Singing and Speaking in Louis MacNeice's The Burning Perch

Abstract

The Burning Perch has come to epitomize the much-praised “lyrical return” of a poet who is known to have had an ear for fine rhythmic nuances. In addition, a large number of poems in the collection are in “dolnik” (or near-dolnik) verse, which is the meter of balladry, nursery rhymes, and much of the popular poetry commonly associated with song. In this context, it becomes especially interesting to study the poetic voice in relation to the intrinsic dialectic between singing and speaking at work in the book. This essay examines how, through the perpetual reassertion of this voice against any rhythmic environment liable to smother it, a compromise is achieved which sacrifices neither “the swing of the primitive form” (MacNeice) nor the poet’s desire for articulate meaning.