For Wednesday, I've asked you to read the Preface and the Blecki introduction to this book, and then to browse the Table of Contents and pick a couple of poems to read for class tomorrow.
Which poems drew your attention? What particular features of this book are you interested in exploring in greater depth? What surprises or perplexes you about it?
Reflect here.
Deadline: Friday (3/20), noon.
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From what we talked about on Wednesday, it seems like these authors have a very "one foot in the grave" kind of mentality. Every other poem seems to be about death or dying or moving toward the bitter end. It's really strange to me especially because in the preface it says that Susana Wright, Martha Milcah Moore, and Hannah Griffitts all lived to be almost 90 years old. Although, as we discussed in class, they could have been focussing more on the death of children that was so prevalent during these times. Flipping through the table of contents and just picking out poems with death in the title, it looks like they could make up almost fifth of the total works in the book. Interesting that MMM would choose this as (presumably) one of her themes.
I was also struck by the degree to which death was a prevalent theme. I find this interesting as poetry that relates to death seems to correspond in popularity with that which references god or religious imagery. I.e. MMM was devout as were, evidently, at least some of those she included. This is important to me as I have, since youth, wondered a great many "whys" in the general direction of wherever my brain stores information related to religion and its existence in the human animal. One commonality that I read about and seems to hold generally "true" is the way in which suffering and religion seem to run together. Countries with higher rates of poverty, disease, famine, suffering and death also tend to be more religiously zealous. This then leads me to wonder if the surviving religious traditions exist as they fulfill a need in relation to suffering and, more specifically, death.
It occurs to me that it must be a great psychological comfort to think that your suffering will be recompensed after you die; that friends and loved ones are not truly dead and gone as are other animals but can be with you again (if you keep zealously within the teachings of whatever religion and ensure that those around you toe the line as well). Thus, one of the ways in which these poems impact me is that they bear out the idea that the death and probable suffering that surrounded these women *may* have given these women a greater motivation to stay within their religion (in addition to other motivations, I am sure) than people who are surrounded by less psychological trauma as well as using the theme of death to explain the presence of the christian one.
A poem that drew my attention was "An Epithalamium on the Marriage of E.D. with F.B." I didn't realize how popular the subject of marriage was because i normally categorize C18 literature into elegy, retirement, and friendship. What struck me though is how this poem actually seems to praise marriage. All of the poems on marriage we've read thus far have bashed marriage and encouraged or revealed same-sex desire. But this poem references the "happy pair..where tenderest love cements two minds." This poem is not congruent with the times as we've learned that marriage was regarded as a way just to have sex and procreate. The poem talks about the tender love and "solemn joys" of marriage and surprised me with its enthusiasm. This poem is one of the very few that we have read that is overall happy and just dwells on the joys of marriage rather than picking it apart like most poems do.
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