History by John Burnside: AS Level

West Sands beach, St Andrews   

History by John Burnside (1955-) 

St Andrews: West Sands; September 2001

Today

             as we flew the kites

- the sand spinning off in ribbons along the beach

and that gasoline smell from Leuchars gusting across

the golf links;

                         the tide far out

and quail-grey in the distance;

                                                 people

jogging, or stopping to watch

as the war planes cambered and turned

in the morning light –

today

             - with the news in my mind, and the muffled dread

of what may come – 

                                    I knelt down in the sand

with Lucas

                gathering shells

and pebbles

               finding evidence of life in all this

driftwork:

            snail shells; shreds of razorfish;

smudges of weed and flesh on tideworn stone.

At times I think what makes us who we are

is neither kinship nor our given states

but something lost between the world we own

and what we dream about behind the names

on days like this

                        our lines raised in the wind

our bodies fixed and anchored to the shore

and though we are confined by property

what tethers us to gravity and light

has most to do with distance and the shapes

we find in water

                        reading from the book

of silt and tides:

                         the rose or petrol blue

of jellyfish and sea anemone

combining with a child's

first nakedness.

Sometimes I am dizzy with the fear

of losing everything - the sea, the sky,

all living creatures, forests, estuaries:

we trade so much to know the virtual

we scarcely register the drift and tug

of other bodies

                        scarcely apprehend

the moment as it happens: shifts of light

and weather

                        and the quiet, local forms

of history: the fish lodged in the tide

beyond the sands;

                        the long insomnia

of ornamental carp in public parks

captive and bright

                        and hung in their own

slow-burning

                        transitive gold;

                                                jamjars of spawn

and sticklebacks

                                    or goldfish carried home

from fairgrounds

                        to the hum of radio;

but this is the problem: how to be alive

in all this gazed-upon and cherished world

and do no harm

                        a toddler on a beach

sifting wood and dried weed from the sand

and puzzled by the pattern on a shell

his parents on the dune slacks with a kite

plugged into the sky

                                     all nerve and line:

patient; afraid; but still, through everything

attentive to the irredeemable.

Follow this link for explanations of individual words and phrases: http://tlaalevelenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/history-john-burnside.html 

Meaning

The good news for students is that most teachers and commentators regard this poem as probably the hardest to understand and interpret in the collection. So don't worry if you feel a bit flummoxed by it.

However, it rewards a bit of work.

The first thing to understand is the 'news' that he's talking about - 9/11 - The Twin Towers, The Pentagon, the downed plane in Pennsylvania... 

What happened on 9/11?

The second thing to understand is that Burnside likes the theme of 'spaces between':

The space between reality and the imagination

The space between what we know and what we don't understand

The space between life and death

The space between what is close to us and what is far away 

In 'History', he is concerned with many of these spaces but particularly with the space between what is real to us in the here and now and what is 'out there' that will impact on us at some point soon in our lives.

The runway at RAF Leuchers can be seen here - where fighter jets are stationed. The golf links lie between the base and the beach at West Sands.

Interpretations

Your interpretation of this poem is important. You need to worry less about what every single line means and more about the overall meaning of the poem for you. The interpretations and conclusions drawn by this blog are only useful as a template for your own ideas.

What does the poem make you think about? Which aspects of structure, form and language help you to do this?

Structure and form

The disjointed and fractured lines which are at times irregular, following patterns of speech and at times are strict iambic pentameter, could reflect a number of things. Some have said that they make us think of the twin towers themselves falling apart. Others say they are like the tides, drifting and uncertain, others point out that there are spaces between different ideas in the lines, reflecting the spaces in between our close reality and the reality that is 'out there' and may impact on us at some point in the future.

Themes

There are many contrasts in the poem:

• Toddlers and parents
• Flying kites and flying planes
• Sand and the smell of gasoline are both in the air
• Being alone in thoughts yet with his family
• Life and death in the sea shells
• the world we own and the world we dream about
• Bodies fixed and kites free in the sky
• pink and blue: sea creatures and childbirth
• fear and safety
• confinement and freedom
• being in the present and fear of the future
• being comfortable with what we know and uncomfortable with what we don't

Study questions

1. Which three contrasts above do you think are the most important? 

2. What do you think the poem is about? (keep it short - 50 words max)

3. What is the narrator afraid of?

4. Why is the poem called History?

5. How do you think the structure of the poem reflects its meaning?

6. How does the theme of nature contribute to the poem?