Bagpipe Music: Louis MacNiece
MacNiece has the penetrating
eyesight with which he analyses and dissects the disease of modern society. He
understands the shortsightedness, mechanization and philistinism of modern
society. The greedy consumerism that has been eating into the vitals of the
human society has also been brought under scathing criticism. A feeling of
isolation – isolation from consoling agents in the form of institutions and
also of of individuals runs through his poem. In fact, he has not seen any ray of hope and better future for mankind or rather for a modern man. In his "An Epilogue for Christmas" he says despairingly:
"The country-gentry cannot change, they will die in their shoes,
From angry circumstances and moral self-abuse...."
This is the problem of modern society -- the problem of moral self-abuse, the problem of stagnation and of course, the problem of spiritual bankruptcy. He has been confronted with the inimical forces born in the womb of cold civilization that does not embrace sympathy, soft sensibilities and humanizing influences.
In the poem "Bagpipe Music" we listen to the soul killing music of commercialism and consumerism. We, modern men, want all the ingredients of luxury and enjoyment -- from a 'limousine' to a 'ticket for the peep show'. The knickers and shoes of modern men, hankering after comfort and coziness, are made of costly materials. Their halls are lined with the heads of bison. All the articles catalogued here, bear with them the touch of aristocracy, no doubt and that aristocracy stands on non-human values. To be more candid about it, we can say that the things of luxury coveted by a section of people in modern society are gained only through the annihilation of dynamic animal vitality. The cruelty and heartlessness of modern society are given a concrete and particularized expression in the lines:
" John MacDonald found a corpse, put it under the sofa,
Waited till it came to life and hit it with a poker,...."
Again the disease of consumerism and philistinism a cancerous disease of the modern society is brilliantly manifested in the line:
"All we want is a bank balance and a bit of skirt in a taxi."
The expression -- "a bit of skirt" -- is likely to bear with it a suggestion of moral depravity of the modern society. The civilization and culture based on industry of modern period has nothing to do with the finer instincts and soft sensibilities of human kind. This life of modern men definitely runs rather aimlessly without any aid of 'yea-saying philosophy'. When the poet says: "All we want a Dunlop tyre...." his intention is clear. Modern men, by embracing scientific and technological development, runs on dunlop tyres.
This life of modern men is thus all hectic with no rest and respite that enables a man to look at beauty. Another problem of this society is the problem of overproduction. The words, "I'm through with overproduction." clearly point out this problem. When the poet says, "All we want is mother's help and a sugar-stick for the baby.", we understand what is lacking in modern society. In the modern society children are generally deprived of their due motherly attention. Mothers seem to have lost the rights of motherhood; they want to shun the responsibility of rearing up their children. In stead of personally caring them, they depend on helping women and confine babies up with sugar sticks. Thus in a modern society children are not offered what they deserve. This process of rearing up children definitely dwarfs the dignity of rearing up children under the canopy of motherly affection. Everywhere naturalness is forced to submit to artifice.
The remarkable thing about this poem is that MacNiece's criticism of modern society is confined not only to the realm of the rich but also to the world of the poor, crudity, despair and frustration are the three unfailing associates of the life of the poor. Soul-killing poverty and unemployment forces Willie Murray's brother to act from frustration, even when faced with apparent initial fate in the life of this people as is harsh and whimsical as the sea. When they confront the odds they take resort to barbarism as bandage made from the hide of a cow.
Then MacNiece presents another catalogue of things that may offer modern men temporary emancipation from tension and bewilderment. Cinemas and stadiums, elections and politics or pure nature are all 'no go'. Modern people feel so isolated that they very frequently avoid the possible bonds of union -- union with other people and union even with the spirit of nature. They are so callous and indifferent to the joviality ingrained in life that they have no interest in this and this offers no real relief.
The days for modern men are idle, jobless and pennyless. All they want "is a packet of fags", when their hands are idle. They find no interest in active life -- active being the connotation for normal human activities. When they are left with no serious job, they smoke cigarettes and while away their time. They are all stilled and static in the sense that they want to keep hats and hopes hanging on a meagre pension. Novelty in thout and well-sketched out plans for development are discarded by them.
The life in such a society with so many 'no goes' is nothing but a seizeless flow of hopeless labour with a dark certainty that 'the winds blow the profit' and 'the glass will fall forever. The final vision of future bereft of love and relief, borders on nihilism. Thus, in this poem MacNeice obliquely criticizes the modern society.
"The country-gentry cannot change, they will die in their shoes,
From angry circumstances and moral self-abuse...."
This is the problem of modern society -- the problem of moral self-abuse, the problem of stagnation and of course, the problem of spiritual bankruptcy. He has been confronted with the inimical forces born in the womb of cold civilization that does not embrace sympathy, soft sensibilities and humanizing influences.
In the poem "Bagpipe Music" we listen to the soul killing music of commercialism and consumerism. We, modern men, want all the ingredients of luxury and enjoyment -- from a 'limousine' to a 'ticket for the peep show'. The knickers and shoes of modern men, hankering after comfort and coziness, are made of costly materials. Their halls are lined with the heads of bison. All the articles catalogued here, bear with them the touch of aristocracy, no doubt and that aristocracy stands on non-human values. To be more candid about it, we can say that the things of luxury coveted by a section of people in modern society are gained only through the annihilation of dynamic animal vitality. The cruelty and heartlessness of modern society are given a concrete and particularized expression in the lines:
" John MacDonald found a corpse, put it under the sofa,
Waited till it came to life and hit it with a poker,...."
Again the disease of consumerism and philistinism a cancerous disease of the modern society is brilliantly manifested in the line:
"All we want is a bank balance and a bit of skirt in a taxi."
The expression -- "a bit of skirt" -- is likely to bear with it a suggestion of moral depravity of the modern society. The civilization and culture based on industry of modern period has nothing to do with the finer instincts and soft sensibilities of human kind. This life of modern men definitely runs rather aimlessly without any aid of 'yea-saying philosophy'. When the poet says: "All we want a Dunlop tyre...." his intention is clear. Modern men, by embracing scientific and technological development, runs on dunlop tyres.
This life of modern men is thus all hectic with no rest and respite that enables a man to look at beauty. Another problem of this society is the problem of overproduction. The words, "I'm through with overproduction." clearly point out this problem. When the poet says, "All we want is mother's help and a sugar-stick for the baby.", we understand what is lacking in modern society. In the modern society children are generally deprived of their due motherly attention. Mothers seem to have lost the rights of motherhood; they want to shun the responsibility of rearing up their children. In stead of personally caring them, they depend on helping women and confine babies up with sugar sticks. Thus in a modern society children are not offered what they deserve. This process of rearing up children definitely dwarfs the dignity of rearing up children under the canopy of motherly affection. Everywhere naturalness is forced to submit to artifice.
The remarkable thing about this poem is that MacNiece's criticism of modern society is confined not only to the realm of the rich but also to the world of the poor, crudity, despair and frustration are the three unfailing associates of the life of the poor. Soul-killing poverty and unemployment forces Willie Murray's brother to act from frustration, even when faced with apparent initial fate in the life of this people as is harsh and whimsical as the sea. When they confront the odds they take resort to barbarism as bandage made from the hide of a cow.
Then MacNiece presents another catalogue of things that may offer modern men temporary emancipation from tension and bewilderment. Cinemas and stadiums, elections and politics or pure nature are all 'no go'. Modern people feel so isolated that they very frequently avoid the possible bonds of union -- union with other people and union even with the spirit of nature. They are so callous and indifferent to the joviality ingrained in life that they have no interest in this and this offers no real relief.
The days for modern men are idle, jobless and pennyless. All they want "is a packet of fags", when their hands are idle. They find no interest in active life -- active being the connotation for normal human activities. When they are left with no serious job, they smoke cigarettes and while away their time. They are all stilled and static in the sense that they want to keep hats and hopes hanging on a meagre pension. Novelty in thout and well-sketched out plans for development are discarded by them.
The life in such a society with so many 'no goes' is nothing but a seizeless flow of hopeless labour with a dark certainty that 'the winds blow the profit' and 'the glass will fall forever. The final vision of future bereft of love and relief, borders on nihilism. Thus, in this poem MacNeice obliquely criticizes the modern society.
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