Dipped back into poetry for a spell. What started as a uni task turned into something that inspired a full story…

Some of you may have come here by way of Instagram or Facebook, and if that’s the case, then great! Either way, you probably know I’m not normally one for poetry. I was once upon a time, when it was the only real creative writing you got to do in school. But after GCSE English, I was so focused on writing the Berylford books (plus I didn’t do English Literature at A-Level), my love and competence for poetry just vanished. Until now, where I present something I’m calling A Modern Wasteland.

A few weeks ago, as part of my Masters, I was required to read T.S. Eliot’s famous The Waste Land. To sum up a rather complex and important Modernist piece, it is a 434-line blending of various episodes of British society, cultural references and different languages. Furthermore, it is broken up into five sections, each with their own tones, narrators, themes and so on. I do actually urge poetry lovers to give it a go. Its deeper meanings might not be clear from the outset, but isn’t that half the fun? Anyway, we were asked to write versions of our own. And after writing the first segment GIVE NOT WHAT IS HOLY TO DOGS, I enjoyed it so much (and the feedback received), I decided to finish the remaining three.

A MODERN WASTELAND

I. GIVE NOT WHAT IS HOLY TO DOGS

Herein lies the lesson

That my father confirmed upon me

That no solace may be taken

In hapless acts of generosity

With the landscape mired in vagrancy

Aggressive begging and

The self-righteous shouting after

The lords and ladies of the land

Who oblige them with little less

Than the silent contempt they deem them due

But never resort to rehome their coins

Stay cold as they pass through.

Are there no prisons? No poorhouses?

The homeless should go there.

If they’d rather die, they’d better do it:

Their fate’s their own affair.

Confer upon them no funds:

No shilling, penny, or pound

For honour is rare in their intentions

Booze and drugs are what’s to be found.

Admittedly, not too many cultural references in there. Two, to be frank, and one is in the title of the segment. Give Not What is Holy to Dogs comes from The Sermon on the Mount — the only part of it that I actually know. And so the three lines that follow it form the titles for the succeeding segments of this poem. The other reference some may know if you’re big fans of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Three lines in there that are quite applicable to the attitudes towards the poor and homeless in the UK.

FUTURE

I’m likely to publish the remaining parts on my channels in due course. But the best thing to come out of this, apart from a renewed interest in poetry, is the decision to expand the entire storyline into a prose piece. More likely a short story or novel, rather than a Berylford Scandal-length novel. Tentatively titled Ode of a Godless Man, I may begin work on that in and around my continuation of You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic, and the projects I’ve committed to for uni.

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“One for the scholars”, a phrase that will appear in Sin & Secrecy, is in fact a passing tribute to a group of old friends of mine, many of whom are pictured here.

As I do my last wave of final checks on the new book, I’ve been taking the time to chuck in a few hidden extras. A little bit of fun for those who know what to look for…

People like stories with messages behind them. I personally enjoy ones that aren’t necessarily there to teach a lesson or to represent the author’s inner feelings (we had a few examples of those in a post earlier in the month), but instead offer subtle allusions and homages to other work, or have inside jokes for the analytical readers to smoke out.

The upcoming second instalment to The Berylford Scandals series – Sin & Secrecy – has a couple of such Easter Eggs in it, including use of the phrase, “One for the scholars” – a little tribute to some very good old friends of mine, to whom the book is dedicated. In addition, I have drawn intentional parallels between the family of Abel Stirkwhistle and my own – in that Abel has one sister and nine first cousins, same as me (though I like to think we’re a lot nicer bunch of people!) I’ve also thrown in a couple of subtle references to Bleak House, A Christmas Carol, Shakespeare’s Richard III and Poe’s The Raven – if you plan on buying the book, I’d love to see if you can find them!

There are very few deliberate allusions to speak of in Lust & Liberty beyond the full name of the main setting – Berylford St. Barbara, and its pub, The St. Barbara’s Arms. These, of course, are passing tribute to my grandmother. A little homage to one of my favourite short stories, The Snow Child by Angela Carter makes its way in there, and scenes towards the end and the fate of the one of the characters is partly inspired by Puccini’s opera Tosca.

But surely I’m not the only one who does this. Of course not! Here are a few allusions, inside jokes and Easter Eggs that made their way into some famous works of literature.

1. Lewis Carroll’s Last Tribute to Alice

At the end of Through the Looking-Glass, the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll included an acrostic poem entitled A boat beneath a starry sky. The acrostic spells out Alice Pleasance Liddell, the girl after whom Carroll’s Alice was named. Carroll’s relationship with Liddell, whom he knew when she was a child, is the subject of some mystery and controversy – a lot of which considers the idea that Carroll had a paedophilic infatuation to Alice and her sisters. The Liddell family’s friendship with Carroll did come to an end in 1863 and the reasons for the rift have been left unexplained. One for the scholars, I think…

2. Tolkien’s Special Title Page

J.R.R. Tolkien was a great lover of words and language as is fairly common knowledge. Hence the numerous ones he constructed himself for his Middle Earth legendarium. But the languages and the writing systems he designed offer more than the authentic feel of being transported to another world. They also made their way into a little Easter Egg on the original title page of The Fellowship of the Ring. Some hardcore fans made it their business to know what the pretty writing actually says, and translated it as follows: “The Lord of the Rings translated from the Red Book of Westmarch by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Herein is set forth the history of the War of the Ring and the Return of the King as seen by the Hobbits.”

3. It Leads to Misery

Any Stephen King fans out there? Eagle-eyed ones among you might have sniffed out the link between two of his most famous stories — It, published in 1986, and Misery, which came out the following year. One of the children tormented by Pennywise in It just happens to be the next-door neighbour to the family of Paul Sheldon, the unfortunate protagonist of Misery. 

4. The Recurring Cruttwell

Evelyn Waugh’s work often featured characters named Cruttwell – never the exact same one, though they are always absurd or dishonest. And this is a scathing back-handed tribute to his old tutor at Hertford College, Oxford — C.R.M.F. Cruttwell. The characters continued to appear in Waugh’s work until the real-life Cruttwell’s late-life mental illness and subsequent death.

Kingsley Amis did a similar thing with his work, in which featured characters called Caton. They were named after Amis’ publisher R.A. Caton, and again this was done as more of a mild revenge than as a compliment. Amis believed that his first book of poetry, which Caton published, was not promoted properly. The character Caton in Amis’ 1966 novel The Anti-Death League dies in the novel, and the name does not appear thereafter.

Got any other examples of allusions, Easter Eggs and inside jokes you’ve found in your favourite books? Why not let me know in the comments? For more author news and views, my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages are here.