Nature As a Site of Balance and A Source of Poetic Material in Joseph Skipsey’s Poems

Year 2023, , 80 - 90, 31.10.2023

Mümin Hakkıoğlu

https://doi.org/10.29157/etusbed.1312417

Abstract

Victorian poetry, which developed under the influence of profound socio-economic transformations and in company with diverse literary voices and perspectives, includes the poems of the leading figures of the period as well as those of many little-known labouring poets from various professional groups. These poets, most of whom were self-educated, forged their literary perspectives under harsh working conditions, and although they could not write poems with high aesthetic value like the others, they reflected the world they lived in with an intense sensitivity and a sincere language. One of them was the Northumbrian collier Joseph Skipsey (1832-1903), who spent most of his life in the coal mines he entered at seven. In his poems, the traces of communal practices and cultural codes of his region are clearly seen. Even if his living in the country might evoke at first glance that Skipsey is quite close to nature, his relations with it surprisingly exist in a narrowed framework and remain within the confines of traditional narrative forms such as ballad and song. This study aims to reveal the essence of a collier poet’s relationship with nature in his poems within the socio-economic conditions of Victorian England. The main argument of the study is that Skipsey uses nature not as a glorified unity of beings, but as a site of balance and a source of poetic material he refers to in narrating individual emotions, human relations and the realities of miners’ life

Keywords

Victorian Poetry, Joseph Skipsey, Coal Mining, Collier Poet, Nature

Joseph Skipsey’nin Şiirlerinde Bir Denge Alanı ve Poetik Malzeme Kaynağı Olarak Doğa

Abstract

Derin sosyo-ekonomik dönüşümlerin etkisinde ve farklı yazınsal ses ve perspektiflerin eşliğinde gelişen Victorya dönemi şiiri, zamanın önde gelen isimlerinin yanı sıra, çeşitli meslek gruplarından adları pek duyulmamış çok sayıda işçi şairin şiirlerini de içine alır. Çoğu kendini yetiştirmiş bu şairler zorlu çalışma koşullarında yazınsal bakışlarını biçimlendirmişler, ötekiler kadar estetik değeri yüksek şiirler yazamasalar da yaşadıkları dünyayı yoğun bir duyarlılık ve içten bir dille yansıtmışlardır. Onlardan biri de yaşamının büyük bölümünü yedi yaşında girdiği kömür madenlerinde geçiren Northumberlandli kömür işçisi Joseph Skipsey (1832-1903)’dir. Onun şiirlerinde yöresinin toplumsal pratikleri ile kültürel kodlarının izleri açık biçimde görülür. Taşrada yaşaması ilk bakışta Skipsey’nin doğaya oldukça yakın durduğunu düşündürtse de onunla ilişkisi şaşırtıcı biçimde daraltılmış bir çerçevede varlık bulur ve balad ve song gibi geleneksel anlatı türlerinin sınırları içinde kalır. Bu çalışma Viktorya dönemi İngiltere’sinin sosyo-ekonomik koşullarında bir madenci şairin şiirlerinde doğa ile ilişkisinin mahiyetini ortaya koymayı amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmanın temel savı, Skipsey’nin doğayı yüceltilen bir varlıklar bütünü olarak değil, bir denge alanı ve bireysel duyguların, insan ilişkilerinin ve madencilerin yaşam gerçeklerinin anlatımında başvurduğu bir poetik malzeme kaynağı olarak kullandığıdır.

Keywords

Viktorya Dönemi Şiiri, Joseph Skipsey, Kömür Madenciliği, Madenci Şair, Doğa

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