Malcolm Essay

— The Corvey Poets Project at the University of Nebraska —

British Poetry of the later Eighteenth and Earlier Nineteenth Centuries

Bibliographical and Contextual Apparatus

Malcolm, John.

Scenes of War and Other Poems. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1828. Pp. xi + 191.

Descriptive Essay

If I were to choose poetry with which to compare John Malcolm's works, it would not be the poetry of the Romantics or Victorians. Rather, it would be that of the soldier-poets of World War I. Stylistically, Malcolm is no Wilfred Owen or Siegfried Sassoon (or even Rudyard Kipling), yet the themes he deals with most powerfully foreshadow them. A war poet, Malcolm does not beat the war drum. Rather, he wrestles with the cold comfort of "glorious" death, with the reverse culture shock upon returning home, and with loneliness. This is not to say that he is only a war poet. Though much of this collection emerged from Malcolm's experiences during the Napoleonic wars, fourteen years had passed between his regiment's return to Scotland and the publication of these poems — fourteen years of life and love in peace which is also reflected in this collection, particularly towards the end. However, war is a strand threaded throughout Scenes.

Unlike Owen, Malcolm never vividly paints bloody pictures, but he does question the virtue of glory. The first section of the volume, the scenes from war, all deal with issues of glory, death, and individual dignity in war. The opening poem, "The Campaign" (1-34) rambles a bit from England, through Spain and France, and it mixes homesickness and metaphysics until the main character dies. The other characters watch a rather powerful funeral scene and, as they journey home, their joy of return is tempered by the knowledge of those left behind. Except for the funeral, this poem would be practically worthless without the notes supplied by the author at the end. There, he states more plainly how gruesome war is, quoting from New Monthly Magazine (36) and clarifying in the final note that the battle was pointless — Napoleon had surrendered six days earlier, but the post had been held up and word hadn't arrived (37). These notes add a layer of authorial intent and anti-war sentiment not at first clear in the poem itself.

Forgetfulness figures significantly in the horror of war. In "The Dying Soldier" (46-48), a warrior has fallen on the field of battle with no one to assist him. Back home, the nation rejoices at their victory, while only his crying widow (and not even his children) understands the price of that victory. In "The Soldier's Funeral" (53-56) friends try to comfort the mourners, suggesting they try to forget their loved one or think about the glory of his death. In the end, they find no way to deal with the death; even tears are "in vain" (55). A sort of comfort is found in "Scene After Battle." Here we see the soldiers bury their dead sadly and then drink to forget about it until only thoughts of vain glory fills their dreams:
          He sinks into that sweet repose
          The weary bosom only knows,
          To dream perchance of future fame,
          Whose promise is a deathless name
          Her fond adorers ne'er shall hear;
          It falls upon a heedless ear,
          Sealed in that sleep, which, ere it wake,
          Another trump than hers must break;
          Whose gifts are but an early doom,
          A tear, a trophy, and a tomb. (45)
"Another trump" is most likely a Biblical reference, meaning that it is not the trump of glory but the trump of God alone that can reanimate.

Interestingly, Malcolm doesn't place blame — these poems are devoid of true villains. The leaders, enemies, and God are all treated sympathetically. War is evil, but those engaged in it are good. For example, in "The Deserter" (49-52), the condemned man thinks of all the experiences and sensations he will miss in life, but blames no one for his impending death. The firing squad is composed of his friends, shaking and saddened because of the duty that has befallen them through drawn straws. These are good people in a bad situation, and war alone bears the guilt.

The second section of the book, the "miscellaneous poems," seems more mature and sullen. Many of these deal with the realization of change. Poems such as "Retrospective Musings" (59-68) and "The Return" (127-130) show familiar sights seen through changed eyes. In the former, the poet remembers happily the magic he saw in the vista of the sea in his youth, but no longer glimpses the mystery itself. In the latter, Malcolm establishes true love as the only worthwhile diversion. Upon returning to Edinburgh, everything is much drearier than before and even the women don't excite him-except, that is, for his one true love:
          I too am changed: — Bright eyes impart
          To me a raptured thrill no more,
          Awake not in the withered heart
          The throb they waked before.
          Alas! What renovating power
          The charm of life again can bring?
          The sweets of love, that fleeting flower,
          Which feels no second spring! (129).

Interestingly, Malcolm does not seem to have held a typically Romantic view of nature. Malcolm's retelling of the Atlantis myth, "The Lost Isle" (69-75), paints nature somewhat malevolently. Elsewhere, pleasant weather is often juxtaposed almost tauntingly with human suffering. "For by no sign in earth or skies / Doth Nature grieve when valour dies" (42) he wrote in "Scenes after War," and later he continues, "But on his dying agony / Smiles bright, as on his bridal hour" (43). The message seems to be that the heights and depths of man's life are disconnected from the natural world and unimportant to nature.

The last few poems all deal with the loss of a beloved woman. The poet is haunted by her memory in "A Sketch" (183-185), but in the much more powerful poem following that, "The Wish," Malcolm uses Psalms 55:6 to embody his wish to escape from what life has become. The joys of his youth having passed away, a mature man stands over the grave of a beloved woman and wishes to join her, "To flee away and be at rest" (188). The collection concludes with "Memory," in which the poet is constantly reminded of his beloved by nature, asking himself:
          Oh! Why must hearts their vigils keep
          O'er parted joy,-a present pain! —
          Oh! Why must Memory wake to weep,
          Yet ever weep in vain! (191)
This seems to go against his earlier rejection of forgetfulness as a way to deal with her death.

Malcolm's rather interesting philosophy is unfortunately marred by a lack of creativity in other spheres of writing. The mechanics of Malcolm's poetry are all too predictable. The majority of the poems are simple octosyllabics — rhymed couplets of eight beats. The most common variations from that are an ABAB rhyme scheme and a ten- or six-beat meter (both of which are present in "The Campaign" [1-34]). These rather predictable patterns, when not accompanied with strong images, often result in a sing-song or lullaby effect, which is not necessarily good when the subject at hand is war and death.

On a few occasions, Malcolm exploits this predictability. For example, in "The Campaign" (1-34) the long, octosyllabic stanzas break into quatrains for the funeral, effectively slowing the reader and bringing attention to the reality of grief. One of the most mechanically interesting poems, "Scene after the Battle" (42-45) employs two such breaks, one that divides the poem into ABAB quatrains, the other into a ten-line, AABBCDDEEC stanza. Again, the effect is to slow the reader and refocus attention, in this case to the disconnect between human values and experiences and the natural world. These changes in form are effective, but not as effective and jarring as a complete breakdown (rather than a simple change of classical styles) would be.

This poet's greatest need, however, is not a change in form but fresh images. "Peace comes," Malcolm wrote, "all dove-like, with her olive-leaf" ("The Campaign" 29). Doves and olive leaves? Surely he could have thought of something that rhymed without rehashing millennia-old clichés. Likewise, there are many references to Aeolian harps — certainly by 1828 that metaphor was worn through with overuse. The list of unoriginality could continue ad nauseum.

Perhaps if Malcolm embraced a more distinctly Scottish voice, he would seem more original. Only a few references to Scottish lays and to Edinburgh remind the reader that they are not reading an English poet. Nowhere does the sort of unique dialect that delights Robert Burns' readers show in Scenes. It is not the place of a scholar or a reviewer to say what is and is not "authentically Scottish"— perhaps the Queen's English was in reality Malcolm's primary dialect — however, he seems at times to employ an adopted, stilted voice, and if that is the result of trying to conform to a conventional Anglophone "literary" dialect, his poetry would have been strengthened by valuing and utilizing his native idiom.

Malcolm will probably forever remain obscure. The natural audience for Scenes, those persons studying war poetry or those surviving war, may find it helpful and cathartic. For everyone else, there is little in his style or imagery that insists upon rehabilitation. However, the issues dealt with and the philosophical stances at which he arrives may prove of interest, but perhaps only to readers willing to actively engage with the text. Most of what is notable about his poetry lies under the surface.

Appendix A
Scenes of War and Other Poems Table of Contents
Scenes of War.

The Campaign 1
Notes to the Campaign 35
The Battle-Eve 38
Scene after the Battle 42
The Dying Soldier 46
The Deserter 49
The Soldier's Funeral 53

Miscellaneous Poems.

Retrospective Musings 59
The Lost Isle 69
The Shadow 76
Dreams 80
The Mother and Child 84
The Wake 87
The First Land 90
On revisiting a Ruin 93
Love 97
Solitude 101
Human Sorrow 104
On revisiting a Scene in Scotland 106
Ocean 108
To a Lady singing 112
Père la Chaise 114
Fame 118
Stanzas 120
Consumption 122
Storm on the Pyrenees 124
The Return 127
The Closing Year 131
The North-Wester 134
Written on Leaving Paris 137
Autumn 142
Written in a Lady's Album 145
The Vesper-Bell 148
"Our Fathers,-where are they?" 152
To a Lady 154
Elegiac Verses 162
The Suicide 165
Time 167
The Poet's Death-Bed 171
The Past 175
Stanzas 178
The Fireside 180
A Sketch 183
The wish 186
Memory 189

Appendix B

Preface to Scenes of War and Other Poems by John Malcolm
(Spelling, punctuation, and capitalization have been preserved.)

THE POEM with which this volume commences is not (as its name might seem to indicate) descriptive of battles, but is merely a short sketch of some of the other scenes and circumstances of a Campaign, in which the Author served; as are also the few Minor Pieces which immediately follow.

Several of the other little Poems were originally published in the LITERARY SOUVENIR and in various other Periodicals.

In coming before the Public, the Author cannot omit the opportunity thus afforded him of expressing his warmest acknowledgments to those Gentlemen of the Periodical Press who honoured with their notices his former little volume; — whose criticisms were often laudatory and always lenient; and which constitute his best apology for presenting these effusions to the world.

The Miscellaneous Poems were all written on the thought of the moment, without any higher aim than the amusement derived from their composition: and being, moreover, the production of one engaged in a service little compatible, perhaps, with that of the Muses, the Author hopes they may obtain a lenient reception from the Public.