Research paper on Ivor Gurney
His godfather identifying his artistic abilities really sent him to the right outlets, igniting his artistic career at a young age. Ivory Bertie Gurney was among the few most famous English composers and war poets. He was born at 3 Queen Street, Gloucester, as the second out of the four surviving children of a tailor, David Gurney, and Florence, a seamstress. His musical ability shown very early in his life. From 1 900 to 1906, he was singing as a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral, where he became an articled pupil of Dry Herbert Brewer. There, he met another composer Herbert Howell who name to be a lifelong friend.
He started composing music at a very early age of 14, which led him to win a scholarship at the Royal College of Music in 191 1 where he studied music under Sir Charles Stanford. His studies were interrupted by the erupting of the World War I, during which he attempted to enlist but was rejected because of his poor eyesight (he used glasses almost his entire life). However, in 1915, he joined the war Rogers 3 as a private soldier in the Clotheshorse Regiment. He started writing poetry seriously, at the Front, sending his efforts to Marion Scott, a musicologist- artic and his friend, who worked with Gurney as business manager and editor.
In April 191 7, he was injured while the midst of writing the poems for his later book, Severe and Some. He recovered and went back to the battle where he continued to compose and write songs and poems. During the Battle of Passionately (Third Hyper) he was injured again when in a gas attack. While he seemed to thrive after the war, his mental distress continued to affect him. Upon his return to the Royal College of Music, he studied for a while with Ralph Vaughan Williams, but he left without completing his studies.
However, he continued to write and compose. His last 15 years of his life were spent in mental hospitals. Even during the years in the mental hospitals he did not stop writing. He later died of tuberculosis in City of London Mental Hospital in 1937, at the age of 47. Believe Gurneys home town in Gloucester, motivated him to write. Bolder expresses he described it with undeniable beauty, while at war he wrote about how he missed it, and while incarcerated in a mental hospital the last fifteen years of his life it was always a topic of happiness.
Gurney went as far as trying to escape from the mental capital so he could simply walk the hills of Gloucester, I Though he always battled with mental illness he remained happy always finding beauty in the world. Legacy On 11 November 1 985: commemorated among 16 Great War Poets on a slate stone in Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s Corner. Rogers 4 Wilfred Owen, a fellow Great War poet wrote the inscription on the stone: “My subject is War and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity” (**********). 009: his memorial was erected in near Hyper, and a blue plaque on East gate Street in Gloucester part 3: A Paragraph Summary of Enlightening details To God, by Ivory Gurney, is an open letter written by the poet to an absent savior. Http://Win. Helium. Com/items/2329328-poetry-analysis-to-god-by- ivory-gurney] The letter is written by the poet regarding his time in the psychiatric ward. His work has been viewed as canonical like other WWW -era masterpieces. The latter is basically a presentation of the poet’s feelings of being abandoned and it is a complete condemnation of God.
In the letter, he fails to write the capital form of ‘You” like he has done with his other works. While he is not in direct contact with other injured veterans of the war, he understands their mental and physical disfigurement, as he was experiencing the same. There is evidence of suffering in the letter, evidenced by the claim that he has been put in hell. By reading the Open letter to God, it is possible to come closer to an understanding of the kind of life of suffering he went through. Part 4: Website The Ivory Gurney Collection http://www. Ouch. Ox. C. UK/evil lit/collections/gurney Rogers 5 The title of the page on the website is The Ivory Gurney Collection. ” The website is maintained by The First World War Poetry Digital Archive. The Bessie is important in understanding the poet, being a biography. The author of the article presents clear biographical information on Ivory Gurney, from his birth to death, and the most important events that shaped his life as a poet and a composer. The author also provides information on the various works that were written by the author in the course Of his life.
Other important information presented by the author is that on the relevance of the poems that were written by the poet. He also provides information on the people who influenced the work of Ivory Gurney. The author also provides erection on where the work of Ivory Gurney can be accessed. The information presented on the page is reliable, as the sources from which is it obtained are given. However, information on the availability of other manuscripts by the author is missing. The page is clearly developed; it is easy to find information from it and to navigate.
For example, it is easy to search the collection or locate a specific poem just by opening inserting the relevant title. Generally, this is an important source of information for anyone seeking information on the poet or his work. Part 5: Article Ivory Gurney and The “Poetic Sensibility)/’ Savannah, P J.. Grand Street, Springing, Volvo. 9 Issue 3, IPPP, app. (Literary criticism) GURNEY, Ivory, 1890-1937 Literary Reference center Rogers 6 http://shies. Obscenest. Com/ghost/detail? Side=07d52c20-9c394f97-BBC- 5256 The best way to sum up Savannah perception of Gurneys writing is unpredictable.
She explains that his tones can change not only from one poem to the next but even in the same poem. This can be connected to his mental instability. Though some of the people closest to him believe this handicap birthed it’s self in the war it’s evident through his writing it was always there. The tragedies he suffered in the war just brought it to new heights. But Savannah says “The strain of achievement was intolerable, and it broke him”, that his literary brilliance itself was a major contributor to his mental unsoundness.
Savannah perceives Gurney as fearless in terms of his writing, expressing he wrote exactly how he felt, letting emotion flow while keeping it simple. Leaving Gurney very misunderstood in that contemporary time in American history. Parts 7-9 Collected Poems by Ivory Gurney, edited by PC Savannah 41 Pop The author compares the Creed “l believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker f heaven and earth: and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pinpoint Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell… With Ivory Gurneys poem “The Escape”: I believe in the increasing of life: whatever Rogers 7 Leads to the seeing of small trifles, Real, beautiful, is good and an act never Is worthier than in freeing spirit that stifles Under ingratitude’s weight, nor is anything done Wispier than the moving or breaking to sight Of a thing hidden under by custom – revealed, Fulfilled, used (sound-fashioned) any way out to delight: Trefoil – hedge sparrow -? the stars on the edge at night. This is likened to a creed, a mimic symbol postpartum, and a public claim of his faith. It is also seen as the spiritual basis for his faith.
He is argued in the review to have a trinity (“Trefoil – hedge sparrow -? the stars on the edge of night’), the statement of his precepts and his expectations (“revealed, / Fulfilled, used”), and the indication of his own communion (“breaking to sigh?’). He has his own doctrine, and in another poem, “What I Will Pay’, he describes his discipleship. What I will pay to my God is that I will not sleep between sheets, Neither take rest unwanted, but work till the first small bird fleets past my window The author of the review also goes further to present a biography of the poet.
He suggests that his story is a sad one, and it is thanks to his friend Marion Scott for preserving his work, we are now able to access it. He left behind some very great pieces, most of which are fascinating even Rogers 8 today. However, the author of the review argues that his work reveals a crisis in human life: completely lacking, unfulfilled, vulnerable and, eventually, selves. A good example is in ‘Pain. ” The last line of”The Interview’ presents a summary of his soul-vexed worldview: “Death absent, what thing is truly Man’s own? / Beaten down continually, continually beaten down. However, he was able to write very good pieces, especially about people he adored such as Walt Whitman. The poems ‘An Asylum poem’ The poem, ‘An Asylum poem’, as Marion Scott calls it, was written in London in 1 919 or 1920. The poem reveals a passionate lover of Clotheshorse that is separated from its landscape, not from reason. The poem can be taken as a symbol of unreason. It is clearly written by a person who is not reasonable in his view of the world; the poet is revealed as being mad, to have begun with mistakes; a delightfully simple sanity and, shoddier, the course this kind of sanity might take.
The central image of the poem is a bull which is tethered by custom, although, might in the end come out as being more telling. ‘The Silent one’ In the poem, a soldier takes cover on facing a blockade of uncut barbed wire at Norman land. There are two men lying down on the barbed wire, and the soldier is familiar with one of them. A possible way through the wire is minted to by the commanding officer. This way would cause the death of the soldier, and thus they all refuse to comply.
The mood of the poem is a sad one, Rogers 9 having been written during the time of war and its subject being the adversities faced by the soldiers in the battle field. ‘Strange Hells’ ‘Strange Hells’ is written in reaction to the First World War experience. This is an unconventionally structured sonnet which presents major shifts in feeling and thinking of the author. The expectations of the audience are strongly plunged into the nightmarish hell caused by war. However, the expectations Of the audience Of the nightmares are abandoned when the author writes about his lack of fear during the war.
Nevertheless, the central theme of the poem is “hell” of taking in a bombardment in the trenches. The poem also speaks about the survivors of the war coming back home after enduring the experience. The poem has a sad mood, but it is made better by the indication of bravery by the soldiers. Part 10 Youth Reading [Ivory Gurney “The Silent One” Poem animation WWW http://www. Youth. Com/watch? V=Adaptation] The Youth recording presents a complete presentation of the poem, “The Silent One”. From listening to the recording, I have been able to catch a clear picture of the poem.
It is clearly recited in the recording. The person narrating the poem in the recording is audible, allowing the listener to hear and understand every word he says. Additionally, the phase at which the narrator moves makes it possible to follow through the presentation. The image Of the narrator also Rogers 10 enhances it audibility and the ability of the audience to understand what he is saying. This is different from reading the poem, as the person narrating is able to portray the mood of the poem. It is evidently a sad mood reading from the mood of the narrator.
However, it would be more helpful if the Youth recording would include an analysis of the poem, rather than narrating it. This would enhance its understanding. Part 11 Personal Response Ivory Gurney was an extraordinary man who accomplished amazing things. His talents spread to composing and writing and he was amazing at both a feat not often accomplished. The people in his life always seemed to be introduced at the right time to further influence his artistic career and abilities. It takes a special man to see the beauty in all things.
His writing portrays a man who is courageous, fearless, with no regard for what others believe. It seems his happiness, and mental instability could all derive from his literary brilliance. Although it couldn’t have been determined in Gurneys present day he might have been suffering from bipolar disorder which would explain his high highs and extreme lows and inability to cope at times. Regardless you can’t help but respect his brilliance and feel empathy for the trials and tribulations he endured at war and during the fifteen years in that mental ward.
