dramatic situations - Eisenbart poems
the establishment and development of these dramatic situations in two of Eisenbart's poems, Panther and Peacock, and Prize Giving, is discussed
It could be said that Gwen Harwood's most powerful poetry can be found in her personal lyric poetry that depicts human beings caught between reason and intuition, between intellect and feeling, or between flesh and spirit. The series of Eisenbart poems concern themselves with the psychological states and thought processes of Professor Eisenbart. Eisenbart is from the German scientific community. He has the formula for the Bomb that in turn has the power to wreak havoc on the world. Poems in the Eisenbart series relate implicitly and explicitly to dramatic confrontations or conflicts between Eisenbart's logical mind and his innate fear of the emotional, passionate person that is also a part of him. This is a part of Eisenbart's persona that he cannot explain using science and thus cannot dominate. When confronted by it, a dramatic conflict evolves within himself. The establishment and development of these dramatic situations in two of Eisenbart's poems, Panther and Peacock, and Prize Giving, is discussed.
In Prize Giving, the establishment of the dramatic situation begins with the presentation of Eisenbart as a proud, pompous, complacent, vain and successful man. Immediately, the reader is informed that Eisenbart has been asked to hand the prizes out at a girls school. We are then told that he 'rudely declined' the invitation but then, 'from indifference agreed to grace their humble platform and lend distinction to the occasion.' We are given the impression that Eisenbart carries with him an air of nonchalance, whilst being very authoritative; he send the girls on a 'whir of insect nervousness.' He then proceeds to take his seat, 'scowl with distaste' and then assume the pose of 'Rodin's Thinker'. This further develops Eisenbart's air of eminence but also creates the feeling that he is detatched from others and sees himself as being better than his fellow man - a theme which is carried through the whole Eisenbart series. This 'indifference' that Eisenbart has created towards others and, superficially, toward himself is then disturbed by a young girl's passion.
The development of the dramatic situation is then undertaken; he is shaken out of his imposed self and he looses control of his emotions. A girl with titian hair sits mocking Eisenbart's intellectual pose and then accepts the prize for music from him. In this process, he takes her hand and 'feels the voltage fling his hold.' This hold could be interpreted as that which Eisenbart has over his self, his calm and his power. It is overcome by a different sort of power, that of an emotional, artistic and elemental nature. He then 'suffered her strange eyes' when a different girl would have looked away, a sign that could be read that she believes herself equal to Eisenbart, just in a different field of expertise. She goes to the piano and 'changes her casual schoolgirl's air for that of a masters,' and summons Mozart's passion or despair with 'arrogant hands.' The power of the emotion and passion in the music further overcomes Eisenbart. He looses all control, 'teased his gown' and 'forged his rose hot dream.' This 'rose hot dream' could be interpreted as referring to a momentary reversion to the dream like state in which Eisenbart experiences a conflict with the fiercely suppressed aspect of his self, as in many of his poems. If this is the case, or whether Harwood simply means that Eisenbart is embarrassed because he has lost power over himself, it remains fact that he has experienced a dramatic conflict with himself because of exposure to an element of life which is illogical and therefor beyond his powers of reason.
The series of Eisenbart poems all focus on Eisenbart dealing with situations beyond his powers of scientific knowledge. These are areas of life that he cannot dominate and afraid to deal with and as such fiercely blocks them out of his consciousness, only to confront them in a state in which he lacks control. In Prize Giving he lacks the control over himself because he is deeply moved by the emotion and passion of music. In Panther and Peacock, it is a much more complicated process, but is centralized on the fact that while in a dream state, Eisenbart is unable to control his imaginings and confronts an area of his persona that his conscious mind conflicts with.
Eisenbart is established in Panther and Peacock as the same proud, vain and successful man as he is in Prize Giving. He clearly holds his fellow men in contempt, as seen when he walks past the 'bourgous' with his mistress watching an 'ape's gross mimicry of man,' and then later when he views 'dull coupled citizens? glutted with leisure.' He takes scorn in their forms of amusement and amuses himself that at his word 'they'll bear acerebrate hybrid monsters,' and compares his power to do so with the panther's power to 'tear their (the peacock's) feather's out.' His mistress reminds him that there are not scientific answers to all; that the masses will always be mediocre. They rest and she 'cradles his Darwinian head,' pointing out it's similarities to the 'leaf divided tissue of space and stars.' This is a very important comparison as it develops the idea that while Eisenbart may be the epitome of evolution (thus the reference to Darwin and the apes), he is still part of nature and there is still that part of his persona that is illogical and passionate, despite his conscious efforts to suppress it. In his mistress's arms he falls into a dream, in this state he confronts this part of his nature.
The dramatic situation in Panther and Peacock is very complex and widely interpretable but is one which is between Eisenbart and another aspect of his persona than that he displays consciously. When asleep Eisenbart dreams that he could nature; 'safe on his tongue the incredible formula that if spoken, would impel prodigious ruin.' Woken by his mistress, he is in a delusionary state between dream and reality; in a position where he is not able to control his thoughts. He imagines that 'feathers sprang from the sutures of his skull' and that 'his hands grew rattling quills;' He becomes not the panther, as he was when he muses over his powers of destruction, but the peacock. 'Fingerless, dewlap- jowled, bird-beaked, he screamed in silence, and was ripped awake still rooted in his dream of death.' It could be said that Eisenbart has come to a subconscious realization that he is part of the nature that he could destroy, and that to destroy it, would mean to destroy a part of him - that instinctive elemental spirit that he ignores or subdues in a conscious state. In this way it could be said that Eisenbart is both the panther (destroyer), and also be the peacock (destroyed). The fact that a dramatic situation of this nature occurred is further developed at the end of the poem when Eisenbart awakes from his dream. His mistress comforts him as they make a 'pieta' and 'feathers glistening warm with his own heartstain fell through infinite space.' This 'glistening heartstain' may be referring to Eisenbart's sweat from the nightmare, and the fact that it is from heart felt fear. That the sweat is on 'feathers' and that they are 'falling through infinite space' could be interpreted as meaning that he is but one small part of nature and is unimportant and ultimately nothing in the great process of evolution. His realization of this last point, and also the conflict he has with his untamed emotional side creates a powerful dramatic conflict.
sorry, couldnt be stuffed making a conclusion
it's not hard
just whip one up :)
