You Go, Girl!          

          I think it has been interesting to see how woman have gained their voice through the different literary eras. From Mary Wollstonecraft who politely asserted that women had the right to own their own property to Elizabeth Barrett Browning who poetically implied that women were being smothered by the empty Victorian way of life to Virginia Woolf. Virginia Woolf, who very clearly claims that women not only have the right to do something productive and meaningful, but also that they need to be able to provide for themselves. In her essay, “A Room of One’s Own”, Woolf writes about the fictional Oxbridge and Fernham as a way of showing the unfair treatment of women in English laws and practices. We can see by looking at the different ways that the colleges were built how Woolf was criticizing traditional views about property and education for women.

          Oxbridge, which was actually a common slang term for Oxford and Cambridge, represents the men’s college. The way that Woolf describes it, we can see a large and looming group of group of buildings which was built on what was once a marsh. Teams of horses and generations of men dedicated time and energy hauling stones, staining glass and puttying the roofs – Woolf writes, “An unending stream of gold and silver, I thought, must have flowed into this court perpetually to keep the stones coming and the masons working.” She writes even more about all of the gold and silver that has gone into the building and maintaining of Oxbridge; kings, queens, manufacturers, merchants and wealthy families have all donated money to the education of men. Everyone gave willingly, of course, because there was clear value in educating men; no one questioned that men had a right to education – after all, they held sole rights to money and property. This passage makes me think of the bible passages that describe the building of Solomon’s temple with the flowing gold and silver and the hours of labor that went into it. It also emphasizes the long practiced and enthusiastic support, both theoretical and financial, of the basic necessity of education . . . for men.

          The women’s college, Fernham, has a much different history; it has been recently established, and just barely at that. Women formed committees, wrote letters, addressed envelopes, drew up circulars and held meetings; they were forced to hold fund-raisers and bazaars “and it was only after a long struggle and with the utmost difficulty that they got thirty thousand pounds together.” This is a stark contrast from the ever-flowing stream of money that ran into the men’s college. In Woolf’s notes she quotes Lady Stephen who said – concerning the thirty thousand pounds – “considering how few people really wish women to be educated, it is a good deal.” Not only did the women’s college not have the financial support that the men’s college did, they did not even have theoretical support; much of the population believed that educating women was futile – after all, they had no rights to either earn or keep their own money. Woolf mentions that women from past generations were unable establish a college for their daughters because of these restrictions on them; their money legally belonged to their husbands, who saw no purpose in female education. Therefore, any backing – financial or otherwise – had to be earned through hours of hard work and fighting for a basic right to learn.

          When Virginia Woolf says that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction” she is boldly claiming that women have the same rights as men to education and property. For years, women had been treated as possessions; they were traded by their families for titles and position; their money was taken from them and given to their husbands, who kept them in the dark by refusing to educate them. During these same years, women were speaking out against this oppression – first politely, then poetically and finally boldly. Virginia Woolf . . . you go, girl!

Paths of Progress:
Commerce and Industry through the Eyes of a Poet

Industry and commerce are necessary evils in a modern world and it’s hard to imagine life without them. But there was a time that widespread industry and commerce was fairly new. Some of the poetry from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries addresses this change. “September 1913”, “God’s Grandeur” and “The World is too Much With Us” are all poems that convey a feeling of loss; they all also seem to suggest that it is man’s growing obsession with money and industry that has created a separation from what matters.

All three of the poems describe industry as dreary and dirty. In “The World is Too Much with Us” Wordsworth writes, “Getting and spending we lay waste our powers;/ Little we see in nature that is ours;/ We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” The words ‘getting and spending’ suggest a repetition; that this is something that happens day after day after day. He describes the fact that man has given his heart away for this “progress” as a ‘sordid boon’ – or a filthy gain. In “God’s Grandeur” Hopkins echoes the same sentiment; he writes, “Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;/ And all is seared with trade; bleared smeared with toil; And wears men’s smudge and shares men’s smell. This poem, being written sixty-some years later, creates a bleaker image of what man’s “progress” has done. After many years man has managed to soil all with their filthy gain; everything has been affected by industry. Nearly forty years later Yeats wrote “September 1913” which focuses more on the monetary side of commerce:

What need you being come to sense,
But fumble in a greasy till
And add the halfpence to the pence
And prayer to shivering prayer, until
You have dried the marrow from the bone?
For men were born to pray and save:
Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,
It’s with O’Leary in the grave.

Yeats also describes industry as monotonous and dirty with the second line in this stanza; the words ‘fumble’ and ‘greasy’ lend to this idea and echo Wordsworth and Hopkins. The next line, however, suggests a level of obsession with money that the other two poems do not.  

                These three poems, while they do all express frustration with the path of progress, differ in how they portray the thing that was lost and in the reconciliation of this loss. Wordsworth expresses this loss as a disconnection from Nature; he personifies the Sea and the Moon, an indication that they are important to the speaker and of them writes, “For this, for everything we are out of tune.” Man has lost touch with the nature and to reconcile it we must return to nature—which the Wordsworth does when he expresses his desire to return to a more pagan lifestyle. Hopkins, being a man of God, would naturally feel that it is God whom with man has lost touch; he writes “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” For Hopkins, nature and God are one being; God is in everything. And God, being all powerful, will take care of Himself and man; at the end of the poem he writes, “And for all this, nature is never spent;/ There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.” Hopkins’ reconciliation suggests that no matter what man does , God will always be a present force, bending over his creation in protection. Yeats’ poem suggests that there is a kind of separation from ourselves; that mankind has lost what it means to be “man”; in the above stanza he mentions that men were “born to save and pray” and repeatedly says “Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone”; there is a sense that man has fallen too far to bring themselves back and there does not seem to be any real resolution. The final lines of the poem read, “They weighed so lightly what they gave./ But let them be, they’re dead and gone,/ They’re with O’Leary in the grave.” Yeats’ poem reflects the disillusionment that the whole world was experiencing at this time in history; he is mourning the loss of a past and simpler time, and at the same time expressing frustration with the greed and death that man’s obsession with industry has caused. The subject – the evils of industry and commerce – is the same one that Wordsworth and Hopkins addressed in their poetry, the difference is the lack of reconciliation.

An Explication of Lord Alfred Tennyson's "Ulysses"

 “Ulysses”

According to The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, a dramatic monologue is “a kind of poem in which a single fictional or historical character other than the poet speaks to a silent ‘audience’.” Lord Alfred Tennyson’s “Ulysses” is a well-known example of this form; it is in blank verse –meaning it is in unrhymed iambic pentameter – and is broken into four stanzas. It is about the Greek hero in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. It begins after Ulysses has returned from his adventures and he finds himself living the life of an ‘idle king’. He is reminiscing about his former glory days of adventure and camaraderie with his brothers in arms. He then leaves his kingdom to his sons and calls to his old comrades to ‘push off and seek a ‘newer world’. The poem speaks of prevailing over fate and making your own path; Ulysses resists the inevitable aging and death of an old king by gathering his buddies and heading out on a final adventure. Since “Ulysses” was written shortly after the death of his close friend, Arthur Hallam, I feel that Tennyson is also writing about facing and overcoming profound loss.

In the first stanza, which is only five lines, Ulysses laments his current life as king. “Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole/Unequal laws unto a savage race,/ That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me” (3-5) These lines suggest that he feels ineffective and almost useless as a king; his laws go unheeded by the ‘savage race’ and the fact that they do not know him implies his title is unimportant to the hoarders. To me this suggests that Tennyson was trying to find his identity in the face of his friend’s untimely death; he felt helpless and lost.

In the next stanza Ulysses fondly recalls his glory days at sea traveling from battle to battle with his peers:

Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour’d of them all;
And drunk delight with battle of my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met; (13-18)

Unlike the feeling in the first stanza, in this stanza Ulysses exhibits a sense of purpose; he is a well-traveled and highly respected warrior. Rather than being unknown, as he is in his kingdom, he is honour’d and a part of everything. This stanza, because it dwells so much on past times and camaraderie, makes me think that Tennyson is remembering the good times he had with his friend; the line “I am a part of all that I have met” speaks to the profound effect that his friendship with Hallam had on him.

          In the third stanza, which is also short, Ulysses bequeaths the kingdom to his son, Telemachus. He charges him with the task of subduing the ‘rugged people’ and seems to feel confident that his son is up to the task; he says, “Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere/Of common duties, decent not to fail” (39-40). These lines imply that there is a certain kind of man who is suited to fighting and another suited to the mundane life of politics, his son just happens to be better equipped to stay and tame the wild kingdom. There is more evidence of this thought in the last line of this stanza, “He works his work, I mine.” I think that this stanza reflects Tennyson’s decision to move on; he resists staying in his saddened state, but recognizes the importance of grieving. 

The last stanza is the most hopeful; he returns to the sea and the life of adventure and even though he is older and weaker than he was when he first set out, he is determined to go out in a blaze of glory.

We are not now that strength which in old days
          Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
          One equal temper of heroic hearts,
          Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
          To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. (66-70)

Literally speaking, these lines deal with life and the effects of aging; Ulysses and his fellow warriors have gotten older over the years, but time cannot take away what they are at heart – men born for travel and adventure. Figuratively speaking, it is Tennyson reconciling with the loss of Arthur Hallam; the line ‘that which we are, we are’ suggests that he has accepted his friend’s death. But the following two lines seem to say that even though their bond has been made weak by fate (Hallam’s death), they are of ‘one equal temper’ and that their bond ‘will not yield’. Tennyson addresses, mourns and reconciles the deep pain he experienced with the loss of a dear friend in his dramatic monologue, “Ulysses”; it is a beautiful poem about struggle and promise.

A Brief Analysis of Gabriel Betteredge

A Brief Analysis of the Humble Gabriel Betteredge

I wish I had a Betteredge, he makes me laugh. Wilkie Collins has created a wonderfully entertaining character in Gabriel Betteredge; he is the perfect person to set the scene and introduce us to the characters in The Moonstone. I would say that he is an unreliable narrator, but not to the point that the reader cannot trust him. For example, when we first meet him he is talking about being asked to write what he remembers and he says, “I modestly declared myself to be quite unequal to the task imposed upon me – and I privately felt, all the time, that I was quite clever enough to perform it.” He lets us in on the secret and in doing so, encourages us to trust him. It also lets us see a glimpse of his character; he knows how is expected to act in this situation and acts accordingly. This gives the reader an idea of the phoniness of social propriety.

Betteredge seems to be fooling himself more than the audience in many of the places where what he says contradicts what the reader sees. One place where this happens is after he loses his temper with Sergeant Cuff; he says, “For the moment, I suppose I must have gone clean out of my senses. I seized the Sergeant by the collar of the coat and pinned him against the wall.” This is completely out of character for Betteredge. He prides himself on his level-headedness and his good manners; yet in this scene we see him act before he thinks – which is exactly what he accuses women of doing just a few pages later. When Penelope comes to him about Rosanna’s behavior, he explains why he needs to calm Penelope down in order to “improve” her state of femaleness. He says that when a woman wants him to do anything, he makes them “rummage their own minds for a reason”; he then says “it isn’t their fault (poor wretches!) that they act first, and think afterwards; it’s the fault of the fools who humour them.”  I think Collins puts these scenes so closely together so that the reader can see the blind male chauvinism that was prevalent in Victorian society. Betteredge accuses all women of being guilty of doing what he (a superior creature) just did with Sergeant Cuff.

Of course, I could be way off base with my assertion. Maybe Collins does not sympathize with the wrongly stereotyped female; perhaps this is just my twenty-first century pro-female mentality speaking. But I doubt it. I think that Collins wants us to see the way that women were oppressed, but he still wants us to like Betteredge; we are supposed to see him as a genuinely kind, appropriately proud man in Victorian England.

I like Betteredge, he makes me laugh. In particular, I like his take on marriage. He chooses to marry Selina Goby, as a decision based on “economy – with a dash of love”; of course, she also “chews her food well, and sets her foot down properly when she steps.” As amusing as this view of marriage is to me, I think it highlights the unimportance of love and romance in a society that viewed marriage as a social and economic contract rather than a bond of love. As Betteredge says, “it will be cheaper to marry her than to keep her.” Just as Lady Verinder does, I too, think that this statement is funny…sad…but funny – an appropriate contradiction coming from a man full of contradictions. Such is the Great Humble Betteredge! 

An Explication of John Keats' "On the Sonnet"

An explication of John Keats’ “On the Sonnet”

If by dull rhymes our English must be chain’d,

And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet

Fetter’d, in spite of pained loveliness;

Let us find out, if we must be constrain’d,

Sandals more interwoven and complete

To fit the naked foot of poesy;

Let us inspect the lyre, and weigh the stress                                                                                             

Of every chord, and see what may be gain’d

By ear industrious, and attention meet:

Misers of sound and syllable, no less

Than Midas of his coinage, let us be

Jealous of dead leaves in the bay wreath crown;

So, if we may not let the Muse be free,

She will be bound with garlands of her own.

John Keats’ sonnet, “On the Sonnet”, exemplifies the notion that poetry during the Romantic period was written to “shed light” on a subject, rather than simply “mirroring” the subject.  It is the traditional fourteen lines and iambic pentameter which indicates it is indeed a sonnet, but the rhyme scheme is definitely not traditional; the poem can be broken into two tercets, a sestet and a final couplet – ABC ABD CABCDE DE. This break from traditional form enhances the theme of the poem; which is, that the sonnet is restrictive, rigid and in need of renovation. In the first tercet, Keats uses an extended “chain’d” metaphor to highlight the limitations of the sonnet. In the second tercet, he suggests that a sonnet function more like a sandal for the “foot of poesy”. Keats uses the sestet in the middle of the poem to instruct writers; he emphasizes that the sonnet should be written with a focus on sound and rhythm rather than a structured rhyme scheme. And in the final couplet, Keats suggests that unless it is freed from constraints, poetic inspiration cannot reach its fullest potential. 

The first three lines of the poem are metaphorically rich; Keats writes, “If by dull rhymes our English must be chain’d,/ And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet/ Fetter’d, in spite of pained loveliness.” The sonnet is inhibiting the poet from using his language to properly express himself.  The comparison to Andromeda suggests that Keats recognizes the inherent beauty of the sonnet.

The next tercet begins with, “Let us find out, if we must be constrain’d,” – this line shows that Keats is not rejecting the idea of the sonnet, just the constrictive “dull rhymes.”  In the next lines Keats discusses “sandals more interwoven and complete/ To fit the naked foot of Poesy.” He uses this sandal/foot metaphor to suggest that rather than confining English with chains and fetters, the sonnet should provide a loose structure that showcases the beauty of the poet’s language – like a sandal does for a new pedicure. 

In the largest section of the poem, the middle sestet, Keats explores a new way to write the sonnet; he writes, “Let us inspect the lyre, and weigh the stress/ Of every chord, and see what may be gain’d/ By ear industrious, and attention meet.” These lines propose that poetry be written with the goal of pleasing the ear – like music does – instead of simply plugging words into a set formula. Keats highlights the similarity of poetry and music in both their creation and function.  He tells writers that they need to be “misers of sound and syllable”, in other words, sound and syllable are valuable and should not be frivolously spent on useless, formulaic rhymes.

The final couplet warns against attempting to constrain poetic inspiration; Keats writes, “So, if we may not let the Muse be free,/ She will be bound with garlands of her own.” In this passage, Keats implies that the sonnet is in danger of losing its function as an artistic expression. It also echoes the sentiments of being bound from the beginning of the poem; except that instead of the language, it is the inspiration itself which is being restricted.

I really like the fact that Keats uses a sonnet to critique the sonnet. The critique can be found in not only what he says, but how he says it. The effect of his unrecognizable rhyme scheme in the recognizable form of a sonnet sheds light on the current state of the sonnet while also presenting a real solution.

Me and Nature Sitting in a Tree...

     I love nature! I am an avid camper and general outdoors lover; I need sun and fresh air, I need to be able to get away from the general population for a few days a year in order to refresh myself. It seems to me, after reading "Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey", that William Wordsworth felt the same way. In this poem Wordsworth explores the power of nature and its effect on his life.
     The picture of nature that Wordsworth paints for us is wild and pure; in lines 14-21 he writes:

Nor, with their green and simple hue, disturb

The wild green landscape. Once again I see

These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines

Of sportive wood run wild; these pastoral farms

Green to the very door; and wreathes of smoke

Sent up, in silence, from among the trees,

With some uncertain notice, as might seem,

Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,

Structurally speaking, the first fives lines are enjambed; which mirrors the wild and run-on way that nature appears to him and the next three lines end with commas, indicating that this is still one thought and scene. And just as this thought is unbroken by a period, this scene is untouched and whole, even with the presence of man. The green runs all the way to the door, and the smoke, which is man-made, is silent and seems to come from the trees. For Wordsworth, it is natural for man to take shelter in nature, as long as he does not disturb it. In this way, nature both sustains and protects, but has the power to do more.

     Throughout the rest of the poem Wordsworth begins to explore what this scene means to him on a personal level. He explains how his memories of this place have sustained him while he was away; these memories are “Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart,/ And passing even into my purer mind” (29-30). These two lines speak to the power of nature; his entire body is affected by its beauty. These memories are in his heart, blood and mind; his whole physical being. The fact that these are only memories serves to intensify the power of nature. 

     While the power of these memories speaks to me as a fellow nature-lover, what I really appreciated was Wordsworth's personification of nature. In lines 108-112 he writes:

          And what perceive; well pleased to recognize

          In nature and the language of the sense,

          The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,

          The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul

          Of all my moral being. 

We can see how nature is not only a part of him, it has formed who he is. As an anchor it grounds him; as a nurse it heals him; as a guide it teaches him; as a guardian it protects him. And if that is not enough, he calls it the "soul of all my moral being"; it is his essence, without it he would be nothing. 

     This feeling of "oneness" with nature shows up earlier in the poem. In lines 44-50 Wordsworth mentions death; he writes:

         Until, the breath of this corporeal frame,

         And even the motion of our human blood

         Almost suspended, we are laid asleep

         In body, and become a living soul:

         While with an eye made quiet by the power

         Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,

         We see into the life of things.

In this passage Wordsworth presents death as a release from his temporary body, with its "corporeal frame" and "human blood." This release allows him to join in "the power of harmony" with nature and thus become a "living soul". For me, this highlights the cyclical quality of nature and suggests that if we are in tune with nature, we will continue to be reborn through nature. 

     I love nature! Fond memories of family camping trips help get me through long winters full of dirty streets and frozen sidewalks. I have had many life-altering experiences in nature that have helped ground and teach me. I am "a lover of the meadows and the woods/ And mountains; and of all that we behold" (104-105); and reading "Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey"  enriched my feelings about nature and made me see its power in a different light. Nature, as William Wordsworth presents it, has the power to form and sustain and the power to defeat death. Go Nature!