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A comparison of the two poems, "The Isles of Scilly" and "At the British War Cemetery, Bayeux"
The two poems express grieving for the dead, and both use similar language in some respects in their use of metaphors and language and are very emotional in their content in order to convey the feeling of grief for the large numbers of dead appropriately. Curiously, for two such emotional poems, they both bear very nonchalant and almost clinical titles, both simply naming the place that the poem is about which clearly in no way indicates the emotional content of the poem, seemingly fulfilling no real purpose other than to be strangely ironic.
In At the British war cemetery, Bayeux, Charles Causley writes about the ‘five thousand’ dead, buried at the cemetery that the title indicates. The poem has a very ordered structure echoing the structured and orderly lines upon lines of graves and gravestones at a war cemetery supported later by referring to the dead as in ‘geometry’ of sleep. Grigson’s poem, however, is much less straightforward and uses a combination of enjambment and a general feeling of unorderliness in his layout of the poem to convey the feeling of untidiness about the weatherworn and shipwreck-scattered shores of the Scilly Isles.
Causley writes in first person, speaking, presumably as himself about his experience at the war cemetery in Bayeux. It has clearly had a profound impact on him and makes sure that he is writing about the dead themselves, referring to the graves as not just graves but ‘their…graves’. He suggests that he feels guilty walking among them as a living person, because he has got life while they have not. He considers life as a possession that one can own and even give as a gift if he so wanted. In a biblical reference, he compares himself to Jesus walking among the five thousand, (which is, of course the number of dead he claims are buried there at the start of the poem) and holds the bread and fish from them in ‘iron hands’. He is unable to distribute his gift, life, as Jesus was able to distribute the bread and fish among the five thousand in the bible, and he feels guilt for this.
He notices that the graves are under fir and chestnut trees, as well as being among lavender and marguerite; both typically English plants which ‘forge’ for him a sky which he considers to be English as beneath it everything is so English in essence.
The feeling that when he speaks, he is addressing the dead themselves is confirmed when he asks them to ‘turn now’ and rise to read their ‘rank of snow’ on their own tombstone, referring to the graves’ snow-like appearance on the ground when viewing such a large number of the smart white tombstones.
Before leaving, the idea of his apparent guilt for having what the dead have not is revived when in the penultimate stanza he asks directly if he can bring them a gift [next page]