1. As a group discuss one sonnet other than the two Shakespeare one we looked at and decide what the central conceit is and how it develops...
2. Why are Blakes' poems reproduced in the reader divided into poems of 'Innocence' and 'Experience'?
3. Can you find some colour plates of the poems to upload?
4. How do the images and text work together in the examples we are looking at?
5. How is Blake considered in the history of English literature, and why?
6. Can you discover more popular cultural references to Blake?
7. Analyse one poem by Blake according to the schema I introduce in class week 7-8.
8. What was the impact of Rousseau’s revolutionary idealism on
Blake?
9. How does Rousseau’s assertion of women’s equality read to a modern audience?
10. What really happened at Villa Diodatti??
tbc...
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1. As a group discuss one sonnet other than the two Shakespeare one we looked at and decide what the central conceit is and how it develops...
ReplyDeleteSonnet by Edmund Spencer, 'Ice and Fire'
The title itself is a conceit, which is a metaphor for love. The whole sonnet talks about how confused Spencer is by his relationship with this person: "how comes it that my exceeding heat is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold." (lines 5 and 6)
There he lays out how he doesn't understand how no matter how much he burns for her, she never warms to him. And the more she doesn't care, and is "cold so great," his "flames augment manifold." (lines 2 and 4)
It is at the end of the sonnet that Spencer figures it out: "Such is the power of love in gentle mind, that it can alter all the course of kind." (lines 13 and 14) Love, by nature, can be ice vs. fire, and can drive a gentle mind to 'burn up' with desire. And the last word of the sonnet, "kind," can be taken in a couple different meanings. For one, love can alter all the course of kind in the sense that it can change the world. Like fire and ice, it can carve out the earth like glaciers, or destroy it with flames.
4. How do the images and text work together in the examples we are looking at?
ReplyDeleteThe images that go with each poem give the reader a better understanding of how Blake meant us to read the poems. They are another perspective to look at it from, giving the reader a more well-rounded experience when reading it.
http://www.erudit.org/revue/ron/2007/v/n45/015815arf006n.png
7. Analyse one poem by Blake according to the schema I introduce in class week 7-8.
The schema we talked about in class was that of the sublime, which Blake definitely uses in "The Garden of Love."
In the poem he uses a garden as a metaphor for love, but the garden he knew as a child, "when I used to play on the green," (line 4) was defiled with "a chapel built in the midst" (line 3), and it was "filled with graves and tombstones where flowers should be" (lines 7 and 8).
So in the context of the sublime, Blake is portraying love as being beautiful and terrible.
On the one hand, it is beautiful because it is symbolized by a garden, with fragrant flowers and the idea of growth and new life.
On the other hand, love can be made terrible, and has been in this case, by the church. The tombs represent the church killing love. This could be in the form of keeping two people who love each other apart, such as homosexuals, or people from different ethnicities or social classes. It could also be taken to mean the church is killing love for God, even, by putting so many restrictions on worshippers, and turning religion into a profitable business, rather than keeping it pure.
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ReplyDeleteHi Ianna =)
ReplyDeleteI think that is a good point about the church killing love. I think Blake was talking about the way that the priets and organised religion of the church repressed the freedom of love, but also spiritual love, like you said. Blake was a christian but did not like the way that churches were run for power and profit by Priests who got rich, preached about being virtuous and charitable, but did not benefit the poor. I think when he says "tomb-stones where flowers should be" (line 8) he was referring to the things that he finds beautiful about love, for others and god, are being trampled by the clergy and reinterpreted for their own benefit. The "Priests in black gowns" (line 9) reference cold sobriety and sacrifice, which are part of organised religion such as Catholicism, but in Blake's opinion, not what spirituality is really about.
He also says "binding with briars my joys and desires" (line 11) which sums up the way in which he feels that the church takes the things he loves and metaphorically binds them with thorns. This could also be a reference to the crown of thorns worn by Jesus when he is hung on the cross. He is saying that the way that religion is practised by the church, goes against what Blake believes religion means to him, ie, joy, desire and love.
2. Blakes poems are divided into songs of innocence and songs of experience to contrast his views of the world, the beautiful and the terrible, which is the romantic sublime. The introduction in Songs of innocence contains symbols of innocence, for example, a child and a lamb. It reads like a child's nursery rhyme in a sing-song tone. The poem is about a child listening to a piper play a song, sing a song and write a song. Keynes (1972) says that it is about Blake being called to the art of poetry by the vision of a child. At the end of the poem it says "every child may joy to hear" (line 16) meaning that the audience is actually adults who are the intended audience of his poems (keynes, 1972). By referring to the audience of adults as children, he is again referencing child-like innocence which everyone can have.
ReplyDeleteIn the songs of experience, poems like The Chimney Sweeper, The Sick Rose and The Garden of Love contrast with this innocence. They are about the harsh, cruel realities of Blake's world. The Chimney Sweeper is about a young boy being exploited by his parents to go and do a dirty and dangerous job at a young age.
Songs of innocence contains a poem on the sme theme, but it is more about the sadness of the boy's situation such as his mother being dead. There is hope for him as an Angel tells him "He'd have God for a father" (line 16) and be happy. In Experince, the situation is different, as the boy's parents do not understand that they are doing anything wrong by sending their son out to sweep chimneys, "they think they have done me no injury" (line 10). This is because of the way in which the church which they belong to seems to condone this sort of cruelty (Keynes, 1972). He says that because he seems ok most of the time, "I am happy and dance and sing" (line 9) they do not think they are doing anything wrong since they are good, church-going citizens.
ere are my opinions on Q.9
ReplyDeleteWoman has the same organs, demands and ability as man. “The machine is the same in its construction; its parts, its working, and its appearance are similar” Rousseau ( 1762, p.156).
The moral relations between man and woman are balance. Man is sturdy and active; woman is faint and passive. Man should have both the power and the will. Woman should give tiny opposition.
The function of woman is to make man pleasure/happy. Woman’s strength is in her fascinations, woman can use them to force man to find and utilize his strength. Man is audacity and woman is shyness, the rule of nature arms the weak for the capture of the strong.
The continual discussion on Q.9
ReplyDeleteThe male appears to be a master but he relies on the female, who is given a power of inciting male’s passions more than his power of fulfilling those passions. As a result, male depends on female’s kindness and makes every effort to delight her in order to make her surrender to his superior strength.
Besides, Rousseau (1762) pointed out that “the social relation of the two genders produce a moral person of which woman is the eye and man is the hand” (p.159). They rely on one another, the man educates the woman what to see, while she tells him what to do. They all make orders, obey and follow the other’s guide.
At last, male are the censors of female’s worth by nature, as females are of theirs, the right is mutual.
Hi all ,
ReplyDeleteI'd like to join the conversation. My question will be on Q1
From my view, the first line "My love is like to ice and I to fire".
It is to describe the love relationship is exciting
Because the word "ice" to "fire" (to activate the relationship)
Second line "How comes it then that this her colds so great"
It is to express the relationship to the female like cold ,but the relationship was a good experience. It do brings the question "How comes"
Ianna : I do think the first few lines looks like the starting of relationship , but the author shows he wants real love and hope to seen some development in future.
ReplyDeleteMy last piece of opinion on Q.9
ReplyDeleteRousseau (1762) also discussed the inequality of woman. The reciprocal responsibilities can never be binding on both. Woman should be loyal to her husband and keeps the bonds of nature. Female would never do without male. Her life would be meaningless without his help, kindness and esteem. She is concerned with the man’s thoughts about her virtue, allure and desert. “Nature has decreed that woman, both herself and her children, should be at the mercy of man’s judgement” Rousseau (1762, p.158).
Apart from that, female ought to be used to self-discipline early as throughout her life, she needs to succumb herself to the wishes of the others. Woman’s behaviour is controlled by public opinion, so is her faith governed by authority. She should follow her husband religion and admit his judgement as well as that of her father.
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ReplyDeleteI think Rousseau’s opinions on woman’s equality were a violation of female’s freedom. The discussion of her obligations is intent to compel woman into domestic role (housewife and mother).
ReplyDeleteCole (1913) thinks that Rousseau’s argument did not only confine woman, but helped uphold “a resilient masculinity via a whole matrix of gender norms” as well (p.212).
Reference List :
Cole ,G.D (1913). Translation of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’ s The social Contract, 1762
Here are my findings on the popular cultural works inspired by Blake.
ReplyDeleteSteve (2007) states that Blake’s songs have been adapted by several popular, folk musicians including U2, Jah Wobble, Tangerine Dream, Bruce Dickinson and Ulver since the 1960s.
In addition to that, the painting of Blake The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun (1806-1809) affected writers as well. They both play a critical role in Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon (1981), in which the killer Francis Dolarhyde has fascination with the painting. Dolarhyde imagines himself 'becoming' a being like the Red Dragon featured in the paintings ( Jason, 2007).
The film versions of the Harris’s novel Manhunter (1986) and Red Dragon (2002) consisted of images of "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun". In the former film the character acted by Tom Noonan sported a tattoo on his chest based on Blake's image of the dragon hovering over the woman. The latter film the character acted by Ralph Fiennes revealed a stylized version of the dragon tattooed on his back (Steve, 2007).
Finally, Jason (2007) points out that Jim Morrison ‘s song End of the Night from The Door's debut album cited the lines "Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night" from Blake's poem Auguries of Innocence.
Reference List :
Steve, C. & Jason W.( 2007), Introduction: Blake, Modernity and Popular Culture. Boston: Palgrave
Here are the information about the musicians whose works have been stimulated by those of Blake.
ReplyDeleteU2 is a rock band from Dublin, Ireland. The band includes Bono (vocals and guitar, Edge (guitar keyboards and vocals, Larry Mullen, Jr .(drums and percussion and Adam Clayton.
A German electronic music group called Tangerine Dream was launched by Edgar Froese in 1967. Although the band went through many personnel changes over the years, the founder is always with it. The keyboard trio, Froese, Christopher Franke and Peter Bauman was very popular in mid-1970s.
Ulver ( “Wolves” in Norwegian) is a musical trio from Norway.
Reference List
“William Blake's influences” Retrieved from Wikipedia on 3,May,09 Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake_in_popular_culture
Ianna, I would like to give my opinions on your answer to Q.4. I believe Blake not only used the imagines in his songs to help people to understand them throughly but his ditaste for silence and non-sensuous.
ReplyDeleteIn this regard, it can be said that "Holy Thursday" in Songs of Experience (1794), indicated that the mother was the poem's speaker.(Mandell,L, 2007)
Reference List
Imaging interiority : photography, psychology , and lyric poetry. Yorkshire
10. What really happened at Villa Diodatti?
ReplyDelete“The Villa Didati” on the shores of lake geneva is owned by the Lord Byron (Bloom, 1996). Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and Jhon William Polidori met in the Villa Diodati in 1816. According to Bloom (1996), Polidori’s the Vampire (1819) and Mary’s Frankenstein (1888) were produced a challenge among them (Bloom, 1996) who were also challenged by Byron to put in writing a ghost story. (Ridenhour, 2006).
Furthermore, Mary and Polodori was dreaming in the plan of their narrative after a night of ghost stories in the Villa Diodati. (Arditti, 2008).
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ReplyDeleteHow is Blake considered in the history of English literature, and why?
ReplyDeleteWilliam Blake an English artist who is a poet as well. According to the Oxford dictionary, Blake’s poem points out the beginning of romanticism. Dear group, you can search “history of English literature and key word is Blake” perhaps you will find a lot of information.
Anyway I will write some reasons…
First of all, according to Rickey (1996) Blake had started as a “neoclassical artist and poet” in the year of 1780. However, Rickey (1996) also points out that Blake begun to use gothic descriptions, although in his early critique of Greek and Roman models, Blake already saw “classicism” as an attenuated custom.
Second of all, As far as Makdisi (2003) is concerned, Blake points out that as an artist, he disagree with “Enlightenment”. For example, on page 37, from Gilpin (2004), the author’s example that Blake’s satire offered “an anti elegy to the scientific progency of Newton”.
List of references:
ReplyDeleteGilpin, G, H. (2004). William Blake and the World's Body of Science. Studies in
Romanticism, 43(1), 35-56. Retrieved from ProQuest Central database.
Makdisi, S. (2003). William Blake and the Impossible History of the 1790s. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Richey, W. (1996). Blake's Altering Aesthetic. Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press.
Dear Group
ReplyDeleteHow are you guys? In terms of Question three, I was searching on the net and I found this which you guys should look at.
http://ldms_rotation_lessons.sumacksix.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/blakeshepherd.jpg
It is called “The Shepherd” by William Blake (1789).
How does Rousseau’s assertion of women’s equality read to a modern audience?
ReplyDeleteAccording to Rousseau (1762), “The machine is the same in its construction; its parts, its working, and its appearance are similar” Rousseau (p.156). In other words, Woman has the same appearance, weight, same capability and it works the same way as man.
The relations between man and woman are balanced. Man is powerful and active whereas woman is week. The role of woman is to make man pleased.
What’s more, Rousseau (1762) found that “the social relation of the two genders produce a moral person of which woman is the eye and man is the hand” (p.159).
In this sentence, the author wants to explain that no matter what, in the society the woman is the man’s eye and man is the woman’s hand, therefore, although man teaches woman everything, but at end woman who controls man. In that way woman gets what they want.
Can you discover more popular cultural references to Blake?
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I found Future Music - (January 2001)
Released in 1996, this reissue coincides with the Tate's Blake celebration. Wobble, a cockney mystic, blends Blake's elevated words with his own bass rumbles and atmospherics. It has an uncanny knack of combining past and present, as well as the echoes of distant shores with a dash of Ye Olde London.
Second of all, Big Issues Xmas 2000 - Album Of The Week. William Blake-inspired solo side project, so full marks to Jah Wobble for once again warping the laws of probability in his favour.
Third of all, Music Week (Records out On September 23, 1996) - 14 September 1996
A fitting tribute from one Cockney mystic to another, Wobble provides suitably dreamy but often rhythmic settings for Blake's majestic poetry.
Source: http://www.30hertzrecords.com/inspirat.htm
Push for Sheikh
ReplyDeleteI will take Q5 too.
Enlightenment has strong effects to nowadays societies.
BBC (2009) shows why Blake has enthusiastic with writing. "His long list of works shows relentless energy and drive. As one of the most complex writers known, it is impossible to summarize his career - he was a combination of extremes. His vision of civilization as inevitably chaotic and contradictory mirrors the political turmoil of his era.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"William Blake and the Study of Virtual Space: Adapting "The Crystal Cabinet" to a New Medium"
ReplyDelete"This paper addresses the process of adapting Blake's poem "The Crystal Cabinet" into in a virtual environment and the emergent relationship between his work and the multimediated space within the computer screen".
"Blake is not a Game: Illustrated Page & Immersive Space"
Source:http://www.rc.umd.edu/praxis/designsonblake/guynup/guynup.html
After my research to find more popular culture references to Blake, I found that according to Gilbert, Blake’s work has his modified by popular musicians such as U2, David Axelrod, Lake and Palmer (Gilbert, 2008).
ReplyDeleteGilbert also points out that in terms of children author such as Maurice Sendak and comic author such as Alan Moore have referenced from Blake. (Gilbert, 2008)
Gilbert, J. (2008, November 28). Blake inspires today’s Culture. The Daily Post.
In terms of ianna's comment, Alan, you are right my friend, I also understand that the author wants real love and wants to develope it.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhy are Blakes' poems reproduced in the reader divided into poems of 'Innocence' and 'Experience'?
ReplyDeleteBlake's poems are divided into two sections. Songs of innocence and songs of experience.
The first section is about innocent imagination untainted by worldliness.
The second section is about experience resulted from his feelings of indignation and pity for the sufferings of mankind.
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ReplyDeleteSongs of "Innocence and Experience"
ReplyDelete"The Lamb"
"Holy Thursday"
"The Divine Image"
"The Little Black Boy"
"The Nurse's Song"
"The Tyger"
"Holy Thursday"
"The Human Abstract"
"London"
"The Sick Rose"
In terms of "The lamb" poem, I can easily tell taht it is a child's song, in the form of a question and answer. The first stanza is rural and descriptive, while the second focuses on abstract spiritual matters and contains explanation and analogy.
What I see from Blake's point of view is that, the child's question is both naive and profound. The question "who made thee?" is a simple one, and yet the child is also tapping into the deep and timeless questions that all human beings have, about their own origins and the nature of creation.
I think the poem's apostrophic form contributes to the effect of naiveté, since the situation of a child talking to an animal is a believable one, and not simply a literary contrivance. Yet by answering his own question, the child converts it into a rhetorical one, thus counteracting the initial spontaneous sense of the poem.
The cemtral conceit of Ice and Fire, as Ianna said, is love and hate. I thought her choice of words, "love can change the world" is questionable, since the moral of the poem was that sometimes no matter how passionately one exerts oneself, some things simply cannot be forced to change.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the bisection of Blake's poetry into Songs of Innocence and then Songs of Experience, sparknotes.com (2008) states that they were "published separately as Blake's philosophical understanding evolved". This seems logical, since many of the poems re-use characters and themes twice. Once from a child's naive perspective, and once from an adult's social criticism.
The following link goes to a web-page color plate of "The Tyger" by William Blake: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oQlTAPZU228/SPFkBptAGeI/AAAAAAAAD8M/ldgHMnJ4ll8/s400/Blakes+The+Tyger+xx.jpg
The cooperation of images and text in Songs of Innocence and Experience act almost as emotional helpful hints. They reiterate and re-tell the poem visually, though not all in the same way. All of them are more interpretable after the poem has been read, so they are somewhat suplimentary. One would come up short of answers if one looked at the pictures and then tried to fully grasp the depth of the poem in its entirety. From a humanistic perspective, perhaps the purpose of these paintings is to catch the shallow readers' eyes. While these are notably not Blake's best paintings (see 'Red Dragon' @ http://www.postmodern.com/~fi/morbid/blake_dragon.jpg), he still is incorporating his multi-talented mediums. In the poems we've looked at, the general population usually turns an ignorant or blind eye to the social issues needing recognition. "For where-e'er the sun does shine, and where-e'eer the rain does fall: babe can never hunger there, nor poverty the mind appall", (Holy Thursday). This concept of the sun shining is an example of this form of enlightenment on a social level. Therefore, perhaps Blake only put these simplistic yet colorful sketches onto his pages of poetry in order for the public majority to have more reason to exert their gazes upon what he has to say.
In "The Garden of Love", the image of three women/girls praying/mourning in a green area with trees and life and the binary tombstone certainly shows what image one may have in one's mind after having read the poem. It is subtle, almost not following the poem, since it is told in first person perspective and tells nothing about the other two figures in the picture. The lighting is bright and green. From right to left, the light and vibrancy dulls to near blackness. Alternatively, "Holy Thursday" is a well-lit yet graphic depiction of death, whereas the church and tombstone and black book represent the downfall of joy caused by the Church. In "Holy Thursday", the rich and fruitful land is emphasized in the picture and poem, and the visual binary is the young, freshly dead bodies. Similarly, in "The Garden of Love", there is a visual and literary allusion to a "healthy nature" defiled by human recklessness. In both images, death is scattered out on a green ground.
Kiniko's theory on "Holy Thursday", that the Mother was the speaker, seems accurate to me. She is not specifically the mother of any one child, but the metaphoric missing caretaker who was once a natural role in societies, but due to religion and poverty has been reduced to some kind of careless bi-stander.
According to Paul, "Literature has relativized morality". Regardless of ones' reservations about literary critique and canonization, William Blake is supposedly comparable in fame and success to Shakespeare and Chaucer. One need not be an intellectual or a professor of literature to understand Blake's poems. One need not be a museum curator or artist to understand his paintings. His works were accessible to the mass public and still are.
ReplyDeleteIn Ann Charters' 1991 biographic introduction to "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac, she describes Kerouac's intentions and influences over the nine years of finalizing his book. Kerouac had stated that he wanted to have something reminiscent of Blake's "curvey road" tale.
ReplyDeleteBlake's Red Dragon painting was adapted into a tattoo and film title in the 2002 blockbuster, "Red Dragon".
T.S. Eliot praised Blake, saying "the concentration resulting from a framework of mythology and theology and philosophy is one of the reasons why Dante is a classic and Blake only a poet of genius." (from Selected Essays, 1960).
On the website, "Island of Freedom", Microsoft Encarta '98 Encyclopedia explains Blake's canonization and influence in more modern art: "He also influenced the Pre-Raphaelite painters of the 19th century, and his first editor was W. B. Yeats, who knew much of his poetry by heart. James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, and Joyce Cary, among others, found inspiration in his writings, and he has had considerable influence on modern literary criticism through the work of Northrop Frye. Today Blake is one of the most frequently discussed poets. Of those who actually knew Blake, Palmer left the most interesting estimate of him: "In him you saw the Maker, the Inventor . . . He was energy itself and shed around him a kindling influence, an atmosphere of life, full of the idea. . . . He was a man without a mask.""
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBlake's poetry utilizes Rousseau's concept of the chains and freedoms of man. He wrote a tributary poem titled, "Mock on, Mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau" about the mental and social confines we create for ourselves. The poem uses imagery of sand being blown by wind, which is meant to be seen as the futility of introducing change to an unwilling society. The idea of the "social contract" is often notable in Blake's poems. It is the idea that when one enters or remains in a community, one must produce and work for that community and the community should do the same for the individual. This is what Blake calls into consideration in "Songs of Innocence and Experience". Children are starving and being overworked, the Church is replacing nature with unnatural misery. "Break this heavy chain, that does freeze my bones around. Selfish! vain! Eternal bane! That free Love with bondage bond," (EARTH'S Answer).
ReplyDeleteRousseau's assertions of women's equality does not read well with a modern audience as it seems self-contradictory and sexist. There is a concept of educating women separately and not allowing them to congregate. Obviously, these political concepts would never apply today. He realized that women's abilities were based on social roles, not on their natural tendencies.
What actually happened at the Villa Diodatti was that Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, and John Polidori went to collaborate artistic and creative influences on one another to produce a new, horrifying literature in 1816. The result was the publication of "Frankenstein" and "The Vampyre". What went on was written about in Mary Shelley's Introduction to 1831 edition. "'We will each write a ghost story', said Lord Byron; and his proposition was acceded to," (Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus, 1818). There is much speculation of what went on at the Villa. These speculations have been made into films and books as well, such as "Gothic" and in Chuck Palahniuk's novel "Haunted".
ReplyDeleteHello Josh, well done mate, really good one...
ReplyDeleteDear Alan, you said that BBC (2009) has shown "why Blake has enthusiastic with writing"...do you mind to tell me, have you seen on TV or BBC website? I wanted to see...
ReplyDelete“Ice and Fire” Sonnet by Edmund Spencer.
ReplyDeleteIce and Fire, Sonnet by Edmund Spencer, liken the emotions of one’s nature to the elements of nature, such as Spencer wants the love to obey just like the laws of physics that is fire melts ice and ice cools fire. After reading the Sonnet, I can easily see that Spencer talks about a lady. He talks about love. Spencer is confused by his relationship as he says, “how comes it that my exceeding hear is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold” (line 5 and 6).
In line 12 and 14, “Such is the...of kind”, it is about ice vs fire, and kind means love can change the world. It is obvious that fire is representing Spencer’s heart and ice is representing woman’s heart which is as cold as ice, what I see from this sonnet is that, Spencer’s heart which is fire cannot melt woman’s heart which is ice, which does not desire him at all. Spencer writes every details and explains why the woman does not love him, according to line 5 and 6, “howcomes...cold”.
I am assuming here that Spencer is using metaphor, I mean figure of speech. He speaks of his love, how he feels when the woman does not accept his love. I was thinking what exactly Spencer wanted to say, perhaps he choose fire because fire could melt the cold heart. Because, clearly can be seen the woman did not love him back, thus Spencer says her heart is cold as ice. However, if I read last two lines properly, I can see Spencer wants to clear out that, the nature of love has the power to change natural incident such as fire can melt ice.
I'd like to mention one of the other sonnets, 'To His Coy Mistress' by Andrew Marvell just because I found it really interesting. The title first took me by surpirise as "coy" and "mistress" seem to be a bit oxymoronic in their connotations.
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be a lot of academic debate about what it is actually about. Halli (2001) says that there is a universal assumption that the point of the poem was to persuade the mistress to have sex out of marriage.
The "carpe diem attitude" (Halli, 2001, p.114) seems to imply that we don't live forever so she should give in to the poet and experience sexual pleasure. For example: "had we but world enough and time/ this coyness lady were no crime". This reinforces that life is short.
The reason for the mistress being "coy" however is because of the historical setting. There is no date on the poem in the critical reader, but Marvell lived from 1621-1678. In this time, women protected their virginity for moral reasons and also for economic value (Halli, 2001). It was believed that if a woman was virtuous and chaste she could attain a husband who could keep her and her family in financial security. This was imperative since there was little or no opportunity for a woman to make a life for herself without the financial support of a husband. Also, as this was before contraception was available, there was a high chance of the mistess falling pregnant. Having a child out of wedlock in this time was socially disastrous to both the mother and the child.
Halli (2001) accepts that on the surface, the poem is about seduction. But he believes that it goes deeper than that. He argues that if "To His Coy Mistress" is purely about fornication, it is the only of Marvell's poems which is (Halli, 2001). He thinks that the real meaning behind the poem is more about procreation than sex.
Halli (2001) says that in the 17th century sex was not gratuitous. It was not until the 18th century that sexual pleasure was distinguishable from procreation (Halli, 2001). Halli (2001) believes that the mistress might be coy about marrying and having children, rather than just having sex.
He uses the example "Vegetable love show grow" as the plant metaphor fits between our animal, rational and spiritual souls and suggests growth and procreation (Halli, 2001). Another example is in the line "Now, therefore, while the youthful hew/sits on thy skin like morning dew". This reference to fertlity, the warm and moist woman, suggests that she is at her prime age for having chldren.
Halli (2001) references Aristotle " all souls first desire reproduction" as it is essentially partaking in the eternal and divine. The coy mistress is opposing the 'natural' desire to procreate.
Another reference to procreation as opposed to pure sexual desire is in the line "Let us roll all our strength and all/ our sweetness up in one ball". This has been understood as an image of sex, but Halli (2001) explains that it can also mean the joining of man and woman in sexual reproduction. The "one ball" is not just the forms of the bodies but the baby that will be created by the two people. A further reference "Iron gates of life", is not only a metaphor for the woman who is reluctant to give up her virginity, but also directly references childbirth.
Halli (2001) summaries by saying that Marvell is attempting to seduce the mistress into having children with him so that they can gain "world enough and time" as they build a future together.
What really happened at Villa Diodati?
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Villa Diodati website, “During the summer of 1816, Byron rented the Villa Diodati in the Genevan suburb of Cologny, on Lake Geneva.
The setting provided far more than luxury, for it had been the home of Charles Diodati, the close friend of John Milton, who had visited him there in 1639.
This underlying literary association must have had some impact on the extraordinary current of Miltonic allusions Mary Shelley wove into the fabric of her novel”.
Reference
http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/Places/diodati.html
The image of the villa
ReplyDeletehttp://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/Gifs/diodati.gif