Isaac Rosenberg - Break of Day in the Trenches

[Sofie]

Break of Day in the Trenches

The darkness crumbles away
It is the same old druid Time as ever,
Only a live thing leaps my hand,
A queer sardonic rat,
As I pull the parapet's poppy
To stick behind my ear.
Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew
Your cosmopolitan sympathies,
Now you have touched this English hand
You will do the same to a German
Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure
To cross the sleeping green between.
It seems you inwardly grin as you pass
Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes,
Less chanced than you for life,
Bonds to the whims of murder,
Sprawled in the bowels of the earth,
The torn fields of France.
What do you see in our eyes
At the shrieking iron and flame
Hurled through still heavens?
What quaver -what heart aghast?
Poppies whose roots are in men's veins
Drop, and are ever dropping;
But mine in my ear is safe,
Just a little white with the dust.

Isaac Rosenberg


The poet, Isaac Rosenberg, is imagining things for himself but he
especially addresses himself to the rats. Here, Isaac Rosenberg is
telling us about the situation of living in the trenches. The poet has
the intention to learn us things about all this and tells us, the rats
are the winners of everything.
The rats are cosmopolitan sympathies, because they are all over the
world. You can find rats everywhere, especially in times of war. They
are real profit takers. They eat everything, even human beings. Rats
aren’t critical; they eat English man, but also German soldiers.
A rat has always a specific grin on his face, like they are always
laughing at you.
Most soldiers are very strong (they have fine limbs and strong eyes)
and are well educated. But nevertheless, the rats are the real winners
of war. Death people (so also their bowels) are spread all over the
world. The people who survive are very afraid of all those rats.
This poem still appeals to readers of today. Now, every time there is
war in the world and rats are still everywhere.
Especially in places where they can find a lot of food. Rats are
dirty, they carry diseases an there are billions of them in the world.
This poem is so good because the theme is still according to the days
now, to wartime, to poverty…
But do you think it’s really a never-ending problem?

Sofie Maertens

[klaartje]

Hello Sofie

I think rats will always exist. At least, as long as there is dirt,
war, rain-pipes and so one. And if all this things won't exist
anymore, rats will find other things to live of. Rats are no weak
animals, they are small but somehow they always survive, even despite
of all those eradicators.
Also poverty will never disappear I think. The gap between the rich
and the poor still grows, it will be very difficult to make it
smaller. As long as the rich have all the means, and the poor have to
fight to survive, things will be the same. Money sometimes means
power, so they can decide things in their own advantage. They have a
good life, so why would they help the poor? Of course it's not a good
mentality, but I think it still exists somehow, and we can only hope
that it disappears, and that the poor get some better chances to
improve their life.
Wartime will not disappear immediately too. I don't think we will have
a new world war, or not a war from man to man. The trenches, that's
the past. Now they can fight from America to Russia without seeing
each other, but of course there will still be a lot of victims in case
of a new war.
Kind regards
Klaartje

[Thijs]

Hi Sofie,

I also think that rats and the misery they accompagny is not
likely to cease to exist. As long as there is food left rats will
survive, and as long as there's war, there will be encounters
between man and rat. And as we all know, war is not likely to
dissapear from this world. At least, not until all humans have
found a way to peacefully live besides one another. On top of
that, the diseases rats spread on the battlefield will survive too.
So, rats are disgusting beings indeed, and they will be around
for a long time.

sincerly,

Thijs B.

[Jus10]

Dear Sofie,

I agree with Klaartje and Thijs. Rats can't disappear completely.
They are at places full of dirt and those won't disappear at all.
Those places take rats with them.
Especially at war times they are everywhere. Then it's a real plague.
Soldiers couldn't sleep very well, because of the rats. Their food is
stolen
by them etc.
It is a nice image of the author to create a certain view on the war
and the living of the soldiers in the trenches.
I hope I could help you!

Kind regards,
Justine

On 11 feb, 14:06, Sofie <sofie.maert...@hotmail.com> wrote:

[private_21.5]

Hi Sofie,
to me, war and rats have a common negative characteristic: they won't
stop existing in the first threehundred years. Rats are very good
survivors and resilient to lots of diseases. They can also be
dangerous and some of them are even smart enough to realise it. They
also quickly lose fear of men and know that they can always find food
around us. Especially because of that we won't get rid of them soon. I
don't think that they will live 'till the end of times but they do now
very good to take care of themselves. The creatures will be a part of
human cultures for many years from now. Thank God for ratkillers like
Jack Russels and cats I'd say. :)
Greetings,

Ruben

On 11 feb, 13:06, Sofie <sofie.maert...@hotmail.com> wrote:

[DJ]

One feature of Rosenberg's poems is their ability to be read at
several levels. The lines;

"Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew
Your cosmopolitan sympathies, "

Appear to refer to the Germanophobia that was being whipped up by
vermin like LJ Maxse in the pro-war section of the British press.

Then we have his reference to the poppy. Quite unlike that of John
McCrae

"Poppies whose roots are in men's veins
Drop, and are ever dropping;
But mine in my ear is safe,
Just a little white with the dust. "

On 19 Feb, 14:28, "private_21.5" <ruben.deblauwe...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

> > Sofie Maertens- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Stuart]

On Feb 19, 3:01 pm, DJ <DJDJ...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> One feature of Rosenberg's poems is their ability to be read at
> several levels. The lines;
>
> "Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew
> Your cosmopolitan sympathies, "
>
> Appear to refer to the Germanophobia that was being whipped up by
> vermin like LJ Maxse in the pro-war section of the British press.

Really? How do you support this? I appreciate that Maxse and the
'National Review' would have been well-known but is there a reference
somewhere by Rosenberg stating that this was definitely what he had in
mind? There may be and I just don't know about it, in which case fair
enough.

I always assumed this was a much more simple comment by Rosenberg. The
rat has touched both a German and English hand, it has 'cosmopolitan
sympathies' therefore - i.e. it is 'not restricted to any one country'
and has an affinity or relationship to the two. He is observing that
it can cross no-man's land, and merrily does so, "fraternising" with
both German and English alike. It was an offence punishable by death,
you may recall, to 'treacherously communicate with or in any way
assist the enemy' and it could even by an ironic reference to
desertion (again punishable by death).

Stuart

[DJ]

Stuart

This is not to deny your 'reading' of the poem.

That there are a multiplicity of readings is my point.

But Rosenberg had experienced similar denunciations before the war
broke out. Joe Leftwitch's Diary records the fear felt in the East End
after Sydney Street.

The printer of "Youth" was later raided by Special Branch. Roisenberg
was in contact with RC Trevelyan, the pacifist. and Sonia Rodker.

It would have been nearly impossible for him not to know of Maxse and
his antics...

[Stuart Lee]

DJ,

With respect that's not the point. Your analysis stated '[This would] appear to refer to ...' with a direct reference to those lines. In the case where it is explicit in a poem, there can be no argument (e.g. the poet cites a previous poem or other text - so Dennis Enright's 'To a War Poet' is clearly a comment on 'Break of Day ...'). However, where there is nothing so explicit and a simple explanation can be provided then evidence needs to be produced to substantiate another point. OK don't ever tell that to the Shakespearian scholars or they would be out of the job ... 

I do not dispute anything you say about what Rosenberg knew or experienced, but it strikes me that to then overlay that onto these lines is falling into the common trap of literary criticism - seeing what we want to see based on our own interests. I'm not saying your wrong, just that to substantiate the link requires more evidence.

Regardless, the great thing about WW1 poetry is that it leads you into all kinds of areas of interesting discussion. There are so many vibrant networks that overlapped in that part of the century that you can find yourself suddenly going off into very interesting and undiscovered avenues. For example, engaging with this I've now been forced to go back and look at Maxse in more detail! Not a pleasant task.

I don't suppose you'd be interested in expanding the mind-map of relationships would you to include the pacifist movements? Maybe at the workshop?

Stuart

*********************

Dr Stuart D Lee

Director, Computing Systems & Services (OUCS)

Reader in E-learning and Digital Libraries

Member of the English Faculty, and Merton College

Oxford University Computing  Services, 13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN

------------------------------------------------------

E-mail: Stuar...@oucs.ox.ac.uk; Tel: +44 1865 283403; Fax: +44 1865

273275; URLs: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/

------------------------------------------------------

[DJ]

Stuart

I understand what you are saying.

But for me the key word is "cosmopolitan" the sort of language used
to describe Haldane.

And I always regard Rosenberg's poems as patchworks of his thoughts.

"Break of Day" as you know contains material from a slighly earlier
work sent to Sonia Rodker

So I dont think I am stretching things too far to assume Rosenberg, at
that moment in the poem may have had several images in his mind.

At the time he was worried about John Rodker's imprisonment [Letter
to Trevelyan June 15]

Therefore would also have been aware of the vilification of CO's by
the likes of Maxse.

Of course I would be only too pleased to add the pacifists to your
'mind maps'

I warn you though, the left is a complex thing...never more so than in
those pre CPGB days.......

> E-mail: Stuart....@oucs.ox.ac.uk; Tel: +44 1865 283403; Fax: +44 1865
> 273275; URLs:http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/
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