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The Poet As Woman: Shapes of Experience

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The Poet As Woman: Shapes of Experience i THE POET AS WOMAN: SHAPES OF EXPERIENCE A STUDY OF POETIC MOTIVATION AND CRAFT IN TWENTIETH CENTURY WOMEN POETS INCORPORATING A SELECT ANTHOLOGY by HELENE ROSENTHAL B.A., University of British Columbia, 1969 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of EngIi sh We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September, 1974 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of &NG-LI SH The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada Date tfcro&E-R 9 , 1974 i i Abstract The virtual absence of women's viewpoint from the field of poetry and its criticism can be attributed to the subordinate position of women in western culture throughout history. Aesthetic standards, though seemingly comprehensive in their authority, nevertheless reflect this absence, being largely the product of a male perception of reality. Women poets have been discouraged and discriminated against in publication, a situation still not overcome despite current popularity, a result of their achieve• ments in this century. The poetry of women has been seen by most men as unimportant or subsidiary to theirs. A contributory factor is that women have tended to focus on intensely observed personal experience, whereas male poets have been able to identify with the governance of men in dealing with broader issues. Thus, in addition to being held back, women have had to struggle against a lack of understanding and respect for their work. In order to bring about a desired situation in which women can participate with equal freedom and authority along with men in matters pertaining to poetry, what is needed is, first, a recognition that the problem exists, and second,, an appreciation of women's literary importance past and present in contributing to aesthetic human experience. This thesis is an attempt to foster such recognition by showing a) that there has always existed, albeit frequently submerged, a distinctly feminine tradition in poetry, and b) that contemporary writing bears out that tradition while carrying it further in response to twentieth-century experience. As described and documented here, this tradition has a separate existence, a viability and its own validity. Part of the problem iii in extending the aesthetic to include the woman's viewpoint is that dominant trends in our century's poetry reflect the unparalleled technological advances in the culture favoring formalistic concerns and innovations at the expense of women's characteristic concern for meaningful content. The Historical Introduction begins with women's songs in Biblical times, tracing a tradition as it reaches its first peak of individualistic expression in Sappho, is seen in the medieval composition of courtly lays, is manifested sporadically both prior to and towards the end of the Renaissance in Europe, and begins gathering momentum in the seventeenth century. The veritable explosion of poetic energy we are now witnessing is the result of increased activity within the last hundred or so years, during which women have produced an historically unprecedented amount of poetry of high calibre in English, sufficient to permit comparative analysis and evaluation. The Critical Commentary, the major focus for the thesis, is an examination of the quality and range of this body of work as exemplified in the appended Anthology. Consisting of 133 poems, it presents selected twentieth-century work by American, Canadian, English and Australian poets. The poems deal with being a woman, or an artist, or both, giving voice to authentic feminine experience. Because the poets seemingly emphasize content, in its fittest expression, the discussion of the poems, like their organization in the Anthology, is predicated on content-categories derived from a study of themes and subject matters. The conclusion emerging from this tracing of a woman's tradition in poetry and from the close examination of its present flowering is that i V the voice and perspective of half of humanity is being restored in its more equitable ancient proportion to our culture, with attendant implications in the realms of publishing, editing, criticism, standards and teaching. Findings herein demand that standards of criticism should in all justice encompass the woman's viewpoint, incorporating and giving weight to this tradition, enabling women to be recognized as full equals in all aspects of poetic endeavor. V CONTENTS Preface 1 Historical Introduction 16 Critical Commentary on the Poems in the Anthology 73 Foreword 74 Chapter One 83 Chapter Two 109 Chapter Three 134 Chapter Four 151 Chapter Five 173 Chapter Six 197 Chapter Seven 235 Notes 263 List of Works Consulted 272 Appendix: Antholoqy: Shapes of Experience Selected Poems of Twentieth Century Women Poets 282 Section One 283 Section Two 309 Section Three 321 Section Four 335 Section Five 356 Sect ion Six 378 Section Seven 413 Index to Poems in the Anthology 445 1 Preface The great number of women poets successfully writing and publishing poetry today is a phenomenon without precedence in history. As more women join their ranks we can expect that, before too long, at least as many women as men will be publishing, bringing about the possibility in poetry of a hitherto unattained equality between the sexes. The social and literary fac• tors involved in this development have far-reaching implications for the art. From the literary point of view, the more that women engage in writing, the more they define poetry in their own terms; the more women's poetry jostles with men's and develops its own criteria, the more it challenges an aesthetic that is-historicaIly the product of men exercising a near- exclusive dominance in the field of poetry and its criticism. Once one grants that this aesthetic—i.e., the body of critical principles and opinions about taste and the beautiful in art as related to poetry—has developed so one-sidedly, and that conditions now exist for correcting that imbalance, a number of questions arise. What is meant by revising the aesthetic? Can it be done? How is women's poetry presently influencing the aesthetic? If taking the woman's viewpoint into account means that the aesthetic has been deficient, in what way is it still so, and what changes are we to look for? Finally, what is promised by such an action? These are questions I hope to answer as I go along. But to indicate direction, I would say, taking the last question first, that what is promised is a changed outlook towards poetry in which, for the first time, we acknowledge and begin restoring to our Western culture the voice and viewpoint in poetry of a half 2 of humanity which has never yet had equal representation there. The fact that it could not, given the handicaps which women were forced to labor under in history, means that even the little of their poetry that made itself manifest and survived must be brought into a new light of recognition. Once started on such a course, it is possible, as I have found, to discern in women's poetry certain consistent characteristics which distinguish it from the poetry of men. If the aesthetic is to benefit, these characteristics, which amount to a tradition, need to be appreciated and given their due. The social side of this is implicit in the notion of equality. What I mean by equality in poetry between the sexes is published poetry by women equal to that of men in quantity, quality, authority and influence. That equality, despite its current popularity, the poetry of women does not yet enjoy, nor is female past achievement given anything like the recognition accorded male'poets of the past. The work of women in poetry has been treated with condescension at best, with the result that prejudice and neglect have kept us from knowing and appreciating the full contribution of women to our poetic heritage. Thus, it is not simply a question of the aesthetic, but of justice, making any literary discussion of women in poetry a discussion also of the underlying social factors which prevent, allow or (as in current, and certain ancient times) encourage women's participation. Equality will not be brought about until all the obstacles in its way are identified and overcome. This thesis is an attempt, therefore, to define the problem, record success to date in confronting it, and offer suggestions for its solution. The springboard for my argument is the poetry itself, and its appreciation. To this end I have compiled the appended Anthology. In pleading for a 3 revised and enlarged aesthetic, I also hope to share my enthusiasm for, and pleasure in, the excellence of a large body of poetry with those readers who are as yet unacquainted with its range and achievement. In structure, the thesis consists of three main parts: an Historical Introduction, a Critical Commentary, and an Anthology. The Historical Introduction attempts to trace a woman's tradition in poetry as revealed by a study of women poets in the Western world up to and including the emergence of English as a language. This discussion, which takes us up to the twentieth century, necessarily entails some reference to governing styles and periods. The Critical Commentary bases its discussion on the poems in the Anthology which consists of the selected work of twentieth century poets writing in English.
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