Difference between revisions of "Felicia Hemans"
From Commonplace Book
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=Poetry= | =Poetry= | ||
==Casabianca== | ==Casabianca== | ||
| − | * mixing ballad meter with orientalism | + | * mixing ballad meter with orientalism '''for a female audience who must emulate these self-sacrificing values''' |
* importantly it's narrative, again balladic, vs. lyric | * importantly it's narrative, again balladic, vs. lyric | ||
* story of filial devotion past death, nobility | * story of filial devotion past death, nobility | ||
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=Context= | =Context= | ||
| + | * Hemans a professional, commercial poet: cf. [[Leighton 1992]] for a discussion of her success and work in Keepsake-style annual publications | ||
*from Charles's seminar: | *from Charles's seminar: | ||
** FH is representative of a type of piety that gets articulated in Anglo-American poetry | ** FH is representative of a type of piety that gets articulated in Anglo-American poetry | ||
** Elizabeth Gray, NZ scholar: second wave feminsm takes for granted that women's religious poetry participates in patriarchy: taking it away takes away the most salient position from which these women could speak | ** Elizabeth Gray, NZ scholar: second wave feminsm takes for granted that women's religious poetry participates in patriarchy: taking it away takes away the most salient position from which these women could speak | ||
Latest revision as of 15:17, 27 October 2017
Poetry
Casabianca
- mixing ballad meter with orientalism for a female audience who must emulate these self-sacrificing values
- importantly it's narrative, again balladic, vs. lyric
- story of filial devotion past death, nobility
- last stanza (36-40):
With mast, and helm, and pennon fair, That well had borne their part - But the noblest thing which perish'd there Was that young and faithful heart!
The Image in Lava
- her note: "the impression of a woman's form, with an infant clasped to the bosom, found at the uncovering of Herculaneum."
- "woman's heart hath left a trace / those glories to outlast" (7-8)
- "childhood's fragile image...survives the proud memorials reared / by conquerors of mankind" (9, 11-12)
- compare to Ozymandias: not the total futility of saving something against time, but that the mother/child bond (rather than conquerors' monuments) will survive
- the aphoristic point (33-40):
Oh! I could pass all relics Left by the pomps of old, To gaze on this rude monument Cast in affection's mould. [ ] Love! human love! what art thou? Thy print upon the dust Outlives the cities of renown Wherein the mighty trust!
- genre of infant mortality poems
- in some ways characteristic Romantic distinction between Man's monument and Nature but here nature leaves a monument (see my note above about Ozymandias)
- relics less holy than the grasp between mother and child: redefining the pilgrimage
- the strangeness of relics in modernity -- it's not taken for granted anymore
- love as a secular religion?
Context
- Hemans a professional, commercial poet: cf. Leighton 1992 for a discussion of her success and work in Keepsake-style annual publications
- from Charles's seminar:
- FH is representative of a type of piety that gets articulated in Anglo-American poetry
- Elizabeth Gray, NZ scholar: second wave feminsm takes for granted that women's religious poetry participates in patriarchy: taking it away takes away the most salient position from which these women could speak
