A Critical Analysis of Eric Roach’s ‘Corn’.

In the poem ‘Corn’, the relationship between the peasant people and the land is explored, and their qualities of resilience and endurance as well as the value of hard work are highlighted and celebrated. The idea of an elemental connection between the peasant and the land is also emphasized and this intimacy between peasant and earth and the labour of the peasants attain spiritual and intellectual significance, when the peasant, artist and God are eventually connected.

In ‘Corn’, Eric Roach examines the nature of the peasant relationship with the land as well as emphasizes their resilient and unrelenting spirit. The struggle of these men and their endurance in spite of the ravages of time and changing weathers, immediately become apparent when he asserts that they are ‘stiff-boned, knotted men’ who are:

Patient, stubborn as their cattle,

Wearing out the changing weathers,

Wearing time in generations,

Continuing on the earth like grain

Through cycles of their tended grain.

Their labouring on the land is a timeless struggle that they are nevertheless willing to undertake. They can weather the harshest of conditions and this resilient quality of the peasants is aptly captured in ‘Homestead’ where they are depicted as men who remain ‘perpetual as the earth winds pass, unkillable as the earth’s green grass’.

This emphasis on the fortitude and patient labouring of the peasants is again reiterated in the poem ‘Men’– where they are described as ‘tough resilient men’ who ‘will go on forever’. Likewise, these peasants who toil on the land with an attitude that is likened to the stubbornness of their cattle are again described in ‘Men’ as ‘brothers to the ox’, who ‘strive with hoe and shoulder…to break bread from the boulder’. These qualities and the value of hard work are continuously emphasized when Roach examines the peasantry, since Roach matches the labouring of the peasant people on their land to the labour and hard work required as an artist. Whilst he does not make direct reference to this in ‘Corn’, this parallel between the peasant and artist is evident in other poems such as ‘Homestead’ and ‘Poets and Painters’. In ‘Poets and Painters’ for instance, Roach looks at the hard work of his father- a peasant, and questions –‘are we lesser pioneers than he?’.

In ‘Corn’, the poet continues to explore the connection between the peasant and the land, and establishes this connection as one that is elemental. The peasant or sower, the seeds to be sown and the earth are inextricably linked in what is described as the ‘elemental trinity’. Furthermore, the idea of this connection between the peasant and the earth is ultimately captured in the simple yet profound image of the peasant boy whose ‘bare feet’ is blessed by the ‘heart-trodden’ earth. The bare feet that touch the earth become the ultimate connection between man and the earth, and it also reflects the humility and simplicity of their lives of the peasants.

In ‘Men’, for instance, the peasants are not romanticized in any way but are presented as they are:

They are not brilliant men

Or hot heroic men,

Only broad homely men,

Common labouring men,

Barefoot, earthly men.

This idea continues to pervade the poem ‘Verse in August’ where the peasants are perceived as ‘kind folk whose barefoot indigence was whole as rocks and springs’. Also, in ‘Letter to Lamming’ the poet speaks of our ‘peasants barefoot as their cattle.’

It is indeed a ‘simple culture’ that nurtures them and their very relationship with the land reflects their oneness and an elemental connection. They are so closely associated with the land that the earth assumes the role of nurturer when it is presented as a mother figure. According to Danielle Gianetti in her thesis, The Life and Times of Eric Roach:

Earth becomes a mother figure and her relationship with

the “peasant boys” is made explicit through birth images

such as “the tether of his blood” and “the corn-womb of

his folk”.

Thus, just as a child is bound to and nourished by the mother through the umbilical cord, so too is the peasant bound to the earth ‘by the tether of his blood’ and nurtured by the land, when he eats of the ‘soft, green grain, the golden marrow of the earth.’ This ‘simple culture’ that nurtures the peasant in ‘Corn’ is the same that is found in ‘Mother and Son’, when the mother is said to have:

Sowed him [i.e. the son] like a barefoot tree

That he should eat the patient clay,

The solemn courage of the stone.

The same humble way of life that nurtures the peasant in corn is the same that is found in Mother and Son where the mother– a hard worker, nurtures her son in the most basic way by using what she gleans from the ground.

Interestingly, this idea of the earth as mother and a life-force for the peasant is also reciprocated when, in the poem ‘Homestead’, the peasants, when they die:

from their graves within their graves,

they nourish arteries of earth

And give her substance, give her worth.

The peasants continue to reach out beyond the grave when their dead bodies become the nourishment for the earth and the means of fostering new life. This once more emphasizes the intimate relationship between the peasant and the earth, and it reinforces the idea of the elemental trinity that is introduced in ‘Corn’.

In ‘Corn’, the image of the rock is also present in the concluding stanza. The rock is presented as a possible source of life since the seed is said to ‘thrive between the rock and rain’. The rock therefore becomes representative of the potential of the land to be fruitful despite its present unproductive state. In a sense, the rock (as described in ‘Poets and Painters’) is a symbol of the hard, ‘stubborn earth’, -the ‘sterile fields of clay or stone’ which the peasant must make his stamp on in order to ‘charm high harvests forth’.

The rock, therefore, becomes an integral part of the work of Eric Roach. It symbolizes the hardships that become associated with the peasantry but simultaneously offers the promise of life and possibility from a supposedly unproductive environment. The rock takes on wider significance since it becomes symbolic of the potential of the land and the people, as suggested in the poem, ‘The Flowering Rock’, where, ‘from a gaunt rock as white as sanctity, the lily blooms’. This can be linked metaphorically to the social condition on the islands where there is ‘beauty famous in the slum; the hungry boy who tomorrow shall become the country’s hero’. The islands have the potential to flourish and foster greatness despite its apparent sterility.

As the poem concludes, the labour of the peasant and the idea of sowing the seeds are elevated into a sacred act when they are metaphorically linked to the idea of resurrection:

The sower’s life, flung from his hand

Dead to the earth, resurrected to the wind,

Blooms its mystery under heaven,

Bears the living lovely bread,

The body and the blood of life.

This ‘living lovely bread’ which is associated with the idea of the Holy Communion, becomes a symbol of hope. It is a product of the labour of the peasant as well as the artist. It is bread that feeds the body of the peasant and the creativity of the poet. This suggestion of a spiritual feeding enables God and man to achieve harmony.

Danielle Gianetti also attempts to make the connection between peasant, artist and God when she states:

‘the sacrificial element of the life of the peasant is

elevated to spiritual and intellectual heights which,

by extension, include the artist. Through the efforts

of their labour, peasant and artist achieve a harmony

with God.’

There is a sense of hope that pervades the end of the poem unlike many of Roach’s later poems. The poet finds images of strength and beauty when he examines the labour of the peasant and connects it to his own work as an artist.

Generally, the manner in which the poem is structured also reflects the idea of the connection between peasant, the seed and the earth. The poem is divided into three parts, with the first division focusing on the peasant or sower, the second division highlighting the earth and its role as nurturer to the peasant. The third division is centered on the seeds that the peasant must labour and plant. These are seeds that hold the promise of life and it is connected to the peasant and artist. Therefore, these three divisions ultimately reflect the idea of the elemental trinity which is essentially a central focus in the poem.

In essence, the poem ‘Corn’ focuses on the peasantry and the relationship between the peasant and the land. Not only are the peasants noted for their resilience and fortitude in their ongoing struggle with the land, but the elemental connection between the land and the peasant is highlighted as well. The labour of the peasants is also explored on a spiritual and intellectual plane where peasant, artist and God are ultimately connected.