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
6 István D. R i.cz think that something comes into our minds accidentally, our unconscious has already done this, successfully. The other layer is that of intersubjectivity as the speaker in the poem is getting closer and closer to the subject that he represents. He introduces the first part with the words at work , and the recollected objects (an in-tray, the lost top of a pen) are mentioned as the attributes of the represented person. This tacitly anticipates the opening of the second part: "and more the real you, painting". The implication is that the person formerly known 'at work' has a 'more real' self. But the speaker cannot enter this subjectivity, since in the third part the point of view changes: the speaking and remembering subject becomes the object of the other's perception and cognition. This change is similar to what happens in Douglas Dunn's poem "Young Women in Rollers", where the implied poet transforms himself into an object by creating the viewpoint of working-class women. But while Dunn is within the situation and is interested in class differences, Reading observes the dangers of his own mnemonic from the outside. The focus of his attention is the act of remembering. Another aspect of the same topic can be discerned in "Ballad", which can be read as a poem about the collective memory of literature as well as about the oppressive power of recollection. It narrates a story in the modern world, but is written in traditional ballad stanzas. This form has always been popular in British poetry; therefore, Reading's poem creates a link with a living tradition. The poet remembers a form that is still present. The reader (depending on her/his former experience) can associate it with modern ballads such as W. H. Auden's "Miss Gee", Blake Morrison's "The Ballad of the Yorkshire Ripper", or James Fenton's "Children in Exile". But these texts are also different from one another: Auden's poem is a psychological case study, Morrison's is an experiment in combining literary conventions with a contemporary dialect, and Fenton's is a text of social exploration (to mention only the most spectacular meanings of these poems). Reading's poem tells a trivial, even banal, story in conventional meter; consequently, it can be read as a parody. The two lovers in the poem, John and Joan, spend some happy years together as university students, then get tired of each other, split up, and both marry someone else. Ten years later they meet by accident, and they tell each other about their broken marriages. No catharsis follows this event; the poem ends with John's bitter laughter. Real life only lives in their memory; likewise, the poet is only able to tell a contemporary story by using a form lingering in his memory. "Ballad" is a piece of light verse, which laughs at the constraints of the characters and those of the poet at the same time. The objective correlative of these constraints is the applied
