Peter Redgrove was born in a middle class family in Kingston. As a child he got a microscope as a present and because of this he got a scholarship to Cambridge for science. Although he was deeply disturbed and was found to suffer from schizophrenia. He attempted to have Deep Insulin Coma Therapy, a shock treatment for the disease, he had around sixty treatments but it was unsuccessful and gave him visions and he also lost interest in science, so he turned to poetry instead. After working on poetry for about a year he started being published by newspapers. At the age of 22 he married Barbara and had four children with her. Normally he drank heavily and once had an affair with one of his colleague’s wife. Eventually he started seeing another girl while he was still married to Barbara but she soon left him after he hit her and gave her a black eye but it wasn’t the first time, it would often happen when he was drunk. Even after all the problems he had in one year he had drafted 441 poems, some would say that it was the best work he ever did. One of the 441 poems was “On the Patio” In 1970 he married again to a girl named Penelope Shuttle who was also a poet. Redgrove was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1996. When he died in 2003 his wife and his daughter went to Maenporth Beach to spread his ashes in the ocean. “Maenproth Beach” was one of his most famous poems. Redgrove being a drunk has a huge impact on this poem and it is why this poem was written.
This poem is all about a person being drunk and depressed which is what Redgrove would have been at the time he wrote this. When relating this to today’s world I feel like a lot of people are depressed so they go out to drink and get drunk because they will make them feel better but in the long run it will only continue to get worse. It will become an ongoing cycle. “On the Patio” is a free verse poem that doesn’t have a recognizable rhyme scheme. The poem is told in first person narration. Although the poem is a couplet with two lines per stanza. This poem is about an empty wine glass in the rain and the narrator that is watching it. In the poem the narrator leaves an empty wine glass out on an overly rusted, old table in the rain and the rain starts to land in the glass. As the rain falls into the glass, the glass starts to overflow with water it starts pouring out of the wine glass. It explains how the rain falls; saying that it’s spinning and that it shoots into the glass. It also describes that the storm is very loud and that the rain is falling fast and hard. The narrator is watching the wine glass overflow from inside meanwhile on the patio the rain and the storm are relentless. The sky is full grayish purple clouds and the rain doesn’t stop until about the last few lines. In the last few lines of the poem the storm and the rain start to come to a rest so as quick as he can the narrator goes out on the patio to drain the glass by drinking all of the water found in the wine glass. In the end he puts the empty wine glass back down on the table waiting for it to refill with water. This poem is full of literary devices and they tend to repeat quite a bit. The biggest literary device in this poem is imagery. Imagery is used all thought the poem but there are a few places that was most noticeable to me.
“A wineglass overflowing with thunderwater”, “Over the table’s scales of rust”, “Of spinning water that is clear down here”, “Suddenly I dart out into the patio, Snatch the bright glass up and drain it”, those are some of the most notable uses of imagery. Another literary device that is used a lot in this poem is personification. Some examples would be “the outcries of the downpour”, “pellets of water shooting miles”, “Because the rain eats everything”, and “thunder and lightning come to a rest”. Those examples help bring the poem to life. Some smaller literary devices in the poem are onomonopia, alliteration, and simile. These literary devices are not used as often as imagery and personification. The best example of an onomonopia is “Bang it back down…” There is only one example of a simile, “Shining like chained sores”. There are two examples of alliteration including, “Fly into the glass of swirl, and slop”, and “The cloud crushed into a glass”.
All through the poem Redgrove uses symbolism in the rain and the storm to show sadness or depression. When I began to interpret the meaning of this poem the biggest thing that stands out is the storm and the rain which could mean that the narrator is depressed or very sad. I think in this poem the narrator drinks a lot and is under the influence of alcohol. In the beginning of the poem he talks about an overflowing wineglass although all of the wine either spilled out or he drank it all but considering he is drunk I would assume that he drank it all. When you combine the alcohol with being depressed is what the feeling of the poem really is. Through the poem the narrator talks about his drinking and how his depression is consuming him. Depression is when you’re feeling really sad about your life or something in your life. In the middle of the poem it says “Over the table’s scales of rust, Shining like chained sores” which would mean that the drinking is an old habit and he has been following the pattern of getting drunk and being depressed for a long time. Rust forms when water continuously sits on a table and the more the water the more the rust forms so that would represent how often he gets drunk and depressed with the depression continues to build up like the rust. When the poem says “the rain eats everything but the glass” this could be implying that his depression is starting to consume him more and more.
His depression would be tied to anything that mentions the rain and his drinking would be tied to anything having to do with the wineglass or the wine in it. In the beginning it says that the empty wine glass is filling full of rain which would be like as the wine glass empties and he gets even more drunk, the narrator continues to get even more depressed as the wine glass fills full of the rain water. As the narrator starts to drink more his depression starts to increase, which would be like how the rain is rapidly increasing at the beginning. The narrator continues to drink because he thinks it will make him feel better when he’s drunk and he may feel that for just a little bit but eventually it starts to wear off and the depression may end up getting even worse.
At the end when the rain slows and the wine seems to be full of just water is when he isn’t exactly drunk anymore but his depression is just as present. In the poem when it says “Snatch that bright glass up and drain it” this would refer to him trying and wanting to get over the depression but he finds it difficult to do so he refills his glass with wine to get drunk again and the water will continue to fill his glass making him even worse off in his depression.. He wants to be over it and to renew himself but he is just too deep into the depression and being an alcoholic to make a change by himself so unless he gets help it will be an ongoing cycle of getting drunk and trying to get over his depression but his depression will always be present.
Overall this poem was written because Redgrove was a drunk and because many unfortunate things had happened in his life. Redgrove was a sick man because he had schizophrenia which also had a big impact on why his life was so terrible for the first 40 years. This poem was about the battle between alcohol and depression and the relationship between drinking and depression. Redgrove did a great job of using a variety of literary devices to bring this poem to life. The most important literary device was imagery because it made it easier for me understands the poem when I could imagine it and see it in my mind. His symbolisms also helped make this a great poem because the symbols he used were easy to understand and were very constant through the entire poem. When I relate this to today’s world I feel like a lot more people are drinking to feel better. Those who are depressed try to hide it and try to make it better by getting drunk and not seeking the help that they really need. In the end it will make everything worse. Endnotes
Blake Morrison, A Lucid Dreamer: The Life of Peter Redgrove by Neil Roberts-Review, Web, 2012 Graeme Richardson, Saving Peter Redgrove from oblivion, Web, 2012
