LL-L 'Literature' 2006.07.26 (11) [E/S]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 26 July 2006 * Volume 11
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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
Subject: LL-L 'Songs' 2006.07.25 (02) [E]

>From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
>Subject: Songs
>
>Well, Gabriele, on the serious side, many of the lullabies of olden times deal
>with then rampant child mortality. While we have SIDS (sudden infant death
>syndrome) now, this was just one of many threats then; you could never be
>remotely sure your child would be alive the next morning. In fact, my father,
>growing up in abject poverty, slept in one bed with several siblings, and one
>morning he woke up next to his dead younger brother ... That wasn't anything
>terribly unusual in those days, and mothers' fears were often expressed
>indirectly in their lullabies.
>
>
This is certainly borne out by my reading of Scots literature,
particularly the vast amounts of Victorian poetastry in Scots.

With many of these lesser poets, the death of a child is a recurring
theme, and there's at least one minor poet (I would have to do some
reading again to rediscover who it was) who wrote a book of poetry where
many of the poems are about his four children. Then comes a poem about
the death of one of the children, and the book continues with poems
about the dead child and the remaining three. Then comes the death of
another, and another, and then his last child dies. It's a powerful
subtext not evident from any single poem.

To us moderns such works seem hardly worth reading and personally I
wouldn't have read it if it hadn't been in Scots, but in those days such
books must have been a great comfort (or something) to the many readers
who had been through similar experiences and knew they would never be
able to forget.

But thay'll aa growe fresh an green again,
Tho nou I'v this tae lairn,
The earth haes tae me ae green spot—
The wee grave o my bairn.

-- Alexander Anderson
"I Miss My Bonny Bairn"

An, bedded, 'twixt the nicht an day,
Yestreen, I couldna bide
For thinkin, thinkin as I lay
O the wean that lies ootside.

-- Violet Jacob
"The Lost Licht"

Come awa, bairnie,
Dinna shak yer heid,
Ye mind me o my ain bairn,
Lang, lang, deid.

--James Ballantine
"Rosy-Cheekit Aiples"

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Literature

Sandy,

What you tell us pretty much tallies with what I have read and heard about the
topic, and it matches what went on in Continental Europe and North America at
around the same time.

Much of the literature of that genre seems really sentimental and romanticizing
death to most of us these days, but it seems to have played an important role at
the time, especially in the parlor periodicals (home gazettes) that were most
accessible to women.  What seem like extremes to us now includes, displayed in
sitting-rooms, photographic portraits of dead children (sometimes in little angel
costumes, often propped up to sitting or even standing position to look life-like).

Some literary works of this genre made it into more "serious" circles, especially
toward the end of that era.  However, even they seem very sentimental to us now.
 One such work is the play _Hanneles Himmelfahrt_ (Joanie's Ascension) by the
Nobel-Prize-winning German Silesian writer Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946).  

By the way, Hauptmann ended his life in Northern Germany, on his beloved Baltic
Isle of Hiddensee (just west of Rugia/Rügen), once a magnet for artists from all
over Germany and beyond.  (We recently discovered that a maternal uncle of ours,
a colorful character, lived and painted there too and apparently knew Hauptmann
and others "of note.")

The Low Saxon writer Klaus Groth (new URL: http://www.lowlands-l.net/groth/) lost
seven children, was left with only one, Krüschan (Christian).  Child death is
mentioned here and there in his works.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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