"Symbiosis or Death": - Rhodes University

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planting and regeneration. In “The Time of Sowing” the sower is moved to ecstasy
through his contemplation of the act of planting. He displays a symbiotic atunement with
the earth and its cycles, signified here by the personified moon. In the final stanza, where
we learn that the moon is the sower’s friend, it becomes a symbol of love. In
personifying the moon, Livingstone emphasises the sower’s atunement with nature and
asks that his readers, too, imaginatively enter into this engagement with nature. The moon
tells the sower that the time is nearly ripe for sowing and he knows she will offer
nurturance to the new seeds (stanza one). The speaker is a simple man who understands
and responds to the rhythms of nature which evoke in him an “eagerness” which is so
intense that it is “almost terror” (line 9). His desire or need to plant is likened to the
“fever” and “pleasurable tremor” of sexual sensation (lines 11 and 12). He is so moved to
ecstasy that he must bed his woman before he sows the seeds. In this way the poem links
human procreation and plant regeneration. It portrays an instinctual and, therefore,
uncomplicated ecological relationship with the Earth. This poem, in valorising the
peasant and his agricultural endeavours, romanticises the harsh realities of peasant life
and so points to the idyllic contained in the pastoral. But there is a small twist:
Livingstone intimates that the moon, as representative of regenerative nature, is
indifferent to the sower. She is “bland” (line 3) and “smiles yellowly” (line 14) into his
heart. Both the adjective and adverb literally describe the moon, but the descriptions are
ambiguous, and intimate that the speaker is aware of the moon’s bland dispassion. These
are transferred epithets for the speaker’s unarticulated realisation that his friend, the
moon, in fact has no relationship with him. This is, perhaps, the cause of the “almost
terror” he experiences at the thought of planting. Agriculture can be seen as meddling
with pure or wild nature. So, despite the idyllic tone of the poem, there is an undercurrent
of uneasiness which intimates that even the most rural of people are not completely in
tune with nature.
Like “The Time of Sowing”, “Bamboo” displays the speaker’s pleasure at making
plants grow. The act of planting in “Bamboo” is less premeditated than in “The Time of
Sowing”. Livingstone, as speaker, ‘saves’ the flooded bamboo by replanting it in a more
conducive place. Once it has taken root, he returns to enjoy its shade and experiences a
“dry / and satisfactory” sense of peace. What gives him satisfaction is the realisation that
nature has responded to his ministrations, but this can also be seen as his interference. He