{"id":1901,"date":"2015-06-22T12:08:13","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T12:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aber.ac.uk\/devolvedvoices\/?page_id=1901"},"modified":"2018-04-19T15:44:35","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T14:44:35","slug":"extract-from-work-on-the-poetry-of-rhian-edwards-language-matters","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/devolved-voices\/materials\/extract-from-work-on-the-poetry-of-rhian-edwards-language-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Extract from work on the poetry of Rhian Edwards: Language Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Dr Matthew Jarvis<\/strong><\/p>\n

(The analysis extracted here follows on from a consideration of Rhian Edwards\u2019s use of accentual verse.)<\/p>\n

Two-beat accentual rhythms are possibly the most immediately apparent of Rhian Edwards\u2019s strategies on the level of linguistic music. However, in his important and detailed review of Clueless Dogs<\/em> on Todd Swift\u2019s Eyewear<\/em><\/i> blog,[1]<\/a> Ben Stainton has suggested a capacity in Edwards\u2019s poetry for what he calls \u2018witty half-rhymes\u2019, identifying the brief poem \u2018Eyeful\u2019 as an example of this:<\/p>\n

Looking me dizzy
\nlicking me drunk
\nin the face of our nudity
\nI am not nearly naked enough.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Presumably, Stainton sees this as a half-rhyme abab<\/i> structure (dizzy<\/em><\/i>\/nudity<\/em><\/i>; drunk<\/em><\/i>\/enough<\/em><\/i>). However, in terms of its linguistic music, there is manifestly more going on here than just half-rhymes. The first two lines, for example, are structured strictly in parallel in terms of each word\u2019s initial consonant, creating a sort of delayed (and visually vertical) type of alliteration. Of course, alliteration is also the driving musical force of lines three and four, with n<\/em><\/i><\/b>udity<\/i>, n<\/em><\/i><\/b>ot<\/i>, n<\/em><\/i><\/b>early<\/i>, n<\/em><\/i><\/b>aked<\/i>, and en<\/b>ough<\/em><\/i> tying the lines tightly into a sort of sonic unison. But across these two lines, we should also note the assonance of fa<\/b>ce<\/em><\/i> and na<\/b>ked<\/em><\/i>. Indeed, to turn back once more to the first two lines, there is a strongly figured architecture across the vowels of the stressed syllables moving from low to high then high to low: Loo<\/b>king<\/em><\/i> [low vowel] \u2013 di<\/b>zzy<\/em><\/i> [high vowel]\/li<\/b>cking<\/em><\/i> [repeated high vowel] \u2013 dru<\/b>nk<\/em><\/i> [variant low vowel]. And this, I would suggest, creates precisely the rise and fall of a musical phrase \u2013 an important notion for a poet who has said that \u2018As a musician, the rhythms and the musicality of the language in poetry are key for me.\u2019[3]<\/a>
\nIn a similar way, \u2018Sea of Her\u2019[4]<\/a> \u2013 the poem that follows \u2018Eyeful\u2019 in Clueless Dogs <\/em>\u2013 adopts half-rhymes of belly<\/em><\/i>\/gently<\/em><\/i>, flesh<\/em><\/i>\/breath<\/em><\/i>, dreamed<\/em><\/i>\/drowned<\/em><\/i>. But it also makes clear play with a strong sequence of both alliteration and long vowels, in the lines \u2018There, I do<\/b>zed and I drea<\/b>med, \/ I la<\/b>zed and I lou<\/b>nged\u2019 (the long vowels here rendered in bold), with dozed<\/em><\/i> and lazed<\/em><\/i> also linked together through an internal consonance. Indeed, in the final two lines (\u2018In her pool of milk skin \/ this man practically drowned\u2019), there is both the repetition of an initial \u2018p\u2019 sound across the lines (p<\/em><\/i><\/b>ool<\/i>\/p<\/em><\/i><\/b>ractically<\/i>) and the repeated internal \u2018k\u2019 of \u2018milk<\/b> sk<\/b>in\u2019. Moreover, just taking the first stanza of \u2018Tiptoe\u2019, the same sort of sonic multiplicity is again on display:<\/span><\/p>\n

I wander dreamless through your dialogues
\nthe ephemera of affection.
\nI traipse shoeless through these dialects
\nthese contentious claims to passions.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Once more patterned predominantly on a two-beat accentual line,[6]<\/a> this stanza begins with alliteration on the stressed syllables: d<\/em><\/i><\/b>reamless<\/i>\/d<\/em><\/i><\/b>ialogues<\/i> in line one and eph<\/b>emera<\/em><\/i>\/aff<\/b>ection<\/em><\/i> in line two. There is then a break from alliteration in line three, but it returns in line four with c<\/i><\/b>ontentious<\/i>\/c<\/i><\/b>laims<\/i>. Lines one and three contain a double echo in the repetition of the \u2018-less\u2019 suffix in dreamless<\/b><\/em><\/i> and shoeless<\/b><\/em><\/i> and in the intial \u2018dia-\u2019 of dia<\/em><\/em><\/i><\/b>logues<\/i> and dia<\/em><\/i><\/b>lects<\/i>. Similarly, lines three and four are tied together by the triple repetition of the \u2018sh\u2019 sound in sh<\/em><\/i><\/b>oeless<\/i>, contenti<\/b>ous<\/em><\/i>, and pass<\/b>ions<\/em><\/i>.
\nHowever, Edwards\u2019s rich linguistic patterning by means of such strategies of repetition is not restricted to just a phonetic level. She also uses parallelism on the level of the phrase in order to create structure. Thus, in \u2018The Welshman Who Couldn\u2019t Sing\u2019,[7]<\/a> the poem\u2019s stanzas all begin with a first-person present continuous statement, in which the poem\u2019s speaker is doing something either to or in relation to the poem\u2019s eponymous subject:<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sketching his sound [. . .]
\nI\u2019m scratching off a smile [. . .]
\nI\u2019m mimicking his canon now [. . .]
\nI\u2019m fattening up his bones [. . .]
\nI\u2019m giving back his limbs [. . .]<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

The same technique \u2013 in other words, marking stanza beginnings by means of syntactic parallelism \u2013is also used in \u2018Quotidian\u2019,[8]<\/a> with each of the four verses of the poem beginning with the phrase \u2018It\u2019s all about\u2019 \u2013 variously continuing with \u2018the habits\u2019, \u2018those minutes\u2019, \u2018disarray\u2019, and \u2018the hush\u2019. Indeed, a related strategy is used as the poem \u2018Girl Meats Boy\u2019 draws towards its bravura rhythmic conclusion, with one twelve-line stanza bound together by concluding each line with the words \u2018of you\u2019 (seven instances), \u2018on you\u2019 (once), \u2018in you\u2019 (once) or just \u2018you\u2019 (three instances, each preceded by a present participle):<\/p>\n

Lips fell apart for kiss of you,
\nbled puddled spit for scraps of you,
\ngouged cheeks of meat to feast on you,
\ntore threads of flesh in teeth of you,
\nlicked marrow, bone and pulp of you,
\nlet belly swell with fat of you,
\npigged pregnant with the pith of you,
\ngut, liver, spleen digesting you,
\nmy newborn blood absorbing you,
\nmy pulse, my veins, heart pumping you.
\nNo flies on you, no worms in you,
\nno scavenge bait, no urn of you.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

In other words, across rhythm, various phonetic ploys, and phrasal repetition, Rhian Edwards\u2019s poetry displays an array of distinctive linguistic features that collectively constitute an emphatic deployment of linguistic musicality.
\nBefore I move onto the second part of my overall analysis in this chapter, there is one more linguistic issue that I want to address. This is to do with what Hugo Williams describes as the \u2018distinctly un-English sound\u2019 and \u2018Celtic bass-line\u2019 of Edwards\u2019s poetry.[10]<\/a> This notion is something that Edwards herself argues for when she suggests, in interview, that:<\/span><\/p>\n

There is definitely a very Welsh sound to my poetry<\/em><\/i> and I think that derives from the lilting intonation of the dialect and language and also because I am a musician and singer. The sounds of the words are very important to me. (Emphasis added)[11]<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Leaving aside the question of an identifiably Welsh (specifically, Bridgend) accent within her poetry performances, it seems to me that Edwards\u2019s words on the page are overwhelmingly written in language patterns that are broadly free from localising qualities: in short, and as the quotations I have cited so far I would suggest make clear, my sense is that this is poetry that is predominantly constructed in Standard English. Nonetheless, in the poem \u2018Going Back for Light\u2019 in particular, there are instances where Wenglish very definitely makes its presence felt[12]<\/a> \u2013 \u2018Wenglish\u2019 being The Dialect of the South Wales Valleys<\/i>, as the sub-title of Robert Lewis\u2019s important study of this language-form describes it.[13]<\/a> On the level of subject-matter, \u2018Going Back for Light\u2019 \u2013 which Edwards explains \u2018is about a great-grandfather\u2019 whom she \u2018never met\u2019[14]<\/a> \u2013 suggests its rootedness in South Wales history in the opening reference to the experience of the poem\u2019s subject as a miner who \u2018Got blacklisted at the colliery for making ructions\u2019 and in the reference in stanza three to the sourcing of a dance floor from Caerphilly Hall. However, such familiar cultural-historical and geographical references to one side, it is in the language<\/i> that the poem\u2019s South Walian rootedness is most strikingly apparent. Robert Lewis\u2019s study of Wenglish makes clear that the Bridgend of Edwards\u2019s childhood falls in the \u2018Western Area of Wenglish\u2019,[15]<\/a> and distinctive Wenglish language-forms are apparent throughout the poem. Thus, the final line of stanza one observes that \u2018His coughs had been turning red for a while mind\u2019 \u2013 that final \u2018mind\u2019 being listed in Lewis\u2019s extensive glossary as a feature in Wenglish which \u2018adds little to the meaning but acts as an intensifier or to ensure the listener\u2019s full attention\u2019.[16]<\/a> Indeed, stanza six sees a recurrence of this linguistic feature (\u2018Daft over him, women were. His dark looks that was, \/ mind\u2019).[17]<\/a> Moreover, the use of \u2018compo\u2019 for compensation<\/em><\/i> in stanza two is also cited by Lewis as part of Wenglish vocabulary.[18]<\/a> But it is in the syntactic form of \u2018Loved that dance hall, he did\u2019 (stanza two), \u2018Always smoking he was\u2019 (stanza three), \u2018Getting ready for no good, we reckoned\u2019 (stanza four), \u2018Pair of chocolates, those eyes\u2019 (stanza five), and \u2018Daft over him, women were\u2019 (stanza six) that the poem perhaps most clearly identifies its linguistic allegiances. Robert Lewis argues that:<\/p>\n

The word order of Wenglish can differ markedly from that of Standard English. [. . .] In cases of emphasis, the element to be emphasised is generally placed first in the sentence. For example:
\nMiner he is, not a builder.<\/b>
\nrather than the Standard English:
\nhe is a <\/i>miner, not a builder<\/i>.
\nBlue it was, not green.
\n<\/b>In general there is greater flexibility in word order in Wenglish than in Standard English.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

It is this quality of Wenglish emphatics that \u2018Going Back for Light\u2019 captures in the word order of the phrases that I have just cited \u2013 and which mark this poem out as distinctively Welsh (and particularly South Walian) precisely in its linguistic<\/i> forms.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
[1]<\/a> Ben Stainton, \u2018Guest Review: Stainton On Edwards\u2019, Eyewear<\/em>, 30 August 2012, <http:\/\/toddswift.blogspot.co.uk\/2012\/08\/guest-review-stainton-on.html>, accessed 19 June 2015.<\/div>\n
[2]<\/a> Rhian Edwards, Clueless Dogs<\/em> (Bridgend: Seren, 2012), p. 32.<\/div>\n
[3]<\/a> Kittie Belltree, \u2018Interview with Rhian Edwards\u2019, New Welsh Review<\/em> online, 100 (summer 2013), <https:\/\/www.newwelshreview.com\/article.php?id=538>, accessed 19 June 2015.<\/div>\n
[4]<\/a> Edwards, Clueless Dogs<\/em>, p. 33.<\/div>\n
[5]<\/a> Edwards, Clueless Dogs<\/em>, p. 57.<\/div>\n
[6]<\/a> Edwards\u2019s May 2011 performance of this poem indicates that the first three lines here are clearly based on two stresses per line; the fourth line is a little more ambiguous, with \u2018claims\u2019 holding\u00a0 a stress alongside the stresses in \u2018conten<\/b>tious\u2019 and \u2018pass<\/b>ions\u2019 \u2013 although \u2018claims\u2019 is arguably a lesser stress than that of the other two syllables. Depending on interpretation, this stanza is thus either constructed out of three two-beat lines and one three-beat line, or four two-beat lines. Given the importance of three-beat lines in the stanza that follows, my sense is that the former interpretation is probably more accurate within the broader rhythmic context here. See \u2018Rhian Edwards \u201cTiptoe\u201d\u2019, YouTube<\/em>, 27 March 2012, <https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=E2zUoDgxPCE>, accessed 22 June 2015.<\/div>\n
[7]<\/a> Edwards, Clueless Dogs<\/em>, pp. 16-17.<\/div>\n
[8]<\/a> Edwards, Clueless Dogs<\/em>, p. 35.<\/div>\n
[9]<\/a> Edwards, Clueless Dogs<\/em>, p. 61.<\/div>\n
[10]<\/a> Cited on Edwards, Clueless Dogs<\/em>, back cover. Also cited, unattributed, on the back cover of Rhian Edwards, Parade the Fib<\/em> (n.p.: tall-lighthouse, 2008).<\/div>\n
[11]<\/a> Greg Freeman, \u2018The Write Out Loud Interview: Rhian Edwards\u2019, Write Out Loud<\/em>, 13 August 2012 (first posted 27th July 2012), <http:\/\/www.writeoutloud.net\/public\/blogentry.php?blogentryid=30994>, accessed 22 June 2015.<\/div>\n
[12]<\/a> Edwards, Clueless Dogs<\/em>, pp. 14-15.<\/div>\n
[13]<\/a> Robert Lewis, Wenglish: The Dialect of the South Wales Valleys<\/em> (Talybont: Y Lolfa, 2008).<\/div>\n
[14]<\/a> Freeman, \u2018The Write Out Loud Interview\u2019.<\/div>\n
[15]<\/a> Lewis, Wenglish<\/em>, pp. 11 and 12.<\/div>\n
[16]<\/a> Lewis, Wenglish<\/em>, p. 152. Lewis gives the example of \u2018He\u2019s handy round the \u2019ouse, mind.\u2019<\/div>\n
[17]<\/a> This feature also occurs in the poem \u2018Alison\u2019, albeit at the start of the sentence: \u2018The day is frayed and it\u2019s barely begun. \/ Mind, I\u2019ve been picking at the thread, \/ unribboning the weft \/ with a long-drawn out sigh\u2019: Edwards, Clueless Dogs<\/em>, p. 28.<\/div>\n
[18]<\/a> Lewis, Wenglish<\/i>, p. 82. For another instance of distinctively Welsh vocabulary, see the phrase \u2018cwtched under covers\u2019 in \u2018Fruition\u2019: Edwards, Clueless Dogs<\/em>, p.\u00a0 45. For \u2018cwtch (transitive and intransitive verb)\u2019, see Lewis, Wenglish<\/em>, p. 88.<\/div>\n
\n

[19]<\/a> Lewis, Wenglish<\/em>, p. 294; emphases in original.<\/p>\n

Extract from work on the poetry of Rhian Edwards: Language Matters \u2013 PDF Version<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Dr Matthew Jarvis (The analysis extracted here follows on from a consideration of Rhian Edwards\u2019s use of accentual verse.) Two-beat accentual rhythms are possibly the most immediately apparent of Rhian Edwards\u2019s strategies on the level of linguistic music. However, in his important and detailed review of Clueless Dogs on Todd Swift\u2019s Eyewear blog,[1] Ben … Continue reading “Extract from work on the poetry of Rhian Edwards: Language Matters”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13396,"featured_media":0,"parent":17,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1901","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9R2R9-uF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/devolved-voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/devolved-voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/devolved-voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/devolved-voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/devolved-voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1901"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/devolved-voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2240,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/devolved-voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1901\/revisions\/2240"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/devolved-voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/devolved-voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}