I'm doing all of these poems and I could find practically nothing on James Honeyman - it's one of the worst of the lot for articles. I'll cut the fat and stick it in bullet points for you.
1st September 1939:
- There are 11, 9 line stanzas which is free verse, possibly to reflect the narrator's series of thoughts and reflections. This entirely contrasts the adapted ballad form used in the other poems (except Musee des Beaux arts).
- The date is very significant; September 1939 is the date which Hitler and Stalin invaded Poland, setting this poem is a very political realm.
- This idea of political language is supported by the line: 'As the clever hopes expire', which could be linked to Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement and the clever hopes expiring being Hitler's promise not to invade Poland.
- The first stanza is largely negative due to the negative semantic field created by words such as 'Uncertain', which uses the negative prefix to create a dubious atmosphere, and figurative phrases such as 'waves of anger and fear...circulating' which is clear symbolism for the army of darkness, ie the Nazis, sweeping destruction across the surface of the earth.
- In the second stanza there is an allusion to 'Luther' (1483-1586), who was the founder of the Protestant movement and was deeply anti-Semitic; the narrator blames Luther for the rise of prejudiced dictators.
- He then goes on to substantiate Hitler's actions with the lines 'those to whom evil is done, do evil in return'. It is no secret that Hitler was abused as a child and so a psychoanalytical reading of this could be the justification of what occurred at Linz caused Hitler to become this 'psychopathic god'. The religious lexis of 'God' suggests the unfathomable level of indoctrination and takes a real hack at human nature for practically worshipping dictators.
- Again in the third stanza, there is another allusion a historical figure - this time it is Thucydides (460-395 bc), the father of political realism who believed in 'might rather than right', foregrounds the message that human behaviour is static.
- Into stanza four and we are greeted by an interesting modifier: 'blind skyscrapers' which could ultimately be alluding to America's position at the start of the war, either way they are somewhat anthropomorphised and could rely the message that America would much rather be oblivious that blind themselves from the truth than become involved in international politics.
- There are more historical figures alluded to in stanza six - 'mad' Nijinsky and Diaghilev. Nijinsky was a ballet dancer and Diaghilev is director, it is rumoured that there were homosexual relations between the pair until Diaghilev married (a women) prompting 'mad' Nijinsky to write erratic and disturbing letters to Diaghilev. The love went sour and as explained in the remainder of the stanza, it's main purpose is show the selfish nature of man.
- I'll finish with a really useful A03 point - the line 'We must love each other or die' was adapted in later versions of the published poem. It was changed to 'we must love each other and die' which really distorts the mood from optimism to just plain pessimism. Again it all adds to this sense of man's greed and man's selfish nature which will ultimately lead to man's destruction.