H, v. & O - Sandie Byrne

The letters "H", "v." and "O" are central to the poetry of Tony Harrison. "H" in the play "The Big H", and many of Harrison's poems on language and class, stands for dropped aitches - missed rungs on his "ladder of aspiration" and for the chain of association he makes from the (h)owl of the Leeds City coat of arms, to Herod, H-block, H-omb and Hiroshima. "H" is also celebrated in its absence, in loving reaffirmations of the bonds of dialect, class and family.;The verses/versus of Harrison's most controversial piece, "v.", are echoed in the "v-signs" and other invective of the angry dispossessed to whom his polyphonic writing gives a voice. "V" also stands for victory, the dearly bought victories of wars, explored with the concomitant themes of imperialism and political propaganda.;The black "O" haunts Harrison's work. The abyss - the nothingness of death, the extinction of personality, of art, of species, perhaps even of humankind - is figured in black, burnt-out circles, pits, mines and empty skies. Its obverse is another "O", where life is affirmed - the acting circle of Harrison's theatre work.