A Poetic Rattle Bag

By : Klaus Rifbjerg

But to take things in their proper order, let us look first of all at the poem I have dared to keep till last: "At Memphis Station". I would go so far as to say that this is a poem that changed my life. The first time I came across it was in high school, in Falkenstjerne and Borup Jensen’s literary anthology, and I suppose I must have thought it was "good", but then when it comes to literary studies one always has this innate sense that everything contained in the set books is, in a manner of speaking, history and hence cannot be of any great personal relevance - the structure of this particular poem was inhibiting and out of touch with modern European poetry; immersed as I was in the chill metaphysical mists of the Forties, doubtless it seemed "old-fashioned".

Even so, something about it must have struck a chord, because I went back to it again. And with the benefit of hindsight I can see what it was that penetrated the various levels of consciousness to resound in that chamber where great, intangible experiences are born. But for heavens sake, the poem is pure cinema! Here we have a description of a modern, cinematic version of reality; an ambiguous world, suspended between bitter-sweet, romantic arrogance and a tremulous sense of defeat, evasion, inadequacy. There, now I’ve already used the term modern, and every time I catch myself writing that word I feel like pulling off my hand, because it is so nondescript, so vague and meaningless. But allow me to use it just once more: I believe that Johannes V. Jensen’s poem "At Memphis Station" is one of the few truly modern poems in Danish literature, and I will now try to explain what I mean by this.

First and foremost, what makes this poem so much of our time is its standpoint; that and its response to inanimate objects. In a nutshell, what "At Memphis Station" is saying is that existence, life, is at one and the same time unbearable and wonderful. It sounds banal, but the poem expresses this feeling with such powerful immediacy, both on the positive and the negative counts, that one is left with a rich impression of unequivocal inspiration, of a lust for life. Then if we look at the objects, the props: unlike the primitive, naïve illustrations in volumes with such titles as The Book of Inventions or the Illustrated Times ... in which one could read ecstatic – but romanticized and superficial - reports of the very latest advances in science and technology, Johannes V. Jensen succeeds in consigning "candy machines" to the realms of his misanthropic contempt, while "the engine" fills the role both of mighty and patient laggard, and of deliverer. Mechanical objects become animated, i.e. imbued with spirit; the modern age has found its living symbols.

Again, when I use the word "cinematic" it is in an effort to describe the ambiguity inherent in the poem; an ambiguity also found in film which, while intent on presenting a character, is forever switching to the subjective viewpoint, seeing the world through the character’s eyes. The poet himself keeps hopping in and out of the poem, describing a situation in dramatic, here-and-now terms, while at the same time philosophizing on life as it pertains to the past and the future. It progresses from a wretched and forlorn "I" ("I stand here, my teeth chattering / at Memphis Station, Tennessee") by way of an exhortative "you" ("Now compose yourself, you implacable man!") to a consoling "we" ("And we travel on / through the flooded forests / under the gaping sluices of the rain."); a progression that could be said to resemble the open-handedness of the cinematic form, which presents us, as it were, with a complete picture; offering a host of clear, common symbols that encapsulate our ostensible outlook on life. And, more than any other art form, it involves the collective, the audience’s "we".

To put it more simply: Jensen’s poem opens the door onto a poetic subject matter which had had to stand waiting in the wings until 1906, and which was, to some extent, kicked off-stage again – by that same Johannes V. Jensen, among others. In an age of continued uncertainty, the complaint is often made that poetry is mainly preoccupied with the seamy side of life and that so many extraneous elements have been introduced into it that these days it can hardly be described as "poetry". I am happy to pass the buck to Jensen, believing as I do that, simply by opening up the poetical sphere of operations, he has rendered poetry richer, more realistic, and, dare I say it: more popular.

Extract from the article "Den poetiske pungbrok" in Bo Elbrønd-Bek & Aage Jørgensen (ed.): Jordens elsker - synspunkter på Johannes V. Jensen, Akademisk forlag, 1989.

Translated by Barbara Haveland