I put Anne Finch's "Noctural Reverie" in the early lineup for several reasons:
- It's not like anything else we've read thus far.
- It makes no reference to the author's gender, relationships, or social status.
- It is one of the woman-authored C18 poems that Backscheider believes should be part of the canon of Great Poems.
- It is written by one the few C18 woman poets who was never forgotten and who is generally agreed to be deserving of a place in the revised canon of Great Writers.
Offer your reflections on this poem here. Some questions you might consider: What strikes you as interesting or compelling about this poem? What is it about? How does it depict nature differently than Anna Seward's much later "Sonnet" about winter?
Deadline: Friday (2/13), noon.
2 comments:
I think the largest difference between Finch's "Nocturnal Reverie" and any of the other poems we have read for this class is the actual message within the poem. The poetry we have read prior to this piece is concerned with various social or moral aspects of life, from the plight of rural workers to the questioning of whether or not to take a lover ("the Lover: A Ballad").
Unlike these previous poems "Reverie" is pastoral in nature and simply recounts the state in which the poet gathers his or her best inspiration: during the quiet and peaceful night. The night is an escape from "Our cares, our Toils, our Clamours" to the extent that "the Elements of Rage disarm'd, / O'er all below a solemn Quiet grown."
The poem's thorough description of the nighttime scene as well as its use of simple language break from the tradition of the neoclassical trends of the Enlightenment and herald in the beginning of the Romantic age in a way that none of the other poetry read for this class has done yet.
In addition to what Liz said, Finch's "Nocturnal Reverie" puts a good amount of focus into wildlife activity within this nature. She invokes imagery of horses, owls, sheep, and curlews. In contrast, Seward focuses predominantly in the visceral qualities of nature, circumventing the living aspects and thus presenting it as something quite austere and stoic.
Finch's addition of these woodland critters breathe a quaint vivacity into her simple pastoral language. Although her structure is neither floral nor Latinate, the presence of wildlife animates her words. I almost imagined this poem being the inspiration for some of the expository scenes in Walt Disney's Bambi.
Her language is incredibly sensually appealing, for as Finch speaks of "the torn up forage in his teeth," the reader can literally hear this beautiful beast consuming the delicate night. A parallel position is created where we become one with these animals, immersed into this reverie. We consume alongside the creatures and take in the scene until "a sedate content the spirit feels."
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