook and put away never to be seen by another soul. But when it is read, it will generate some reaction in the reader. This may be good or bad, but if it finds the right reader, or enough readers so that it will become known, then the poem will fulfil the second stage. The third stage is the poem’s recognition as a part of the representation of its genre. This is an important stage, because it is when and where the poem is given a voice in the literary landscape.
These three stages are what we might consider the natural process any poem will take in order to claim its position in a particular canon, or school, of literature. However, the process often bogs down in the second and third stages. The main reason it bogs down in the second stage is because many people, who possess these poems, fail to look through those boxes in the attic, or in the back of the cupboard, or in the storage unit. Those boxes that contain the dairies and notebooks of deceased family members who were alive during the Great War. Another reason is that some people, who have read the old family dairy and seen the poem, fails to recognise its true value, and so, it remains in the dairy for no one else to see. As a result, these poems become lost and unknown. It is a tremendous tragedy. The main reason it bogs down in the third stage is because academics and literary historians either fail to recognise the poem’s relevance or importance for inclusion to a canon or school of literature.
It is of vital importance that academics and literary historians strive to take these poems seriously, and include them in canons so that they may be used as literary sources. The importance of this is becoming more and more paramount as it becomes realised that poetry, especially poetry of war, may be used as historical evidence for events in the past. For too long has poetry sat on the selves of libraries gathering dust, when they hold, not only the beauty of the poetic word, but also an eye witness accounting of historical events. And all this must begin with the proper listing of poets, so that, in the case of Australian Great War Poetry, we have both a Canon and a Register. In this way, the poets may participate in a literary life which goes far beyond their mortal existence.
Comentarios