Time (Allen Curnow)

 

Time

                                          -Allen Curnow

 

I am the north-west air among the pines

I am the water-race and the rust on railway lines

I am the mileage recorded on the yellow signs.

I am dust, I am distance, I am lupins back of the beach

I am the sums the sole-charge teachers teach

I am cows called to milking and the magpie’s screech.

I am nine o’clock in the morning when the office is clean

I am the slap of the belting and the smell of the machine

I am the place in the park where lovers were seen.

I am recurrent music the children hear

I am level noises in the remembering ear

I am the sawmill and the passionate second gear.

I, Time, am all these, yet these exist

Among my mountainous fabrics like mist,

So do they the measurable world resist.

I, Time, call down, condense, confer

On the willing memory the shapes these were:

I, more than your conscious carrier,

Am island, am sea, am father, farm, and friend,

Though I am here all things my coming attend;

I am, you have heard it, the Beginning and the End.

 

Essay

About the Author:

Allen Curnow (17 June 1911 – 23 September 2001) was a New Zealand poet and journalist. He wrote a long-running weekly satirical poetry column under the pen-name of Whim Wham for The Press from 1937 and then The New Zealand Herald from 1951, finishing in 1988. His publication Book of New Zealand Verse (1945) is seen as a landmark in New Zealand literature. He is, however more celebrated as poet than as a satirist. His poetic works are heavily influenced by his training for the Anglican ministry, and subsequent rejection of that calling with Christian imagery, myth, and symbolism being included frequently, particularly in his early works.

 

Introduction: Time’ by Allen Curnow utilizes personification in order to describe how time manifests itself. The poet uses this twenty-one-line poem to describe how present Time is in everyday life. It can be seen in normal events, machinery, choices, and actions. There is likely some metaphor within this poem that’s going to appeal to every reader. 

 

Thought Content: In the first few lines, Curnow uses the repetition of “I am” to depict time in specific ways. He writes that time is an abstract force that can be compared to the rust on railways, mileage on signs, dust, distance, education, and the screech of the magpie, among other things. 

 

Time is further described as a clean office, the sound of machinery, and a memorable place where lovers meet. The poet describes time as asserting its presence beyond this physical manifestation, describing it as something that actively shapes memories. 

 

One of the things that readers can take from this poem is a reminder that while Time can seem cruel and merciless, it’s also something that’s giving and beautiful. Without time, the world as we know it would not exist. The good things, like growth and progress, go hand in hand with the traditionally bad things, like death and mourning.

 

Structure and Form: 

‘Time’ by Allen Curnow is a twenty-one-line poem that is contained within a single set of lines. This block-form poem uses the rhyme scheme of AAABBBCCCDDD, and so on, changing end sounds as the poem progresses. This is somewhat unusual and is quite effective because of this. The poet also chose to use a great deal of repetition at the beginning of lines, something known as anaphora. This can be seen through the use of “I am.” 

 

Literary Devices:

In this poem, the poet makes use of a few different literary devices. For example: 

Caesura: This literary device is seen when the poet inserts a pause into the middle of a line of verse. For example, “I am, you have heard it, the Beginning and the End.” 

Alliteration: This literary device occurs when the poet repeats the same consonant sound at the beginning of multiple words. For example, “father, farm, and friend” towards the end of the poem. 

Metaphor: This is seen throughout the poem and occurs when the poet compares to things without using “like” or “as.” For example, “I am the sawmill and the passionate second gear.”  

 

Conclusion: Thus, in the poem, Allen Curnow gives the importance of time and states how everything in the universe is operated by time. In fact, ‘time’ is the beginning and end of life.