SOURCE: "Social Development in the Poetry of Elizabeth Madox Roberts," in The Markham Review, Vol. 2, No. 1, September, 1969, pp. 16-20.

An examination of the poetry of Elizabeth Madox Roberts makes evident that she attempted to develop in this genre many of the same thematic concerns which she forcefully presented in her novels. Therefore, if one is to study thematic variations and development in these poems, wherein thematic ideas of the novel are somewhat fore-shadowed, it is helpful to have studied at least Roberts' four major prose works—The Time of Man, The Great Meadow, My Heart and My Flesh, and He Sent Forth a Raven. (For a discussion of which of Roberts' novels are her best, see Campbell and Foster's Elizabeth Madox Roberts: American Novelist, Earl Rovit's Elizabeth Madox Roberts, and Wagenknecht's Cavalcade of the American Novel.) It is also expedient to be acquainted with her Journal, in which the poet sets down information helpful in explicating her themes.

However, even without knowledge of Miss Roberts' other writings, it is still possible to see that in her poetry this woman most essentially is again attempting to develop what may loosely be termed her social theme. Other thematic concerns are of course present in her poetry. But it is this idea of man's need to grow more socially aware, an idea that is first generally suggested in Under The Tree and then slowly expanded in Song in the Meadow, that forms the thematic backbone of the Kentuckian's poetry volumes.

To understand this social development it is valuable to glance briefly at the social thematic concerns that Miss Roberts develops in the four novels. Here, the author moves from The Time of Man, an introspective novel which is almost a-social, through The Great Meadow, a book that introduces readers to geographic and historical and social insights beyond an internal consciousness. This social theme becomes even more prominent in My Heart and My Flesh, a novel that begins to probe sociological matters such as the racial problem and society's response to it. And, this thematic concern finally blossoms forth in He Sent Forth a Raven, a book filled with questions of war, the future of man in a war-filled world, and the effect which this disturbance has on individual lives.

For various stylistic and thematic reasons, ones which could be explored at another time, the poet does not as clearly present her social theme in the poems as she does in her novels. However, her attempt to make a social statement in poetry is still vigorous and successful enough so that these poems may be studied in terms of her attempt at a "social evolution." Therefore, it will be the purpose of this paper to generally suggest how this evolution is structured, to indicate a few of the poems which mark its stepwise development, as well as to mention several related themes concerning the beauties of the physical world, and the need to introspect, to wonder, about it and its people.

In the strictest sense of the word, Under The Tree is not a collection of "social" poems. However, in its emphasis on observation and introspection, this collection remotely prepares the reader for the more obvious social themes of the 1940 collection, and for being able to make some sort of response to them. Many of these 1922 poems are ones which can most easily be appreciated and explained as simple children's lyrics. The majority are carefully constructed short works which admit the reader into a world of childhood innocence and pristine beauty. These lyrics, as Campbell and Foster indicate (Elizabeth Madox Roberts), are ones which capture the freshness and vigor and charm of clear first impressions, whether these be visual, auditory, tactile or gustatory.

Roberts' clear impressions of various colorful sights are exemplified in her depiction of various natural objects. In "Horse" one notes the long brown nose of a horse that stands beneath a little shade tree, his mane splashed with the patches of sunlight that have filtered through the leaves. In "The Worm," a worm whose skin is "soft and wet" puckers himself into "a little wad," soon to go "back home inside the clod." A panther whose "streaks are moving on his back" is seen in "In the Night." "The Branch" depicts little black spiders that walk on the top of the water, "keen-eyed, hard and stiff and cool", while the poet's eye catches on a "moth wing that was dry / and thin … hung against a burr" in "Cold Fear."

In her description of people, Miss Roberts' vision is also keen. "A Beautiful Lady" presents a lady wearing little pointed shoes, her best hat one "silvered on the crown." "Miss Kate-Marie" also mentions a lady whose dress is "very soft and thin," and adds that "when she talked her little tongue / Was always wriggling out and in." Also, in "Autumn Fields" the old man has "stick tights on his clothes / and little dusts of seeds and stems."

The sort of physical awareness which the poet wants her readers to develop—especially if they are to grow socially sensitive—is embodied in the more complex feelings of the child in "My Heart." In lines which involve both the auditory and tactile sense, the poem presents the child as thinking,

My heart is beating up and down,
Is walking like some heavy feet
My heart is going every day.
And I can hear it jump and beat.
At night before I go to sleep,
I feel it beating in my head;
I hear it jumping in my neck
And in the pillowcase on my bed.

Another manifestation of sound appears as the hens rub their feathers in "The Hens" and as the brook in "Water Noises" gurgles on its way. The tactile sense is again invoked in "The Dark." Here, Roberts writes, "a night fly comes with powdery wings / That beat on my face—it's a moth that brings a feel of dust …"

Smell comes alive in "Autumn Field" as the little girl "can smell the shocks and clods / and the land where the old man had been." "At the Water" offers "five little smells and one big smell … One was the water, a little cold smell." Finally, a poem which contains a number of these sensual images is "Christmas Morning," a work often anthologized in children's magazines and readers. Its final four stanzas well indicate the aura of child-like innocence which these early poems are capable of evoking. Another poem interesting, direct and immediate in its effect on the reader is "Little Rain." Not only rich in succinct detail and verisimilitude, but also somewhat comic are the lines "A chicken came till the rain was gone; / He had just a few feathers on. / He shivered a little under his skin, / And then shut his eyeballs in."

However, as Campbell and Foster point out, Under the Tree is not merely a group of simple children's lyrics. It does contain poems which have distinct adult appeal. In the words of these two critics, this collection is "both children's verse of the highest quality and adult poetry with a distinctly metaphysical character and appeal." Admittedly, these poems with a deeper character are few, but this select number of them is vitally important for several reasons. First, it is these poems which serve as vehicles for Roberts' poetic statements about man's ability to introspect, to wonder about his physical world. It is in these poems too, that the child who before only just saw, or felt, or heard, is now beginning to question the limits of this sensual knowledge, and to question whether there be any person with whom one can fully communicate, or fully understand. Also, it is with these few poems that some sort of thematic bridge between the merely sensory poetry of the first part of this collection, and the poems of the 1940 volume may be erected.

The sense of wonder which Roberts considered essential if any child or adult were to develop as a sentient, alive, and vibrant human being, one socially aware of other men, is depicted most noticeably in "Mr. Pennybaker at Church" and "Shell in Rock." In the former the little child studies Mr. Pennybaker as he sings out of key and rhythm, and wonders if "he knows it all / About Leviticus and Shem / And Deuteronomy and Saul." In the latter, the majesty of the powerful, swirling sea is pondered. "The Pulpit" again mentions wonder in a church setting, and "A Child Asleep" presents a child looking at, and then wondering about a playmate who is sleeping. "In the Night" recalls the fear and terror experienced by a little child whose imagination has created a vicious panther out of a clothes-laden chair. In a similar vein, "Strange Tree" recreates the terror felt by a vividly imaginative child on his way alone through a dark deserted wood. Finally, on a more metaphysical level, "The Star" simply states a truth that is often sensed by children and adults who realize that they and their world are only very small ingredients in a vast universe. "Oh little one away so far / You cannot tell me what you are, / I cannot tell you anything," says the lone helpless child who gazes heavenward. "August Night" also mentions the wonder and fear felt by someone contemplating the unknown reaches of space.

In summary, then, the majority of the poems in Under the Tree are interesting only because they are rich in the keen sensual images of the land and people that Roberts knew and loved. A few verses of the collection, however, are important because they operate on both the physical-descriptive and the psychological or metaphysical levels. These few are introspective poems rich in inner reverie, but ones still quite a-social in the strictest sense of the word. However, it is "metaphysical" poems like these that Miss Roberts develops for the 1940 collection, into ones even more introspective and more strictly social in theme.

Song in the Meadow, as Campbell and Foster suggest, can be divided into three sections. The first is a grouping of love lyrics, ones which are again introspective and filled with the joy and mysterious wonder of love. The second is the section which finally brings the reader to Miss Roberts' poems of social protest. Part three, called "Legends," contains only a few poems, many of which are experimentally symbolic. For purposes of this discussion, the poems of this final short section need not be considered.

The awareness of the physical world which marked Under the Tree is also evident in this second volume. However, in this 1940 collection, the poet does not nearly so often devote a poem solely to depiction of a lovely vista, the smell of a field, or the laugh of frolicking children. Here, along with the sharp physical images the poet so deftly creates, there often appears mention of unsettled emotions and various social problems. In other words, whereas Under the Tree with its lovely images and child's point of view could be considered a children's book, this second volume, with its serious, often pessimistic thematic statements, is more adult reading.

In Part I of Song in the Meadow poems like "The Song of the Dove," "Summer is Ended," and "A Girl at Twilight" are again most "purely" descriptive. "A Girl at Twilight" offers some strikingly beautiful thought-provoking images of dusk falling over the Kentucky farmland. And "Summer is Ended," along with the two cradle songs "Sleep, My Pretty, My Dear" and "Blessed Spirit, Guard," exemplify the rich fullness of love, the joy to be derived from being alive to one's environment, and the mystery which surrounds life and love. "Love in Harvest," which again contains the spirit of innocence that characterized the pristine world of Under the Tree, is also ultimately concerned with the joy derived from the good harvest and the good rural life. This rich, joyful world is set forth, too, in "Love Newborn" and "Ellen Chesser's Dream of Italy."

However, with "The Lovers," this mood of happy innocence is lost. In this poem, constant thoughts of slipping "down deep / to the cold river bed / Where pulse is still / And breath is shed" keep haunting the "I" of the poem. It is only a final surge of love of life—an exuberant burst like that in "Love in Harvest"—that prevents a suicide from occurring. As the last optimistic lines say, "But life held me close/ In a firm embrace, / Life cradled my feet / and kissed my face."

It is with "And What, Dear Heart" that an even more outspoken transition is made from poems concerned mainly with love and delight to the more socially thematic Section II of Song in the Meadow. In this two-part poem, "And What, dear heart, will we see / As we take the road to the town" is the refrain spoken by one lover to another as they walk through the countryside. In answer to this query the first three stanzas of the poem depict some delightful rural sights that will be seen, heard, or smelled by the pair. "Men will be sowing and planting and taking / The cattle to graze, or the clover be stacking, / And off in the barn be mending and grinding, and down in the wheat will the reapers be binding." Also, hounds and cattle will be calling, birds will be mating, men will be telling of their joys, and happily singing about their loves. However, the last twelve lines of the poem present a change in tone and mood. It is revealed here that in addition to these simple joys, the lovers also hear and see men speak of problems of a bleaker, more pessimistic nature. Roberts writes,

Men will be speaking together to tell of the wars,
  and be asking, and leaving
Their labors to hear.
And the hearing be grieving.
The voice of the air loud speaking and making
Of hunger and death, and our brothers be dying,
And over the earth will the war witch be flying
With pestilence … wrath,
With famine and pillage and death

It is mention of these problems of war, hunger, and death and the grim reality that men, our brothers, are dying, that characterizes most of Section II.

It must be emphasized here that for Miss Roberts, the appreciation of the various sights and sounds of one's world, though vitally important to an individual's becoming more deeply alive, was not sufficient by itself. As she often indicated in her novels, in addition to perceiving the variety and flux of one's world, man could best attain fuller human stature by attempting to somehow order some of the disharmonies in his milieu. Though this attempt would possibly involve some suffering, it was this try at eradicating disorder, at being concerned for others, that was the key to man's maturation as a human. Developing this concern—actually a process of learning to love others—was absolutely necessary in a world that so often had forgotten how to understand and love, a world, which as a consequence of this lack, was now struggling with the burdens of wars, famine and other forms of human injustices.

It is essentially this message about the necessity that man love man—a message clearly set forth in He Sent Forth a Raven—that die poet here attempts to give us, in "The World and the Earth," the second section of Song in the Meadow. To clearly depict the plight of many contemporary men—men essentially all equal, who should be treated as equals ("A Man")—Roberts fills these poems with images of cold, various sorts of deformation, and death. In "Disconsolate Morning" the setting is "the sparse season, the lean time before the cold spring." Here, the "cold birds," the "silver-black" water in the mill, "gaunt foxes," "gaunt hounds" and "spent boughs" are part of the "lean day," a day in which "the wood-path leads nowhere." "The Ancient Gulf also speaks of "a lean time under the grass / A cold season for the rock." In "Night and Storm," the wind howls, "the stricken bell … shrieks along the storm," while "the turning sky is black."

Against this symbolic landscape, Miss Roberts points up the injustice involved in men receiving insufficient and unfair wages, in their resulting poverty, and hunger, and also notes the horrors of the awful situation of war. Although in "Man of the Earth" a "little beggar woman," a "one-legged clown," and the "poorhouse yard" are strikingly juxtaposed, it is in "The Lean Year" that the harsh realities of poor wages and poverty are most succinctly set forth. Here the farmers with "knotty hands and sinewy limb" stand in tatters and wonder "Why" or "What for." Line twelve, "Who pinched and squeezed and drained them thin?" powerfully summarizes the mood, tone, and thesis of this poem. "Man Intolerant" discusses another form of injustice. Here, "brothers in flesh" are slaughtering each other in the "act of hatred and intoleration." Here, Miss Roberts states that each man is responsible "before the nations" for the edicts and practices "being bartered." She further reminds the reader that although man's spirit has waned in modern times, and his "poor small hold on God's favor is loosed," he still must see that he is adrift on some course that he must try to chart to the best of his ability. For man not to care where he himself or his fellowman may wander is to hurl the human race "toward the last holocaust, the infinite merciless first-last unknowing abyss."

Finally, the horrible nature of war is revealed in "The Battle of Perryville," and "Corbin the Cobbler." In the former, a man reminisces about a long ago battle until "his face is bent and turns to tears." In the latter a bitter cobbler remembers the gas of the Argonne forest and says that today "a man couldn't trust they'd keep the war down." In lines heavy with understatement and irony this artisan, who has "left his important intentions / Along with his leg in the far side of the water," continues to state his feeling that "there'd always be war to take the boys," "there'd still be a new way to line up the nations."

For Miss Roberts, the only hope for such a pessimistic, problematic world seems to be man himself, and his awakening to man. In "Conversations Beside a Stream" she offers her reminder that in life—that "multiple flow of human onward-going being" from which no one escapes—"the dread-sick world is not all." For the poet, there is more to life than dissatisfaction and failure. There is also hope. But if one is to hope and realize any tangible rewards from hoping, it must be remembered that "one man himself alone / Cannot make a song." Man needs man, and must come to realize this truth if the race is to survive. In the last poem of this section Miss Roberts tries to show clearly to others what she herself so clearly sees about man and this hope for him. She writes, "We are sitting beside the stream, beside the River of Man's flowing / life, his time, his way on the earth." For her, the hour is late, so man must immediatedly begin to build a new world, one wherein man will not be burdened with the woes we now suffer. To create this place one can "start anywhere! … start with man's liberty … his democracy or … warm love." What could become a reality, the Kentuckian believes, is that the peace and love described in "Evening Hymn," the last poem of this section, could extend to all men. It is the poet's great hope that all men could grant to each other the wish "Quiet and love and peace / Be to this, our rest, our place," when "the day is done; / the lamps are lit."

This, then, is but a cursory look at Miss Roberts' attempt to develop a social message through two volumes of her poetry. The scope of this survey has been quite broad; therefore, it is hoped that some idea of the general thematic direction in which the poet tried to move has been established—without losing sight of the social thematic value and lyric beauty of specific lines. Of course, to best understand this social trend, one must read and analyze as much poetry as is available, as well as several of her novels. Hopefully, as more of Roberts' poems are located and published, it will become possible to further substantiate and clarify the social thesis of this paper.