Tony Harrison: Grilling

Allusion to Classical figure Satyrs, ‘Martial, that poet of Priapus’; Bacchus; Pliny.

Allusion to Classical place Pompeii

Relationship to Classical text The three translations suggest that understandings of literature and history demand constant re-evaluation.

Close translation of words/phrases/excerpts The German painter Tischbein reads Martial’s epigram IV.44 to Goethe, in full, and this is followed by translations by Thomas May, Joseph Addison and by Harrison himself.

Classical/post-Classical intertexts Goethe’s accounts of Vesuvius in his Italian Journey (1817). Goethe often reflects that the horror unleashed by the eruption of AD 79 has provided a source of great pleasure to successive generations. Harrison transforms the image of raining lava into the bombing raids of the Second World War

Comment As in ‘Queuing for Charon’ the poem questions the role of art/poetry in relation to war and suffering.