'Autumn Journal' by Louis MacNeice (Book Review)

'Autumn Journal'

by

Louis MacNeice (1907-1963)

I LIKE TO READ this Anthology in two ways:

• Currently, looking through the lens on to this 21st Century

• Contemporaneously, looking through the spectacles of history on to that 20th Century

My life is in both, so this is easier, although being born 15 years after the Munich Crisis in 1938, I must also take up the magnifying glass of history.

Thus, it is a challenge if read solely from the 21st century, if I look at it through the eyes of 1920s-1930s social commentary, then I catch an evident glimpse of the world, of a country, of an empire hurtling toward a war that would, historians now say, take the lives of up to a hundred million people worldwide, as against the previously accepted estimate of 55 million.

If I speak about that era today, people cannot comprehend that of the millions who listened on the wireless to Britain's declaration of war on Nazi Germany on Sunday 3 September 1939, some 40,000 civilians in the United Kingdom would not see 1 January 1941 due to air raids on this country in 1940.

Louis MacNeice stops short with the Munich Crisis of 1938.

We thought we had bought from Hitler "peace for our time".

So, this anthology is something of a wake-up call.

The serious student of Poetry will do themselves a disfavour if they bypass this anthology and a chance to look upon the world long gone, and resolve long gone too, it would seem today.

Liverpool
28 March 2019

A YEAR ON …

3 July 2020

How times and perspective change.

It is now Friday, 3 July 2020 and the country is just emerging from four months of lockdown as a result of the pandemic COVID-19.

In his address to the United Kingdom on Tuesday 24 March 2020, the prime minister uttered stark words. It is true that many lives will be sadly lost.

I admit, that when I watched the broadcast live on that sombre Tuesday evening, the words cut to the bone.

But I also admit that, not for once, did I think that I would be writing in July, that of all the people in the United Kingdom watching (or listening) to the prime minister, that over 40,000 would not live to see 1 July 2020, and that the figure this evening, 3 July, stands at 44,131 (BBC News 24 6 pm).

I dislike comparison with the events of 1939-1940. Lockdown cannot be compared to that period.

But I correct the last paragraph of the 28 March 2019 review. The deep resolve of the British People is still present. It has moved with the ages, but it is present.

KTW
Liverpool

A YEAR FURTHER ON …

30 September 2021

Lifting many of the pandemic regulations, we stand, today, 30 September 2021 with the United Kingdom death rate due to Covid (i.e. deaths within 28 days of a positive covid test) at 136,000. Worldwide, this stands at 4.55 million.

This anthology is serious, and its weight and power are sometimes, breathtaking. I am thankful to have it close at hand.

23 January 2024
All Rights Reserved

LIVERPOOL

© 2024 Kenneth Thomas Webb

Banner Image Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Cover Design by the Publisher

Digital Artwork by KTW