Reading the Collections, Week 35: Douglas Dunn’s Elegies notebooks

speccoll
Wednesday 4 November 2015

Douglas Dunn published Elegies in 1985 – a collection of 39 poems written after the death of his first wife, Lesley Balfour Dunn, who died in 1981, aged 37, from melanoma of the eye. It was awarded the Whitbread Book of the Year prize. Dunn and Lesley were living in Hull at the time, where Dunn had originally been a librarian under Philip Larkin. They had no children but clearly had had an intensely loving relationship, he a poet and she a photographer. Writing out of his grief, in Elegies Dunn records not just the awfulness and yet somehow the strange beauty of their days together during her decline – from the diagnosis onwards – but also their earlier joyful times together, including living in France for a while. The poems also chart his subsequent return for a period of time to Scotland – to his birthplace in the west, then to Dundee, where he was Writer in Residence at the University for a year – and finally his departure back to his empty house in Hull.

DD photo montage_Blog
Photos from ms38640/10

I can still remember the impact Elegies made upon me when I first read it, working through it in sequence in a way I rarely read any poetry collection, transfixed and left stunned at the end.

Dunn became a Professor of English in the School of English here in St Andrews in 1991, and around the time of his retirement the Library purchased his archive – an extensive corpus of notebooks and correspondence. One of the notebooks, generally known as ‘the red notebook’, is particularly well-known – and can be read on our Digital Humanities portal. It contains several of the drafts of the poems that would eventually find publication in Elegies – and as such it is used by lecturers in the School of English to show the process of artistic composition. For this post, I looked at the red notebook but also – because it seemed to me that there were a number of poems from Elegies not shown in it – at the three notebooks from the archive which follow it chronologically.

Among the drafts of full poems are many fragments – pairs of lines or brief stanzas – which belong to poems sometimes eventually published, sometimes discarded. There are also drafts of essays, details of poetry competitions for which Dunn was a judge, story ideas, drafts of works for radio, the surprise of a recipe in one book, snatches of playscripts, and lists of the poems that would eventually be published as Elegies, with the name of the magazines in which they had appeared separately. Some entries are diary accounts (though he kept a separate diary, which is also in the archive), often unbearable as he writes plainly of his heartbreak. To read Elegies is to experience the poet’s intense personal grief in the form of art. To read the notebooks is to live alongside him, experiencing at times a terrible raw woundedness.

Many fragments find their way into finally published poems. ‘Second Opinion’ deals with the stark experience of diagnosis, and Dunn is unflinching in his description of the impact upon him of attending the hospital appointment with her. In his notebook, probably still dazed, he uses verse to record concrete details, writing about the young male doctor who gives him the news:

2015B169-ms38640-2-42_1_Blog
Blue notebook (ms38640/2/42), pp 132 and 133

Professional anxiety –

His hand on my shoulder

Showing me the door – soap,

Fingers, knuckle, and his wedding ring.

Blue notebook (ms38640/2/42), pp 132 and 133

These lines change slightly in the published version, the metre lubricated and the doctor’s fingers elaborated by a resonant metaphor:

Professional anxiety –

His hand on my shoulder

Showing me to the door, a scent of soap,

Medical fingers, and his wedding ring.

Sometimes the notebooks provide an intriguing glimpse simply into the art of poetic composition. A literary criticism exercise could, for example, ask why the poet has moved from an ABBA rhyme scheme in the draft, to ABAB in the final, published version:

Red Notebook page 117_Blog
Red notebook (ms38640/2/41), p 117

As I turn earth on it, and underground

Go song and what I feel, go common things,

Goes half my life, go eyes, instinct and wings

Into the cairn of my spade-patted mound

Red notebook (ms38640/2/41), p 117

Turning the earth on it; and underground

Go song and what I feel, go common things

Into the cairn of a shoe-patted mound,

Goes half my life, go eyes, instinct and wings

‘At the Edge of a Birchwood’

The notebooks also reveal the artifice in the arrangement of the collection. The following lines, which do not appear in any of the poems in Elegies, are written after the poet leaves Dundee where he has been renting a house (in Tayport), and returns to his empty house in Hull:

Red Notebook page 128_Blog
Red notebook (ms38640/2/41), p 128

Returning here brings sorrow back to me

And I can hardly bear to think of you

As nothingness and fragrant memory.

Red notebook (ms38640/2/41), p 128

Yet the final poem in Elegies is ‘Leaving Dundee’, and it would be hard to argue with that choice of conclusion, from an emotional perspective:

The road home trickles to a house, a door.

She spoke of what I might do “afterwards”.

“Go, somewhere else.” I went north to Dundee.

Tomorrow I won’t live here any more,

Nor leave alone. My love, say you’ll come with me.

What does it mean to have a poet’s papers available for consultation? Clearly, for a biographer, there is a wealth of detail available in the extensive archive. But anyone can ask to see these notebooks, and the experience is humbling. It is one thing to have free access to the papers of a deceased poet; quite another to have that access while the poet is still alive and very much present to us here in Scotland, but this seems to me typical of the courage which is at the heart of Dunn’s work. A quiet, modest man, Dunn is nonetheless a writer whose profound grief, transmuted into one of the most powerful and successful modern collections of poems in the English language, has been lived out fully in the public eye. How do the details of our lives – the pain, the irritations, the delusions and the joys – make sense? In the hands of an artist they can be changed into transcendent objects that inspire and help us to see and understand the world, even its terrible grief, more clearly. The papers of Douglas Dunn offer proof of that.

John MacColl

University Librarian and Director of Library Services

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31 thoughts on "Reading the Collections, Week 35: Douglas Dunn’s Elegies notebooks"

  • Alan King
    Alan King
    Wednesday 11 November 2015, 4.22am

    This is a beautiful portrait of Douglas Dunn, who I hadn't heard of until I read this post, and his process. I'm always intrigued by the artist's process of creating art. This post felt like I was reading one of Dunn's notebooks. Now, I have to check him out. Thanks again for this post. And congrats on being Freshly Pressed.

    Reply
  • shacollier
    shacollier
    Wednesday 11 November 2015, 7.40am

    Interesting

    Reply
  • ronn19xx
    ronn19xx
    Wednesday 11 November 2015, 12.17pm

    great portrait

    Reply
  • The Keen Listener
    The Keen Listener
    Wednesday 11 November 2015, 12.27pm

    Wow. I loved reading this. Very Nice !

    Reply
  • Stuart M. Perkins
    Stuart M. Perkins
    Wednesday 11 November 2015, 2.00pm

    I admit I'd never heard of Douglas Dunn before either, so thanks!

    Reply
  • ams1ad
    ams1ad
    Wednesday 11 November 2015, 2.19pm

    Very nice

    Reply
  • W E Patterson
    W E Patterson
    Wednesday 11 November 2015, 4.39pm

    Thank you for introducing me to Mr. Dunn. I am looking forward to reading more of his work.

    Reply
  • Karl Drobnic
    Karl Drobnic
    Wednesday 11 November 2015, 6.54pm

    Starke Worte. Es schmerzt mich zu lesen.

    Reply
  • Tara M
    Tara M
    Thursday 12 November 2015, 12.49am

    As a writer and poet I can appreciate this post. Wow, I wish there was more posts like this about creative writers and their actual story. Writing heals and when a poet is in the midst of grief, sadness, love, or any other emotion..exceptional writing always comes out of it. I will be looking more into this writer, he seems like a fantastic writer. He breaks the "poetry rules". We all should every now and then, if not always.

    Reply
  • thefeatheredsleep
    thefeatheredsleep
    Thursday 12 November 2015, 2.24am

    Excellent

    Reply
  • poetroyyy
    poetroyyy
    Thursday 12 November 2015, 4.12am

    Something I would appreciate is the originality of the work. I can see in the pictures, the papers are not reprinted into typed letters but handwritten script. Including all the cancellations Dunn sir makes. If it is his handwriting, one can trace his stress by the way he writes, small and condensed Its a pleasure...

    Reply
  • hiro812
    hiro812
    Thursday 12 November 2015, 5.48am

    I admit I’d never heard of Douglas Dunn before either, so thanks!

    Reply
  • bayukrisnaaji
    bayukrisnaaji
    Thursday 12 November 2015, 9.15am

    Really interesting

    Reply
  • St Andrews Special Collections
    St Andrews Special Collections
    Thursday 12 November 2015, 4.17pm

    It is fantastic to see so much appreciation for the work of Douglas Dunn. We appreciate everyone's comments on the blog. Thanks.

    Reply
  • jmpod
    jmpod
    Friday 13 November 2015, 3.39am

    Thank you for adding the photos of his notebooks. Handwriting has become such an intimate thing now. Wonderful.

    Reply
  • mwende
    mwende
    Friday 13 November 2015, 5.52am

    Poetry quenches the soul's thirst

    Reply
  • Kathryn Gray
    Kathryn Gray
    Friday 13 November 2015, 12.14pm

    This is wonderful. Huge admirer of DD – and Elegies is to be treasured. Thanks for this post.

    Reply
  • stanzapoetry
    stanzapoetry
    Friday 13 November 2015, 12.16pm

    Reblogged this on the StAnza Blog and commented: Excellent article, very well worth a read.

    Reply
  • Sharill Kaul
    Sharill Kaul
    Friday 13 November 2015, 1.05pm

    Good

    Reply
  • sagarhota92
    sagarhota92
    Friday 13 November 2015, 10.12pm

    Hey this post is reason why I'll checking out about Mr.Dunn more... Thnx pal

    Reply
  • prog chik
    prog chik
    Sunday 15 November 2015, 12.55am

    Well, you've certainly interested me in Dunn (who I haven't yet read)!

    Reply
  • emeka350
    emeka350
    Sunday 15 November 2015, 2.52am

    Outstanding!You are really talented.

    Reply
  • ewudzie
    ewudzie
    Sunday 15 November 2015, 10.28pm

    I am really impressed about the posts and keep uploading more photos

    Reply
  • kkessler833
    kkessler833
    Monday 16 November 2015, 8.14pm

    Thank you for the great post! I live with a poet.

    Reply
  • The Flying Crayon
    The Flying Crayon
    Monday 16 November 2015, 10.52pm

    Love this!

    Reply
  • Pura Ilusión by Adelina
    Pura Ilusión by Adelina
    Tuesday 17 November 2015, 1.19am

    Nice portrait! Good emphasis of his life and work! Thank you so much for sharing culture...

    Reply
  • ERIC-CHAN
    ERIC-CHAN
    Tuesday 17 November 2015, 5.56pm

    So lovely

    Reply
  • SeeHearExplore
    SeeHearExplore
    Wednesday 18 November 2015, 4.12am

    Wow, super fascinating read. Thanks for posting!

    Reply
  • Carolina Marchessi - Mariana Regueira
    Carolina Marchessi - Mariana Regueira
    Wednesday 18 November 2015, 7.12pm

    Awesome! Like it a lot

    Reply
  • KARTHIK NIMMAGADDA
    KARTHIK NIMMAGADDA
    Wednesday 16 December 2015, 7.28pm

    Very interesting piece of article.

    Reply
  • winda
    winda
    Wednesday 23 December 2015, 2.24am

    Reblogged this on My Favourite Stuffs!.

    Reply

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