For Credit: Love, Desire, and Marriage

Here are three short poems that follow up on some of the themes that Ez introduced in class today on Monday with reference to Seward's "To Time Past" and that Dhara further amplified in class discussion on Blamire's "Oh Donald Ye Are Just the Man." How much room is there in C18 poetry for women to express sexual desire, discuss sexual desire between women, question heterosexual desire, critique the institution of marriage? How do these issues bleed into one another and how do they get isolated?

The first poem is one of the most frank expressions of homoerotic desire to be found in C18 literature, Aphra Behn's "To the Fair Clarinda, Who Made Love to Me, Imagined More than Woman." (Written in 1688, the poem belongs to the "long eighteenth century" rather than the 1700s.) The second is a peculiar little piece that...well what is it saying exactly? Does this poem reflect desire for another woman, or simply a rejection of men? And is it men's sexuality that's being rejected here, or male power generally? Finally, there's another, longer, anonymous poem, which doesn't address same-sex desire necessarily, but it does question the "normalcy" of heterosexuality, particularly sexual desire between married people.

How do these poems illuminate, amplify, or contextualize the possibility of same-sex desire that may or may not be expressed in Seward's "To Time Past"? How do these poems illuminate, amplify, or contextualize the critique of marriage that may or may not be expressed in Blamire's "Oh Donald"? Offer your reflections here.

Alternatively, respond to the question that was asked in class today: are there C18 woman-authored poems that unambiguously express or describe heterosexual lust, longing, or love? Are all C18 men dogs?

No particular deadline here--it may take us a while to work our way through that handout of three poems. Likewise, since we haven't had a chance yet to finish with Greville's "Prayer for Indifference," feel free to reflect on its connections to the Jo Dee Messina video in the post below--I've removed the deadline on that one as well.