Hello Romanticists,
Hope you are having or have had a good and restful
holiday. Allow me to welcome you back by
talking about the Catherine Robson text I asked you to read. As you read the section of her chapter,
please consider the following. First,
Robson is an exceptionally skilled writer and critic and Heartbeats models several important literary-critical moves that
you may wish to develop (defining a gap in the field, historicizing a
previously unexamined concept).
Second, Robson’s reevaluation of Hemans is part of a larger
movement of challenging of the literary canon, a movement in which our class is
also engaged. Robson thus provides a
useful model for our inquiries, as well as important background. In particular, Robson highlights Hemans’s
immense popularity. More than just a
best-selling author, Hemans was a cultural phenomenon whose works were seen as
articulating the core values of British identity. That iconic status makes her similar to Byron,
despite their ideological differences.
For next Tuesday, read the assigned Hemans poems, focusing
on those from her collection Records of
Woman. You might consider the
parallels or contrasts between her historical “heroes” and Byron’s Childe Harold
and Don Juan. Post by noon on Monday
(April 13).
Happy reading,
Prof. M.
P. S.: Enjoy a couple "Casabianca" artifacts:
Happy reading,
Prof. M.
P. S.: Enjoy a couple "Casabianca" artifacts:
Cover illustration,"Casabianca" set to music, nineteenth century.
Phillips Cigarettes collector's card from their of "Famous Boys" series, 1924.
Like other female poets of her time, such as Charlotte Turner Smith, it seems that Felicia Hemans' unhappy personal life is reflected in her poems. For example, Juana sits by her husband's dead body, wishing he would revive and finally love her back, because when he was alive, he was nice to everyone except for her. This seems to reflect Hemans' own unhappy marriage.
ReplyDeleteClearly overwrought, Juana obsesses over her dead husband's smile, which she wants"my own, my own shall be the sunny smile," unlike when her husband was alive and his smile "brightly fell...on all but me erewhile."
The only conclusion to draw is that Juana is sick; she has been abused and still hopes that her abuser will come back to life and finally treat her nicely, to the point where she sits beside the body while it decomposes --"Until the shadows of the grave hath swept o'er every grace." Indeed, the poem describes Juana as a "troubled soul."
On the other hand, the poem's final line, and the last message it communicates to the reader is, the husband's body is taken away "But a woman's broken heart was left in its lone despair behind." Also, the introductory lines declare the poem's message to be "This love... / What doth it in the shadow of the grave?" Apparently, the only thing that Juana does wrong is continue to love her husband after he is dead. She should realize that he is no longer in this world and her love can't bring him back. It is completely normal, in Hemans' poem, to love the emotionally abusive husband--in fact, it's praiseworthy, according to the final line of the poem, and proven through the overwrought language Hemans uses to describe the love, as "wild and passionate idolatry." "Idolatry" and "wild" hint that the love is illogical, but not necessarily harmful to Juana, because "passionate" has good connotations and balances out the other two dramatic words.
Furthermore, the line that describes Juana as a "troubled soul" does not necessarily imply the definition of "psychologically disturbed" which I noted earlier. The complete, flowery line is: "The passion of that loving dream from a troubled soul found way." With the dramatic words "passion" and "loving dream," the line becomes, ugh, romantic. Sure, Juana's love is a dream, but it's full of passion, and it lasts until the body starts rotting and the truth "slowly broke" on her but leaves her with a "broken heart." Note the repeated use of "broke": The truth of his death is "broken" into her heart, yet she still loves him entirely, which is why her heart is conventionally "broken" with sadness. "Troubled" means agitated or upset, not insane, in this context.
Hemans wants the reader to think that Juana's love is pure and again, normal. When she realizes her husband is dead, her heart breaks with sadness but does not lose any of its love. This end completely misses the point that it wasn't Juana's husband's death which removed the possibility of him ever reciprocating her love, it was his cold-heartedness because she wasn't pretty enough for him (according to Juana, although probably he was just nasty--unless her craziness made him react that way).
Hemans believes it is the fate of a "woman's heart" to be hopelessly in love, probably because she was unsuccessful in love. This is one of the worse Romantic/romantic cliches; unfortunately, it does reflect the image of the typical heroic character in poetry (is it a coincidence that "Juana" has the female version of Don Juan's name?).
Hermans reveals a longing envy for the life of the dead. Burdened with 5 children to support, an AWOL husband, and ever-dying family members, she finds desirable the existence of those passed from the earth. One finds obvious strains of such wishes in "The Grave of a Poetess" and "The Land of Dreams." In both, she recognizes that the beyond is in stark opposition to the earthly world - and, ultimately, prefers the former.
ReplyDeleteIn "Grave," one might be lead to believe, at first, that the speaker firmly wants to stick around. She observes and breathes in the hum of living creatures. "All happy things that love the sun" is full of airy, near whimsical lightness, like a sigh of pleasure in the beauty of this World. The world is filled with "sweetness" that the dead "couldst not hear." And so, the speaker's heart grows "mournful" for the dead poetess lying in the tomb.
But, as one then learns, and as the very first stanza betrayed, the speaker is actually torn between the love of the "flush and life of spring" and the "peace" that can only be had post-mortem. In the poem's very first line, Hermans writes that "I stood beside the lowly grave;" she herself stands on the precipice of jumping into the beyond. But then, in line 2, there are the "Spring odours" to consider. The contrast between fresh, "breath[ing]" life, and the "grave" slaps the reader in the face, as one realizes that THIS is the speaker's and Hermans's struggle. There are the joys of "music," a thing so alive, evocative, powerful - but, for her, it "Passed with a lulling sound," the pull of being sung into eternal sleep.
The recognition of our poet's pain grows in "Land of Dreams," where the refrain "Thou art" creates the sense of desperate longing the speaker has for that world she is forced to leave upon awaking. The urgency builds to the crescendo of "Yes, thou art," like one enraptured in prayer. The immediate fall away from the "beauty and terror...power and woe" (because, after all, dreams and death hold the promise of both) upon awaking is emphasized with "But for me" - the "but" and the italicized "me" working together to blair the speaker's wail as it is all "wrung from [her] heart."
For, even though the grave is "lowly," and the Afterlife is full of the unknown, of potential "terror...and woe," it also promises the greatest peace and calm - that which Hermans life was so lacking. It can be argued that she, Hermans, is Juana - she cries at the side of her absent, un-answering, cruel-when-present husband, yet begging for him to return so that the immense burden she carries on her lonely shoulders may be alleviated. Hermans must have detested her deserting jerk of a husband - but, how she must have envied him at the same time. He lived with freedom while she remained shackled to responsibility.
As we keep mentioning, English is rhyme poor, and such a scheme is showing off on the author’s part. However, Hermans might have had the right to show off, as she seems to have been quite the literary genius at a young age; then again, perhaps she’s merely imitating the authors she loved growing up, and not really striking out on her own poetic style, despite the difficult scheme. In example, she does quote “Childe Harold” as the epigraph to“The Indian City”; the mere existence of epigraphs show her knowledge of other works, although whether or not she leans of them as a crutch or uses them as a springboard to her own work is not always clear. In “Joan of Arc”, she even quotes herself in the epigraph, again-- a sign of pride and boastfulness, or a sign of the evolution of an idea?
ReplyDeleteThe poem starts being about Joan’s military victories about halfway through the work, however. After that, it is about a homecoming. Pomp and glory suddenly mean nothing to Joan in the face of family life-- something that might anger radical feminists or misandrists. The glory that society places on Joan as a military hero(ine) is deemed far less important in this poem than her role as a woman and daughter and the return to peasanthood and rural France. While Hermans certainly doesn’t disregard all that Joan of Arc did for the French, she does not deem that to be true honour, as “the paradise/Of home with all its loves, doth fate allow/The crown of glory unto a woman’s brow”. It is nature which “wins” her-- be it the country area where she returns to, to her inherent female nature.
While I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with prompting the reader to recognize and remember that Joan of Arc was a woman, it is rather impossible that she herself would forget or disregard her military accomplishments at the mere sight of her childhood home and her family. One does not erase past years and experience so readily, especially not such a bloody one (and however victorious she might have been, it was still bloody). We should also remember that Joan of Arc was eventually burned at the stake for being a woman and committing crimes such as cross-dressing and witchcraft (which was far more often a “crime” which accused women than men)-- her womanhood was her downfall, and yet Hermans glorifies that which brought her death. This is also a common poetic convention, in a traditional martyr-inducing choice of words and tone, but there is no such atmosphere in this poem. Joan becomes a regular woman, and nothing more. While all heroes are regular people underneath the glow of glory, I do find this a bit strange, and perhaps even disrespectful to the legacy of Joan of Arc. Perhaps Hermans wrote as such to make her own life sound more glorious and worthy, as she struggled with raising her children with a missing husband, but there is not much similarity between her situation and Joan’s other than their gender.
There is a dark edge to Felicia Dorothea Hemans’ writings. While her poetry is acclaimed as elegant, sweet, delicate, and insert-feminine-adjective-here, it’s also haunting and mysterious, almost gothic (minus the supernatural). Looking at her biography, it's apparent her poetry reflects her own suffering and encounters with death and men. The tender romance and dark tones aren’t in conflict, on the contrary, Hemans masterfully balances the two. The excess and mystery in her writing reminds me a bit of Blake's Song of Innocence. Such similarities can be seen in the poem The Homes of England. It’s written with a repeating mantra (“The stately homes of England… the merry homes of England… the blessed homes of England… the cottage homes of England… the free, fair homes of England…”) in nearly perfect iambic pentameter, describing an idyllic, near-perfect state. There are beautifully crafted metaphors as well, reiterating the all-around awesomeness of the English country. Especially stressed is that the pride is rooted in their longstanding traditions, both societal and religious. In “country and god.” If looking at these elements of the poem (the uniform, traditional, yet beautifully utilized form; the comforting and affirming repetition; the seemingly earnest content), one can reach a singular, rather flat interpretation: this is a work that means what it says, intending to depict the beautiful pride of England. If one were to accept this, then the praise awarded to Heman as a delicate, particular, tender writer is most appropriate. But if one were to look twice... Perhaps it’s the darkness in her other poems, or perhaps the knowledge of what happens to the English traditional social classes (as well as the rejection of tradition, optimism, and the Church) in the years that follow - for whatever reason - there is certainly room to call out this poem as deceptively simple. It's too lovely. It's too uniform. And there comes the uneasiness... (Why must homes be primarily identified as belonging to England, its traditions and church. This is scarily mechanical...)
ReplyDeleteThe implied forced naiveté that’s shown in The Homes in England is blatant in the poem Juana. With a ridiculous sincerity, Juana speaks of her love to her dead husband. Hemans' incredible capacity for such romantic language, and her words are moving. However, they are doubly futile. Not only is her husband quite dead, even in life he would not have been receptive to her love. It's a foolish/sad/pathetic one-sided relationship. (Much like the blindly devoted relationship to England's traditions in The Homes of England.) But also undeniably romantic - the dark romanticism Hermans does so well. (This mix is kind of a point in Juana: "a wildness and a tenderness in strange resplendence blent"). This poem captures what's wonderful about Hemans writings. It's undoubtedly beautiful, elegant, and traditionally feminine. It's for that reason it's not really clear where Hemans stands in the gender discussion... It would seem she embraces her femininity. But there are also a sense of something off, something unsaid, lurking in the darkest parts of her poetry.