Page 38 - Studio International - February 1969

Ian Hamilton Finlay—the structure sandblasted blue plate glass
Wave/rock 1966
Photo: Patrick Eagar
of a poetic universe 2
Fisherman's cross 1968
granite carving by Allan & Sons
Photo: R. L. Williamson
3
The clouds anchor,
Stephen Bann marble carving by Allan & Sons
Photo: R. L. Williamson

In a volume of short stories published in 1958, tural models which transcend the various to the separate contexts of the tree and the
Ian Hamilton Finlay included a piece entitled media. fishing boat. In the last couplet— star/star — the
`The Boy and the Guess'. The boy in question Two very different works which stand roughly formal repetition is transposed into a diverg-
is challenged by the narrator to answer what between the publication of the short stories and ence between star (in relation to bow) and star
is not precisely a riddle—at least 'not a riddle the present time help to illustrate this prin- (in relation to bough). The basic sea/land
that rhymes'. He is to guess what the narrator ciple. The poster-poem Le Circus, which dates polarity is enriched by sky/land and sky/sea
is thinking of when he refers to certain charac- from the end of 1964, is a restatement of the relationships.
teristic occupants of the sea which lies in front parallel which was made in 'The Boy and the Although the three examples which have al-
of them as 'like a string of sturdy little hill Guess'. The fishing boat, presented in the guise ready been quoted form a very small propor-
ponies hobbled there, tied together nose to tail, of its registration sign—K 47—is identified with tion of Finlay's total output between 1958 and
and all, as it were, nibbling at the grass below the circus pony, the hoop through which the 1965, the polarities, or binary oppositions,
a high dyke'. By the end of the story, the boy pony jumps with the rainbow which the boat which are revealed in them reappear con-
has given up. But we are left in no doubt as to sails beneath, and the red and green blinkers stantly in his work. In fact it is one of the main
the right answer. The parallel is between the of the pony with the port and starboard lights contentions of this article that Finlay's devel-
pony and the particular fishing boat which of the ship. It is, of course, crucial to note that opment as a poet can, and perhaps should, be
makes its entry at various points in the story in this poster-poem the parallel is established seen in terms of binary oppositions such as
and is finally seen 'skipping away' out to the directly, by the actual juxtaposition of the key these. The reference to his 'poetic universe' can
open sea. words, rather than through the circuitous ploy only be justified in this way, since it is the dis-
This short episode illustrates an aspect of Fin- of the guessing game. tinctive mark of such a universe that it should
lay's creative temperament which is far from Finlay's Column poem, which was exhibited be plotted out in terms of certain constant pat-
being confined to his early work in prose. A for the first time in 1965, illustrates this tech- terns of signs, which are both internally co-
theme which runs through the whole of his nique of simple juxtaposition even more con- herent and consistent in their reference to the
career is the need to establish analogies be- cisely. The text consists of four pairs of words, outside world. Finlay is an artist and not a
tween certain objects, and groups of objects, three of which are repetitious. The remaining systematic thinker, and for this reason he is not
which belong to totally different contexts. pair of words, which occurs third in the se- concerned with revealing these patterns in all
Each interrelated system is seen in terms of the quence, is 'bow/bough' — a combination of their detailed implications. He indicates the
other. Though it may seem perverse that this words which differ in meaning and ortho- presence of the paradigm system by a use of
consideration of a poet in an arts magazine graphy but are identical in sound. Finlay's aim language that is rigorously selective. The critic
should commence with details of a short story, in this poem is to establish just as suggestive a must therefore take into account the wide
it should serve to emphasize from the outset parallel between sea and land as in the Circus degree of inference which the slightest—or
that traditional divisions of media are almost poem. But in this case it is only through the apparently slight—work may possess.
irrelevant in this connection. The path by reader's appreciation of the semantic diverg- If we pass from the column poem of 1965 to
which Finlay's poetic universe has been con- ence between bow and bough that the remain- Finlay's first glass poem, completed in 1966,
structed can be retraced only through struc- ing couplets—wind/wind etc. — can be allotted we find that the parallel between sea and land