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Essay on Tony Harrison: His use of language and colloquial terminology

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Introduction

Tony Harrison, one of the most famous contemporary English poets, belongs to those individuals who reject any existing language and literary standards and create their unique approaches to the portrayal of reality and people. Harrison's style of writing reflects an ambiguity of expression due to the differences in his social environment and the received education. In particular, Harrison demonstrates the tensions between colloquial language that reflects his background and Standard English that he learned at school.

Although he seems to reveal the deficiency of colloquial language in his poetry and films, he simultaneously mocks at traditional language rules received in the process of his education. Such a controversy demonstrates Harrison's inability to combine colloquial language and standard language in his poetry, as he realises the limitations of both literary and spoken languages. The aim of this essay is to analyse Tony Harrison's use of language and colloquial terminology in his works, investigating in depth such verses as The Loiners, V and A Cold Coming that are especially appropriate for the analysis of Harrison's poetic style and forms of expression. Descending from Leeds' working-class society, Harrison managed to finish Leeds Grammar School and graduate from the University of Leeds, where he mastered his knowledge in Language and Classics and formed his new ideologies taken from the writings of such famous philosophers and authors as Hoggart, Milton, Marx and Thompson. Tony Harrison spent several years at a Nigerian University and a Prague University, training students in English language and simultaneously learning regional dialects and Czech language.

Working as a teacher and a scholar, Tony Harrison started to write poetry and published his first poetic collection Earthworks in 1964, followed by The Loiners (1970). Harrison's poems demonstrate his proletarian background and his constant attempts to transform the traditional poetic forms. The poet utilises the usual sonnet form, implementing certain dialects and colloquial speech that go beyond the norms of Standard English. Harrison's poetic language is so powerful and unique that he manages to produce verse films on his poems and adapt Greek tragedies for modern theatres. As Richard Eyre (1997) puts it, "Poet and playwright are usually seen as mutually opposed roles - the poet a solitary figure answerable to no one but his own talent and conscience, the playwright a collaborator, colluding in the pragmatism and expediency of production" (p.43). However, Tony Harrison manages to successfully combine both roles and create unforgettable literary pieces of work. According to Rowland (2001), "there are clearly thematical and stylistic overlaps between the two genres [plays and poems] in Harrison's work" (p.27).

Language in Tony Harrison's films and poetry

Applying to the contrastive imperatives and sing-song assonance in his poems and films, Tony Harrison reveals his ideas on various social issues taken from his childhood and youth, while his colloquial and slang terminology points at his attempts to overcome the confined family upbringing. It was in Leeds Grammar School when Harrison began to withdraw from his parents and eliminate his former values. The poet depicts this theme in almost all pieces of his creative work through the really brusque poetic speech. For instance, in The Loiners (1970) that was rewarded with Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, Harrison demonstrates this gap between him and his parents, between his social background and the acquired education.

Loiners are native people of Leeds, the place of Harrison's birth, but simultaneously the poet compares these inhabitants with 'loners' (Crucefix, 1997, p.161), people who alienate themselves from education and other aspects of social life. The poems of this collection uncover the feelings of loss and alienation that Harrison experiences because of social ideologies that distance him from close people when he acquires different culture and ways of communication. In fact, Harrison utilises indecent expressions as subcultural pointers that reflect the poet's desire to bring up the issues of society and culture that trouble him. Tony Harrison realises that his parents will not be able to understand and accept his poetry, but, applying to colloquial speech in his poems, the poet reveals that language can either release or confine a person.

In this regard, Harrison's refined rhyming verse is based on splendid folk alliterations and dialects, revealing the poet's attempts to diversify poetic language. The poem Book Ends depicts the inability of a father and a son to talk with each other because of language differences between them. Thus, Harrison uncovers crucial social and political issues beneath his ambiguous and powerful language. As Ellmann and O'Clair (1988) put it, Harrison's poetry demonstrates "the jarring dialects of human behaviour" (p.1475). Applying to masterfully chosen words and expressions with the Yorkshire dialect, Harrison's Book Ends uncovers the issues of existence and changes. For instance, the son remembers the words of his mother who used to claim to his husband and his son that "You're like book ends, the pair of you" (Harrison, 1988, p.1480). Such an eloquent expression demonstrates the principal idea of the whole poem; although two close people are similar, they are unable to communicate with each other, because they are separated by their different education, language and way of life. After the death of Harrison's mother, their separation is aggravated even more, as the son claims, "A night you need my company to pass / and she not here to tell us we're alike! / Your life's all shattered into smithereens" (Harrison, 1988, p.1480). Book Ends reveals the tensions between the son and the father; this is especially obvious in the scene, when they discuss the words that should be written on mother's tombstone. Harrison's father appears to speak with negative emotions, applying to rough words that are characteristic to the working-class speech: "You're supposed to be the bright boy at description / and you can't them what the fuck to put!" (Harrison, 1988, p.1481). The father utilises such ways of expression, as he is not aware of other ways, but Harrison, whose language is different, refuses to maintain the negative emotions and language of his father, and he answers in a calm voice: "I've got to find the right words on my own" (Harrison, 1988, p.1481). Thus, the son makes an attempt to communicate with the father, but the son's education prevents him from understanding and supporting the father. Tony Harrison distances himself from his family, although he reveals much concern towards the working-class society. In Book Ends and other poems Harrison depicts that the conflicts between him and his parents are inspired by this working class. According to Kelleher (1996), "Harrison is a poet who opens the case of British class conflict into other geopolitical areas; and… returns a whole range of concerns that might have been considered extraneous to class politics back to class" (p.43). Harrison applies to ironic language, when he discusses the reasons for the separation of the father and the son: "what's still between's not the thirty years or so, but books, books, books" (Harrison, 1988, p.1481).

Although Harrison admires father's love towards his mother and realises that no words can really express this powerful love, he nevertheless criticises his father for his poor language that does not allow him to reveal his feelings. On the other hand, the poet feels that his knowledge and profession create a sense of alienation and loneliness in him and that language is still limited, because it is not able to embody the subtlety of human emotions and recollections. In the poem Long Distance Harrison continues to demonstrate the conflicts between the father and the son, applying to two different ways of expressions, that is, Standard English utilised by the son and Yorkshire colloquial language maintained by the father. Contrasting these languages, Tony Harrison reveals rather complex language and emotional differences between two persons. However, in the poem the son utilises one word 'Mam' that shows an implicit connection between the son and the father, because this dialect word proves that the son is unable to fully reject his social background and continues to utilise colloquial speech. This small word brings two different personalities together, even though they are unable to come to terms with each other. Harrison's poem Them & [uz] written in the form of a traditional sonnet but with the specific regional pronunciation of words proceeds with the discussion of language, although to a different extent, as the poem uncovers Harrison's criticism of the strict linguistic language patterns taught in the Grammar School.

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