The Badger

What struck me most about John Clare's poem, "The Badger," was its sound. However, instead of paying attention to the rhyme and meter, I was drawn to the actual narrative noises in the poem. Because the rhyme scheme is a very standard AABB scheme, I fell into a very natural rhythm while I read it. I wasn't distracted trying to figure out how to say each verse (like I am with Burns's poetry), so I could focus on what was actually happening in the poem. In this sense, "The Badger" almost reminded me of Hemans' "Casabianca" or other poems of the sort.

These narrative-type poems set themselves apart from much of the Romantic poetry we've read. A lot of the poems in this course tend to vacillate between effusive, stream-of-consciousness style verse (which the poets oftentimes illustrate with complex meter, rhyme, and diction) and narrative lyric. Even some of the active lyric portions of the poems, though, can be confusing. At its most complex, Romantic poetry is a hodge-podge of form and content intricately woven into verse.

"The Badger" is one example of Romantic poetry that abstains from this tendency. We must ask, then, how is it romantic? I think that the poem is romantic in two essential ways. Firstly, it says something grand: it comments on the violence of men toward the animal world and asks us to question what we think we know about perpetrators and victims. Here is a badger--a supposedly awkward, aggressive, unattractive animal--fighting for his life and being beaten to submission by a group of cackling men with nothing better to do. What does this say about mankind?

Secondly, the poem is romantic because it draws the reader into a live-action journey, where everything is chaotic, loud, and rushed. The repetition of sounds throughout the poem does this the most. The badger "grunts," "cries," "cackles," and "groans." The men "hoot," "break," "tumble," "clap," "laugh shout and fright," "shout," "hollo," "uproar" "swear and reel," and "urge." Even the wounded hare and the swarm of bees (who are minor characters in the poem) buzz and make a commotion. Reading the poem, then, is an experience in itself. It is not merely a flash of pretty images and metaphors, but a full live-action journey.

An Unenthused Opinion of the Nightingale

Compared to Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale, Clare’s The Nightingale’s Nest portrays an unromantic description of the famous bird. It is hard to read John Clare, like most of the other Romantic Poets, without taking into account his lifestyle and upbringing. Clare’s peasant upbringing is important to his descriptions of the natural world. The nightingale is apart of the speakers everyday life and is “heard many a merry year-/ At morn and eve, nay, all the livelong day” (5-6). Although the nightingale is ever present, the bird only reveals itself 20 lines into the poem when the speaker notes that it’s strange that “so famed a bird / Should have no better dress than russet brown” (20-21). The speaker is unimpressed by the physical appearance of the nightingale and it’s nest. The nest is described as being made of “dead oaken leaves” (78), “scraps of grass” (80) and “scarce materials” (81), providing an uninspiring image of the famed nightingale’s dwelling. The speaker’s observations of the nightingale describe this literarily famous bird as being pretty ordinary. This unromantic view of nature can be attributed to Clare’s deep understanding of nature based on his upbringing and lifestyle in the countryside. While Keats portrays a romanticized and enchanting account of the power of the nightingale’s song, Clare’s interpretation is not flowered up. Clare’s writing is much more observation based instead of relying on imagination and glamorized views of the natural world.

Nightingale's Nest

Clare uses a very interesting form in this poem. He uses caesure and enjambment to slow down the rhythm of the piece, this makes the reader feel similar to the speaker who is observing the nightingale in the poem.

One of the most striking things about this poem is that Clare's language is much more tangible than the language of Shelley or Byron but his poetry still describes the beauty of nature. Some of the imagery is truly beautiful and intricate. Clare's use of a less formal voice allows the reader to feel closer to the content in the poetry. The nature described in his poetry is more accessible and therefore more real for the reader.

I have often been reading the poetry in this class and asking if the writer was writing for money, fame, or to write. I found that Clare lived as a peasant and this may be why he was able to write in such an accessible, "common-man" type of way. After learning this, I considered the idea that Clare may have wrote this poem about a nightingale knowing that it would sell since birds were a popular poetry topic.

“The Poet in His Joy” – towards a realization of happiness in poetics through John Clare

Clare is such a joy to read, and is probably my favorite Romantic poet next to Blake and perhaps only rivaled in some ways by Keats. I loved reading the other blog posts about language and "poesy" in regards to a retrospective on this course. For whatever reason, Clare seems both quintessentially romantic and also totally grounded in this world. 

Most poets this semester encounter some kind of despair, put-on or not, but John Clare, who loved, Jain-esque, the dirt of the world and the insects burrowing in the grass beneath his feet, faced the great sadness of being kept in an insane asylum for the last twenty years of his life. I believe that Clare’s work principally focuses on a sought-after beauty and happiness, though not one, as in Keats, that functions in terms of fancy and imagining, but rather in the materiality of the world. “True poesy is not in words,” he writes in “Pastoral Poesy.” “But images that thoughts express” (1-2). What are the images of which Clare is fond? “The dust mills that the cowboy delves / In banks for dust to run…The morn with saffron strips and gray, / Or blushing to the view, / Like summer fields when run away / In weeds of crimson hue” (21-22 and 69-72). I like Clare because, to me, he seems to resist a kind of intellectual analysis I usually bring forward in my poetry reading – the work is simple, full of color and life, and rests on “humble quietness” (108). The poems seem to match the days we’re now in – light-strewn, grass-bent, work-shy and framed by the patience of trees. I can very much see how these poems may be boring, as their pleasantness doesn’t reach the lofty perfumes of Keats, the drawling narratives of Wordsworth, the smacking heavens and hells of Blake, the metaphysics of Shelley, the dreams of Coleridge, the bawdy-puns of Byron, nor the political concerns of Barbauld. Yet, for whatever reason, the poems of Clare feel the closest to nature in terms of their being “as harmless as a song” (112). We’ve witnessed natural apocalypse and extreme beauty – Clare’s wants the human being as idle witness, as he writes in “The Nightingale’s Nest”: “let the wood gate softly clap, for fear / The noise may drive her from her home of love…For we will have another search to-day, / And hunt this fern-strewn thorn clump round and round / And where this seeded wood grass idly bows, / We’ll wade right through, it is a likely nook” (47-50). Clare’s poems seem a likely nook for these happy days.

The Nightingale's Nest

I thought it was really interesting that in the biography about Clare it mentioned that he was always looking for help and assistance in getting his pieces ready to print and to bring out to the public. When I noticed the lines in The Nightingale's Nest that were originally from Keats, I wondered if this was included in that pattern of needing assistance. Would Clare have considered this assistance? I know that several of the poets we've read have referenced other poets or had other poets help them, so I know that this is not completely abnormal, but I thought that the direct use of Keats' lines were really interesting. I thought it worked, but I didn't think of highly of them as I did when Keats wrote them. I almost feel badly about that because I did really like this poem, but even though the lines sounded good here, I thought they sounded better with Keats. Maybe that's just because Keats was Keats and you can't quite compete with him, so that's why it doesn't quite work as well.
The other thing I found really interesting was the grammar. As it also said in the bio, Clare didn't really pay much attention to grammar and his work was often cleaned up by his editor. Both this fact, and the fact that he felt he needed the help of other poets really intrigued me. That information makes me think that Clare was a really insecure poet, but I didn't get that sense through his writing so much. That being said, it doesn't seem like Clare felt his grammar needed to be cleaned up, the only thing he seemed to explicitly ask for help was the actual writing. Would Clare think that his writing was really his own if John Taylor published his work only after having cleaned up the piece himself?

Images not Words

My final post is inspired by Addie's post. After reading her post I thought about the final post in the course and about what romanticism really means. We spent the entire semester talking about a time period and about poets labeled as "romantic." What does it mean? It is hard enough to define what poetry is, but how do we define this crucial time period in poetry. I think that John Clare's Pastoral Poesy" gives us one of the closest thoughts about poetry and romanticism.

In his lines, "True poesy is not in words, / But images that thoughts express" Clare captures an element of poetry that we discuss all of the time in class, but it is an aspect of class that we take for granted. Poetry and specifically romantic poetry does not just seem to be about the words. When I signed up for this course, I thought good poetry was about knowing the right words and being able to put those words together beautifully. However, after reading many of the poets this semester it becomes clear that poems are not just collections of words on a page, but rather they provide lines of poetry that suggest directions for your thoughts to travel. Clare's idea that poetry is about images is an important concept when thinking about poetry because it helps us decide why some poetry is successful and why other poems seem to fail in what they attempt to do. 

For example, Percy Shelley's Ode to the West Wind succeeds because the structure of the poem and the intentional decisions regarding language allow the reader to feel the wind in the poem. The West Wind serves both as the topic of the poem, but also functions as a character in the poem. It is not that the wind has a distinct voice in the lines of the poem, but it seems that the wind is responsible for the space between the lines and the order and configuration of the lines and words. Shelley gives the reader images and feelings about the wind that transcend the meaning of any individual word or line. However, I felt Felicia Hemans Casabianca failed to present vivid images, and instead (as professor Oerlemans said so well) the poem lost control of its images. We discussed in class the way that no lines jumped off the page, but that does not mean that she did not use big enough words, or that her lines did not read well. This poem lacked "tattoo lines" because word, line, or stanza inspired me to travel to the place of the poem. Hemans describes a dramatic boat fire. This moment is both intense and also filled with an abundance of interesting and rarely seen images. However, she does not take advantage of such a rich topic, and rather than allowing the reader to be on the fiery boat and feel the heat of the fire, the poem describes the scene in a way that the reader does not fully understand the picture that Hemans is trying to create. 

Thoughtlessness Of Thought

As we wrap up the semester and I write my final blog post, Clare’s “Pastoral Poesy” seems a fitting focus to conclude a Romantic course. I will admit the first thing I did before reading this poem was Google the word “poesy” and found it to be a body of poems or the or the art or composition of poetry – thus pastoral poesy would appear to be the epitome of a typical “romantic” poem.

“True poesy is not in words,

But images that thoughts express,

By which the simplest hearts are stirred

To elevated happiness”

To me, these lines immediately echoes what we have stated all year, that poetry can change the world – that a poem is more than a collection of words with a meter and rhyme scheme, it is an “image” that is capable of changing the emotions of those consuming it. The rest of the poem is then somewhat of a commentary on this idea or a commentary on nature poems. As the poem progresses I find it difficult to understand Clare’s tone and attitude towards these type of pastoral poems. Is he praising the poets who can find the beauty in every form of nature? Or is Clare being somewhat ironic and criticizing poets for turning every piece of nature into some sort of art? Of course whichever stance Clare is taking it must be acknowledged that he is writing a poem about nature.

“Will simple shepherds’ hearts imbue with nature’s poesy” (73-74)

Retrospectively, “Nature’s poesy” seems to be applicable to all the poets we have read for this course. Beyond the literal nature filled content of so many of the romantic poems, aren’t the romantic poets completely representing what it means to imbue hearts (at least they want to) to look at one’s somewhat mundane surroundings and make them grandiose with meaning. And further to compose these poems in a way that appears effortless and emphasizes the "thoughtlessness of thought" (27). John Clare appears to have a firm grasp and awareness of what the poets of the time are trying to accomplish with their poetry and acknowledges it in a manner that many other poets do not.

Women Dependent on Men's Affection in Hemans

In Corinne at the Capitol, Properzia Rossi, and The Indian Woman's Death Song Felicia Hemans explores the idea of women who are unable to live without the affections of a beloved man. In Corinne at the Capitol,  Corinne is in the midst of what should be a triumphant moment, being honored in the same vein as Petrarch, but yet sadness is already creeping in. The poem ends with the sentiment "Oh! Art thou not / Happy in that glorious lot? - / Happier, happier far than than thou, / With the laurel on thy brow, / She that makes the humblest hearth / Lovely but to one on earth!" The poem states that Corinne's personal success is outweighed by her failure to secure the attentions of the man she loves, and to make the humblest home appealing to him. The consequence of this failure is played out in more depth in Properzia Rossi, where the goal is that "he may yet, / Feeling sad mastery there, perchance regret / Thine unrequited gift." It is taken farthest in "Indian Woman's Death Song"  where the woman spurned by her husband kills not only herslef but her infant daughter to speare her a similar fate. What perplexed me about Hemans' dedication to this topic was its seeming contrast with her life, as a personally successful poet. She achieved the sort of success that Corinne attained but seemingly was more satisfied with her result, given the information in her biography.

Hemans' Possible Disingenuousness

            On the surface, Felicia Hemans appears to be a poet who reinforces nationalist sentiment.  The tone of her poems is often rapturous of England and its inhabitants, in effect strengthening the status quo.  However, I believe that Hemans’ intentions are more nuanced than they first appear.  I believe that she is deliberately calibrating her enthusiasm, so as to exaggerate the merits of the society she lives in.  This could be meant to appease or placate her audience, but it is also possible that Hemans means to mock her country’s values through hyperbole.

            “The Homes of England” exalts the various residences of the country.  The language Hemans uses to describe the English countryside is hyperbolically favorable, for she notes how the homes are at once “stately,” (1) “merry,” (9) and “blessed” (17). However, the most telling sign of Hemans’ ulterior motive is her suggestion of equality between clearly unequal objects.  For example, Hemans venerates both “hut and hall” (34).  The fact that she considers both the homes of the poor and those of the rich to be equivalent is a sign of her exaggeration.  Hemans also describes the home as the place “Where first the child’s glad spirit loves / Its country and its God,” (39-40) suggesting that “God” and “country” also parallel each other. 

            By itself, “The Homes of England” may seem like a sincere poem.  However, when placed in conversation with poems like “Casabianca” it takes on a more sinister quality.  Specifically, the line that denotes the home as the place “Where first the child’s glad spirit loves / Its country and its God” (39-40) is shown to be a statement with negative ramifications in “Casabianca”.  “Casabianca” is about how blind faith in one’s elders and one’s country leads to a child’s death.  The child does not leave his post because his father, a commander, does not order him to.  The child burns to death precisely because of his allegiance.

            “England’s Dead” could be viewed at first as an ode to the many wartime casualties of England.  However, it can also be viewed as a criticism of England’s imperialism.  The dead soldiers of England rest “On Egypt’s burning plains” (9) and on the “Ganges’ banks” (19).  She writes of the ocean, “Even there sleep England’s dead” (48).   The funeral piles of the “rocks” (51) and the seas and shores are their “grave” (52).  Though Hemans’ poem can be viewed as a lament for England’s patriots, it can also be viewed as a criticism of the fact that many of the men did not die in their homeland. The reader is encouraged to find “Where rest not England’s dead” (56), suggesting that England’s imperialism will continue.

on "Properzia Rossi"

I couldn’t tell at first who the poem was addressed to—because the note says she is showing the sculpture to the Roman Knight it seemed the speaker would be addressing him, and at first she seems to as she says “For thee alone” (7), and calls the work a “farewell triumph” (8). She creates the sculpture as an image of herself, one “whose melancholy love/On thee was lavish’d” (14-15) so it seems like she’s addressing the knight. It feels a bit different at the end of the first section, though, when she says “my spirit, wake!” (21) and almost seems to be telling instead the sculpture to come to life with her emotion in order to make the “he” (23) regret not loving her back. It appears as if she is switching addressees, or she could more just be addressing everyone---or maybe addressing the art---the painting that contains both the knight and the sculpture, or some version of herself as the artist through the art.

This poem features a lot of really evident layers and perhaps switches between them---it’s sort of doubly ekphrastic in that the sculpture inspires the painting which inspires the poem. Then there is also the emotion that inspires her to create the sculpture in the first place, and this emotion seems to also run through the poem. The sculpture and the poem are paralleled in this way—as they are both works of art and both act as vehicles for the artist’s emotion. She puts her “thought, heart, soul, to burn, to shine,/Thro’ the pale marble’s veins” (36-7) and, as she compares the building of the sculpture to a rose blooming, also adds “line by line” (35) which suggests that the growing sculpture aligns with the growing poem.

The idea that the speaker/artist’s love is in vain comes up a lot too: “lov’d so vainly” (9), “vain tenderness” (21), “in vain” (104). It offers art as a vehicle for such emotion—that which cannot be expressed in life, or is underappreciated/misunderstood. As much as she says that her love is in vain, after all, she also makes the distinction a lot between fame and happiness. Her love is thus not necessarily completely in vain—only in regard to happiness. The emotion does serve a purpose—namely, fame. While she calls her love for the night “Thine unrequited gift” (25) she later calls her fame “Earth’s gift” (114) to her, which presents fame as a replacement for love, even as she calls it “Worthless fame!” (85)---what the sculpture, and perhaps poem as well, attempts to accomplish. 

She uses the “name”/“fame” rhyme in lines 123 & 125, and it emphasizes the poem’s role in cementing her name via title and also hints at Hemans’s own name as the poet/actual creator of the art. The art here is very much a part of the artist---the entire work of art is a signature of her fame. The “deep thrill” (126) of vibration the speaker equates her name to calls back to the “dirge-like echoes” (79) in the section before.

Also, by the end of the poem, the fame seems to be a way for the speaker/poet/artist to be worthy of the knight’s/her addressee’s love---as though the fame is worthless unless it makes the knight proud of the fact that he was the object of her affection. Of course, that there seemed at least to me to be some confusion about who was being addressed in the poem complicates this ---and it can perhaps thus come to represent a larger authorial anxiety or fear of an indifferent reader---the  poet/reader relationship becoming one of unrequited love from the spurned poet to the apathetic reader. This perhaps would make sense especially for Hemans or just the female poet in general writing for a male audience.

The Troubling Case of the Ideal Feminine in "Indian Woman's Death Song"

Throughout her works, and as the short biography in the anthology notes, Felicia Dorothea Hemans was a vocal proponent of the virtue of feminine domesticity. She viewed the home as the ideal place for women, somewhere they could escape public world meant for their husbands and accomplish meaningful tasks for their families. And hence she subscribes, possibly inadvertently, to the long-upheld tradition of women having partial agency, meaning they can make decisions only that effect their duties as a wife/mother not in regard to their public lives or status. The passivity forced by this pseudo-agency is seen at the forefront of "Indian Woman's Death Song" and even complicates the poem's subject.

In the piece, agency is given to three characters: the woman, the river, and the woman's husband. Yet, as may be imagined from my intro, these agencies are in no way equal. While the woman has no action but to sing and bear her child, the river is constantly called upon to act, "Roll on!" (20). And though this may be seen as a command, what it also highlights is the woman's powerlessness. She is at the hands of the "Father of ancient waters," which is coincidentally another man (17). Thus I believe that the woman is robbed of her most defining action, the suicide, because it is an action done by the river, not by her. We do not see her decide to place the canoe in the river, but only the canoe gliding at a "fearful" speed, or a speed which one cannot choose.

To bring this a step further, the woman defines herself in terms of her jilted love (24-31) instead of characteristics inherent to her. Yes, in the opening stanza she is defined as acting "proudly and dauntlessly" and that she looked "triumphantly" as her death approached, but these are all defining her attitude toward death, not her as a person apart from this action. There is no woman outside of her death and therefore there is no woman outside of her husband. In effect, Hemans creates a female character that is nothing but a shell through which to convey a suicide and thus the suicide in someway becomes general or dulled. The consequence of losing a life is diminished because the import of that life defined by Hemans (i.e. the woman's ability to be a good wife) is already determined.