Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2004. Vol. 4. Eger Journal of English Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 30)
ISTVÁN D. RÁCZ Memory, Writing, Politics: the Poetry of Peter Reading
12 István D. R i.cz preface to Chuzzlewit ), 'I have not touched one character straight from life, but some counterpart of that character has asked me, incredulous, "Really now did you ever see, really, anyone really like that?" (this is the gist, not precise). Well I can tell that old cricket that this is JUST how we speak like, me and the Capting and all (only not just in two lines). (Ukulele Music 36, emphases in the original) The first feature most readers would notice is the meter: Reading's poem is a perfect distich. Not only does this dispel the myth that it is impossible to write English poems in Greek form, but it also demonstrates that one can even find lines in regular meter. To be precise, Reading has slightly modified the original text by Dickens, as he himself admits. This is what one finds in the preface to Martin Chuzzlewit : "What is exaggeration to one class of mind is plain truth to another. [. ..] I have never touched a character precisely from the life, but some counterpart of that character has incredulously asked me: 'Now really, did I ever really, see one like it?'" (7) The "quotation" in the poem shows very little difference from Dickens's sentences since Reading has only inserted and changed a few words. The original text is clearly identifiable, still perfect in meter. The last stanza makes Viv speak. Unlike in Tony Harrison's poetry, in Reading it is not the confessional implied poet who colonises the heritage of classic literature, but a fictitious character, a construct of the poet. Dickens's observation is also related to her: there are no exaggerated literary characters, only points of view showing something as exaggerated. This seems to be a problem of literature, but essentially it is more than that. Both Dickens and Reading suggest that if we are unwilling to accept the constructs of literature, we are blind to reality. Continuing the narrative and the chain of ideas, Reading writes about facts and their textual representation in a later part of the book: Gillian Weaver aged 22 walking 4-year-old daughter home when a girl and three men —hang on, this isn't just news: Gillian Weaver aged 22 walking 4-year-old daughter home when a girl and three men push her to pavement and steal .£3 from purse —she sits weeping and nursing 4-year-old (let's not wax sentimental re kids; let's stick to facts, here are facts). (Ukulele Music 41, emphases in the original) This passage is about the well-known paradox that for a subject facts exist only through their interpretation. More than that, it is also about those methods that transform facts into texts. At the beginning of the first stanza
