“The War on Industry: Using Words not Weapons”
- Interviewer and Photographer: Ashleigh Frayne
- Photograph 1 features an Alexander Wang dress, Gucci Parasol and a Bailey of Hollywood hat.
Its 3 pm on a gorgeous sunny day in Bath, and Landon is sitting in the tea parlor, wearing gorgeous dress featuring a light-blue bodice and her signature lace parasol. A weather-beaten book of poetry marked with her signature stiletto handwriting is propped open on the table, while she stares into the confines of the tea room composing her newest poem. Landon is a woman of mystery: a renowned poet surrounded by mystifying scandal.
Ashleigh: Landon, what an honor it is to be here with you today and it is especially a treat to have the chance to talk with you about your newly published poem “The Factory”. Tell us a bit about this poem and its message.
Landon: Well, I was really trying to embody the bitterness of Victorian industrialism, creating a united voice for the people-
Ashleigh: Yes, yes… Well, it has been said (by other reviewers of course, none such avid fans of your work as myself) that your work is sentimental, your topics so typically Victorian and your style (the simple rhyme scheme, and use of ballad) childish.
Landon: What! Well, I mean… The industrialization of Britain is something that is greatly worrisome to many people, especially concerning its treatment of the poor innocent children! That my topic is popular I cannot help, that it is well chosen I can only insist. After all, if poetry is an appeal to the highest levels of human emotion, what better time can there be to use it to appeal to the social conscience of those driving industrialization! Furthermore, if my poem seems ‘child-like’ as you say, it only re-affirms its intended purpose.
Ashleigh: I said? I would never dare to suggest… Is it the society behind industrialism to which you write the poem- the intended audience?
Landon: Yes, well, in a way. After all, poetry has many audiences. However, I am most certainly appealing to the masses enforcing this monstrosity, to their sense of national pride and nostalgia for the peaceful pastoral days that have passed.
Ashleigh: Yes, yes. Not at all obvious with the pastoral bit… hem. Was there anything in particular you were trying to get across with that use of imagery? - The contrast between the dehumanizing world of industry and the “moral atmosphere” of the countryside?
Landon: Mm, it was a bit subtle for those less inclined to read ‘good poetry’, but I was evoking images of a pastoral paradise and placing them next to those of an industrial hell-fire. I was really drawing from romantic aesthetics and illuminating the tragedy of these poor factory children wasting their blessed childhoods in a mechanized Victorian age.
Ashleigh: So tragic, I know. Oh dear, here take a tissue, wouldn’t want to spoil that lovely dress now. Many have said that, since your dear father’s death (oh, another tissue?) your poetry has been economically driven, rather than emotionally inspired, and is aimed more at gathering popular appeal than anything else.
Landon: Let’s be honest Ash, [sniff] I’m far from gaining popular appeal. Most of what is written about me now-a-days involves sordid love affairs and illegitimate children!
Ashleigh: Oh! I must have missed those reviews, um … Oh, look it’s Caroline Norton! What a surprise. Did I mention how similar your poem is to her own “Voice from the Factory”? Her poem was written first of course, and it is far less sentimental (not to discredit yours in any way!). After all, children, factories, death, all very hot topics . . . Oh dear! Do just take the whole tissue box. Oh Mrs. Norton!
It’s pretty rare to sit down to an interview with iconic social beauty Caroline Norton. Mrs. Norton strides into the room, shoots a withering glance at sniveling Landon (who immediately vacates her chair, trailing tissues) and, with a dazzling smile, sits down opposite me.
Ashleigh: Mrs. Norton! Such an honor! Oh, so unexpected! But where is Mr. Norton- he’s not around is he?
Caroline: Actually I’ve left him, stupid braggart. I’ve decided to scrap the whole match, increase his debt and enjoy my freedom properly.
Ashleigh: Yes, yes, very good plan, but you might want to look into some of the laws-
Caroline: Ha! Don’t be ridiculous! What is he going to do- beat me? He already has, many a time.
Ashleigh: Yes, well there is the matter of the law and your children-
Caroline: No, no. He wouldn’t dare! Ha ha, Ash you worry far too much. Now, whatever were you doing talking to little Miss Landon? I read her poem- frightfully sentimental! Did you hear about her and Mr. Easterling? I heard they were seen walking arm-in-arm down Reagent’s street at 9 o’clock yesterday evening. The scandal!
Ashleigh: Mm, no I hadn’t heard… Actually, we were talking about you and the genius of your own poem “Voice from the Factories,” would you care to say a few words?
Caroline: What? Apart from the fact that it is far superior to Landon’s own little ballad (catchy as it may be)? My poem is far more serious, an epic inlaid with references and fortified with the keen use of logic.
Ashleigh: I caught that wonderful reference to Milton’s “Paradise Lost” in the opening! Brilliant!
Caroline: I think there’s only one thing to be said about my poem, while it too focuses on the plight of the factory children and evokes emotional images of lost childhood, death and decay it does not rely solely on pathos, it also relies on logic. I propose a number of situations and questions, for which I provide the consequences and answers. I do not leave the reader to draw his own fuzzy conclusion because I believe the truth to be too important! However, similar to Landon, I also believe the effects of industrialism to be torturous and the consequences of child labor to be miserable.
Ashleigh: Indeed, so terrible. Hm… it is very difficult to argue against you, or even to pose a question to which you do not already posses an answer…
Caroline: Then you are obviously ill-versed in the style of argument and asking all of the wrong questions.
- Biographies were drawn from http://www.wikipedia.org/
First of all I have to say that I absolutely love how you creatively turned your post into a mock interview between yourself and Letitia E. Landon and Caroline Norton! In your interview with Landon I really connected with her response to your question about industry and the countryside, "Mm, it was a bit subtle for those less inclined to read ‘good poetry’, but I was evoking images of a pastoral paradise and placing them next to those of an industrial hell-fire". When I read Mrs. Landon's poem the dichotomy of industry and the countryside in Britain really presented iteself to me. It made me think of how these children are wasting away the best years of their lives in factories, when they should be outside in the pastoral landscape. Also, in your interview with Miss Caroline Norton she really hit the nail on the head with her response that her poem "does not rely solely on pathos, it also relies on logic." When I read through the poem again I really got the sense that she is giving the reader the facts about the working class people in the factories, "Follow the counsel of some trusted voice;-A self-elected sway, wherein their souls rejoice" (lines 476 & 477). I think that she lays down the facts as they are or as she sees them so that real change can occur for the working class people of Britain.
ReplyDeleteI thought writing your post in the form of a mock interview was incredibly imaginative. It really caught my attention because you presented the argument in a unconventional way, and still your points came across well! I too liked how you mentioned that Norton's poem also presents a logical argument as well as on that appeals strictly to one's emotions. I also liked how you noted that Norton's poem has a definite point of view and has no "fuzzy conclusion." With her definitive conclusion, readers aren't able to interpret, nor do they need to. I really enjoyed reading this post.
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