Notes on 'Childhood' by Edwin Muir (Brown & Gibson)

1. Childhood
Long time he lay upon the sunny hill,
To his father's house below securely bound.
Far off the silent, changing sound was still,
With the black islands lying thick around.
He saw each separate height, each vaguer hue, 5
Where the massed islands rolled in mist away,
And though all ran together in his view
He knew that unseen straits between them lay.
Often he wondered what new shores were there.
In thought he saw the still light on the sand, 10
The shallow water clear in tranquil air,
And walked through it in joy from strand to strand.
Over the sound a ship so slow would pass
That in the black hill's gloom it seemed to lie.
The evening sound was smooth like sunken glass, 15
And time seemed finished ere the ship passed by.
Grey tiny rocks slept round him where he lay,
Moveless as they, more still as evening came,
The grasses threw straight shadows far away,
And from the house his mother called his name. 20
1

2. http://www.visitorkney.com/rousay/index.asp
occasionalreview.blogspot.com
northwald.co.uk
2

3. His childhood in remote and unspoiled Orkney represented an idyllic Eden to Muir, while his family's
move to the city corresponded in his mind to a deeply disturbing encounter with the "fallen" world.
The emotional tensions of that dichotomy shaped much of his work and deeply influenced his life.
His psychological distress led him to undergo Jungian analysis in London. A vision in which he
witnessed the creation strengthened the Edenic myth in his mind, leading him to see his life and
career as the working‐out of an archetypal fable. In his Autobiography he wrote, "the life of every
man is an endlessly repeated performance of the life of man...". He also expressed his feeling that
our deeds on earth constitute "a myth which we act almost without knowing it." Alienation,
paradox, the existential dyads of good and evil, life and death, love and hate, and images of
journeys, labyrinths, time and places fill his work.
His Scott and Scotland advanced the claim that Scotland can only create a national literature by
writing in English, an opinion which placed him in direct opposition to the Lallans movement of
Hugh MacDiarmid. He had little sympathy for Scottish nationalism. In 1965 a volume of his selected
poetry was edited and introduced by T. S. Eliot. Many of Edwin and Willa Muir's translations of
German novels are still in print.
The following quotation expresses the basic existential dilemma of Edwin Muir's life:
"I was born before the Industrial Revolution, and am now about two hundred years old. But I have
skipped a hundred and fifty of them. I was really born in 1737, and till I was fourteen no time‐
accidents happened to me. Then in 1751 I set out from Orkney for Glasgow. When I arrived I found
that it was not 1751, but 1901, and that a hundred and fifty years had been burned up in my two
day's journey. But I myself was still in 1751, and remained there for a long time. All my life since I
have been trying to overhaul that invisible leeway. No wonder I am obsessed with Time." (Extract
from Diary 1937‐39.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Muir
3

4. Responding to the poem
Stanza 1
Long time he lay upon the sunny hill,
To his father's house below securely bound.
Far off the silent, changing sound was still,
With the black islands lying thick around.
Important notes:
4

5. Imagery
Long time he lay upon the sunny hill,
To his father's house below securely bound.
Far off the silent, changing sound was still,
With the black islands lying thick around.
5

6. He saw each separate height, each vaguer hue, 5
Where the massed islands rolled in mist away,
And though all ran together in his view
He knew that unseen straits between them lay.
6

7. Often he wondered what new shores were there.
In thought he saw the still light on the sand, 10
The shallow water clear in tranquil air,
And walked through it in joy from strand to strand.
7

8. Over the sound a ship so slow would pass
That in the black hill's gloom it seemed to lie.
The evening sound was smooth like sunken glass, 15
And time seemed finished ere the ship passed by.
Setting
'Sound'­­ a body of water (more on this later)
'evening'­­ day ending?
8

9. Final note on stanza 4
­ We had a hint that the menace was still far off in line 13­­the long vowels in
'so slow' emphasise the ship's inability to affect the boy at present. Even time
seems to stand still as it passes­­as if it belongs to another time zone than his
own. The ship passes him by... suggesting his growing awareness of the
world of adulthood, but that it isn't his 'time' yet.
9

10. Grey tiny rocks slept round him where he lay,
Moveless as they, more still as evening came,
The grasses threw straight shadows far away,
And from his house his mother called his name. 20
Setting:
­ 'grey tiny rocks slept round him', 'grasses threw straight shadows',
­ the landscape appears to provide further protection­­there is an atmosphere of
peace
­ personification: sleeping rocks
Mood:
Serene­­the threatening ship has passed by
Evidence: 'rocks slept', 'moveless'
Mentioning the child's father (line 2) and mother (line 20) gives the sense that
they 'enclose' the whole poem (frame), which is concerned with the child,
embracing him, giving a sense of unity in the family, echoed by the unity and
harmony of the landscape.
In the final line of the poem, the repetition of 'his' in 'his house, his mother... his name'
stresses that he really belongs to this place, with these people. Calling his name
emphasises this.
10

11. The whole poem
So far we've looked at elements of Analysis. Before we go on to Evaluation, we'll look
at your basic understanding of the poem.
Check your Understanding:
The situation:
­ Child lies on a hillside near his home during a long afternoon,
viewing the familiar landscape.
­ imagines what the outside world will be like
­ a ship passes in the bay, from that world
­ evening comes, and his mother calls him in
­ opposing impressions: sunny/gloom, below/far off, saw/unseen
Themes:
­ childhood­­main theme, introduced in title and stanza 1
­ sense of unity with earth/landscape/Nature, introduced stanza 1
­ sense of belonging to a place and our past
11

12. Summary of points of analysis
Setting:
­ General feeling of harmony with the landscape, timelessness,
eternity
­ suggests the pureness of the child's view, uncontaminated by
experience, memory or association
­ Sense of unity with landscape:
­ 'he lay upon the hill' ­­ at one with the earth beneath him
­ 'in thought he saw...strand' ­­fills his imagination with joy
­ 'grey tiny rocks...' the rocks are tiny and sleeping, not threatening,
but surrounding, protecting him , like siblings or a litter of puppies­­
image of security.
­ 'moveless...' he is as one of the rocks
­ Attention to detail in the landscape suggests the fresh view of the
child, regarding his surroundings with the interest of childhood, as if
seeing things for the first time.
12

13. Setting cont'd
­ the structure of the poem emphasises the mixing of the moods,
with the menacing lines from 7­14 firmly enclosed by the serenity of
the first stanza and the section from line 15 to the end. The very
surreal passage (10­12) is bang in the middle. So we have
alternating peace/menace/dream/menace/peace. BALANCE!
­ The underlying mood of menace serves to make the child's
innocent feelings of peace and security the more poignant. It can't
touch him, but the future is out there waiting for him.
­ reminds us that the poem is written by an adult looking back to his
childhood, with the experience of adulthood and the world beyond
the tiny, idyllic island of Wyre (remember this is a REAL setting_
13

14. Poetic Form
­ Regular: four­line stanzas­­supports ideas of harmony between
Nature and man, and the security of the state of childhood
­ iambic pentameter occasionally slowed down with two strong
stresses at the start of the line, e.g. line 1: Long time...
­ Rhyme pattern abab: note the variation 'view' at end of line 17,
echoed at start of line 18 'he knew'­­supports sens of unity in family
and landscape.
14

15. Literary form
­ influence of ballad form:
word order: 'long time he lay', 'rolled in mist away'
(inversion, as you spotted earlier)
lexical choice (fancy way of saying word choice):
'ere', 'strand'
­ language in Orkney is at times archaic, retaining words and forms
from the 17th century.
­ gives sense of ancestry, generations stretching back from this
small boy, increases sense of belonging
­ Simple form fits the theme of uncomplicated, secure
childhood, and bare landscape
15