“The Tempudum”
Tempo + Pendulum = Tempudum
The Tempudum - that rate or motion of the natural world's events and activity. Irrespective of the definitions and units assigned to it by humans. This tool exists in all of us, the organic and inorganic aspects of nature, the air we breathe and the soil we tread. To find it, however, one must venture towards an unbiased empathetical manner of perspective and learn of its nature.
“Today you are as old as you have ever been. Today, you are as young as you will ever be again.”For us humans, our perception of time is a selfish act of assigning individual memories to moments of time irrespective of what that moment is to another. Many fail to remember on their typical boring day that same time could be the happiest day for another. Vice versa, seldom does one in their happiest moment stop to realise the simultaneous grieving of another. Nature in its daily routine and its paradoxical beauty which serves to strengthen rather than weaken offers us a philosophy and a perspective in regard to time.
-Eleanor Roosevelt
Instead of units, the natural world measures time in growth. Made of it organic and inorganic counterparts, the natural world is one which coalesces both into an equilibrium of harmony and stability. Us humans, like to assign the stars, the shades, the sun and moon a means of measuring time with assigned lengths, assigned units – displaying our rather erroneous understanding of time.
Ecological texts, such as those made by “Peasant Poet” John Clare, serve to give us a hint into the intricate yet potent manner in which the nature of time in itself spans rather into an unbounded category, a category where time is not definite, does not hold a sameness. In fact, poems like Clare’s ‘The Mores’ in their meaningful use of literary form strip ones perception of time from being an oscillating pendulum set between two extremities to an indefinable tempudum, allowing one to listen rather than speak and to understand rather than assign.
Bespread with rush and one eternal green That never felt the rage of blundering plough Though centurys wreathed spring's blossoms on its browThis vivid description of the moors that Clare begins his poem with, describes the freedom and indefinity which surround the organic and inorganic plains of the pastureland. Clare paints an image of a land vacant of perception and judgement that humans maintain, rather he depicts a land unbound of statistical law and of vast and infinite beauty. Readers are invited into a beautiful prose which accentuates rather than dulls the ‘rush and rage’ of the land.
That travel felt delighted to be lost Nor grudged the steps that he had ta-en as vain When right roads traced his journeys and again - Nay, on a broken tree he'd sit awhile To see the mores and fields and meadows smileHere, audiences gain greater understanding as to the ecological tempo which is glimpsed when once truly sits and introspects. Clare communicates this via his use of metanoia in his change of perspective voicing ‘nay’ and his use of personification in describing the ‘meadows smile’. The ecological tempo is presented as being influential and aesthetic in emotionally connecting the persona to feel ‘delighted to be lost’ and even ‘sit awhile’. Such an emotion is presented as being lost in daily occurrences of our time and is rather only time in the time which encompasses the natural world.
Cows went and came, with evening morn and night, To the wild pasture as their common right And sheep, unfolded with the rising sun Heard the swains shout and felt their freedom won. Now this sweet vision of my boyish hours Free as spring clouds and wild as summer flowers Is faded all - a hope that blossomed freeAs the human desire to find meaning and dominate consumes generation upon generation, Clare communicates that the assemblage of time in itself has become misconfigured and has ‘faded’ along with the environment. Many, as Clare points out in his use of retrospection and figurative language, fail to realise that their life is in coexistence of many simultaneous events, both in relation to the interspecies and intraspecies.
And hedgrow-briars - flower-lovers overjoyed Came and got flower-pots - these are all destroyed
Moors, loosing from the sight, far, smooth, and blea Where swopt the plover in its pleasure free Are vanished now with commons wild and gayClare invites audiences to ascertain that time is in fact just as reversible and malleable as the events which exist in it. He suggests that what binds one to another can be just as empowering if not more than to aim to dominate in solitary satisfaction. His use of contrast is evident as he initially describes the ‘freedom’ that existed among the fauna of the moors and the and ‘wild’ summer flora, then goes on to describe that it all faded to nothing – the consequence of mans desire.
As poet's visions of life's early day Mulberry-bushes where the boy would run To fill his hands with fruit are grubbed and done And hedgrow-briars - flower-lovers overjoyedLiterary artists have the power in their use of imagination and textual form to present audiences a new lens of understanding especially when they challenge previously held conceptions of time and nature. Here, Clare presents time as a tool of lamentation and curiosity. A wistful vision of ‘life’s early day’ presents audiences with the difference in being remorseful and being present in the moment. This ‘before’ and ‘after’ of time, reduces time to bleak terms that go against the tempedum – non-temporal terms. This manner of defining time is the catalyst for the deterioration of the tempedum which exists in nature and among us.
- Fatima El Cheikh Khalil, z5309245
Works Cited:
Sheldon, W. H. “The Spirituality of Time.” The Journal of Philosophy, vol. 23, no. 6, 1926, pp. 141–54. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2013980. Accessed 18 Nov. 2022.
bleon8st1, and bleon8st1. Blseh! (Gesundheit), 27 Jan. 2016, https://blseh14.umwblogs.org/2016/01/27/brian-leons-key-passage-analysis-of-john-clares-the-mores/.
Clare, John, and Steven Croft. John Clare: Selected Poems. Oxford University Press, 2018.
Https://blseh14.Umwblogs.org/2016/01/27/Brian-Leons-Key-Passage-Analysis-of-John-Clares-the-Mores/.