Diplomarbeit
zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades einer Magistra der Philosophie
an der Geisteswissenschaftlichen Fakultät
der Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck
British Romanticism and its Revolutionary Women Poets
verfasst von Isabel Perktold
vorgelegt bei Univ.-Prof Dr. Sibylle Baumbach
Innsbruck, im Februar 2018
Plagiarism Disclaimer
I hereby declare that this diploma thesis is my own, autonomous work. All sources used have been indicated as such. All texts either quoted directly or paraphrased have been denoted by in-text citations. Full bibliographic details are given in the reference list which also contains internet sources containing URL and access date.
The work has not been submitted to any other examination authority at the University of Innsbruck or elsewhere.
Innsbruck, February 2018
(Signature)
Table of Contents
1 Introduction ...... 1
2 State of the Art ...... 5
3 Romantic Revolutions and Women’s Writing ...... 8
3.1 Oppression of Women ...... 9
3.2 Political and Social Contexts ...... 10
3.3 Revolutionary Women ...... 14
3.4 Women’s Writing ...... 17
4 Liberté, égalité, fraternité: Charlotte Smith, Helen Maria Williams, and the French Revolution ...... 22
5 “We feel enslaved”: Ann Yearsley’s and Her Contemporaries’ Call for the Abolition of Slavery ...... 39
6 “Woman! rise, assert thy right!“: Powerful Women and Their Struggle for Equality ...... 55
6.1 Anna Laetitia Barbauld’s “The Rights of Woman” ...... 56
6.2 Felicia Hemans’ Records of Woman ...... 60
7 Conclusion ...... 67
8 Revolutionary Women and Their Poetry in the EFL Classroom ...... 70
8.1 Significance of the Topic ...... 70
8.2 Target Group ...... 72
8.3 Overall Teaching Objectives ...... 73
8.4 Content and Structure of Lessons ...... 74
9 Teaching Material ...... 82
10 Bibliography ...... 91
1 Introduction
Romanticism is a literary, artistic and intellectual movement that influenced Western civilisation at the turn of the eighteenth to the nineteenth century. The Romantic era was not only characterised by its emphasis on emotion, imagination, individualism, and nature. It was also a time of political protest and social upheaval, as well as literary and philosophical revolutions. In this period considerable changes in demography, economy, and politics influenced daily life and society. The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, for instance, brought technological and scientific improvements with it, and the French Revolution led to various political transformations. Furthermore, there was a wide range of social issues – a rising middle class, large-scale employment, low wages, poverty, slavery, horrible working conditions, and inequality between the sexes. All these issues are reflected in Romantic literature, since Romantics raised various topics such as politics, class, and gender in their writings. The Romantic era is also denoted by the first blossoming of women’s writing and witnessed the growing importance of female poets. However, due to the impact of the famous ‘big six’ male poets Wordsworth, Blake, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, and Byron, the Romantic period is frequently associated with men only. While these poets were indeed influential and transformed British literature and culture, Romantic poetry was not an exclusively male domain. The diverse contributions and impact of female writers have long been ignored in literary history: “The ‘Romantic’ canon from its first formulation in the nineteenth century until the mid-1980s was characterized by men’s writing” (Wolfson 387, qtd. in Neumann 139). Behrendt claims that this “faulty vision of the literary landscape” (2009: 6) can be traced back to the fact that up to the last decade of the twentieth century academic scholarship, universities, schools, and a great number of textbooks and anthologies ignored and marginalised women’s poetry. This exclusion derives from cultural assumptions that privileged male authorship and regarded women as inferior (ibid. 34). Another reason is the fact that it was not considered appropriate for women to engage in literature or to write professionally in order to earn a living. The revolutions of gender criticism in the mid to late twentieth century considerably affected and transformed British Romanticism and its literature (Hogle 18). Arguments of different feminist movements and gender-theory claimed that women in general and their contributions to culture, literature, and history have been underrepresented. Therefore, they
1 demanded a revaluation of women’s lives and a rediscovery of literature written by women. According to Hogle the “women’s movement for genuine equality in the 1960s and after [...] took until about 1975 to take substantial hold in the academic study of literature in the English- speaking world” (18). This change of thinking “shattered the established boundaries” (ibid.) of the approved standards of the Romantic era and enabled scholars and critics to study, rediscover, and analyse suppressed and marginalised literary texts written by women around 1800. A noteworthy outcome of this revolution was the republication and revaluation of long- lost literature by female writers of this period. Their writings often reflect the women’s daily troubles of living in a patriarchal society but also show women’s deep involvement with political, social, and economic issues of their time (Hogle 18-19). One of the many examples is feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, who “was absent from classrooms and textbooks until second-wave feminist literary critics successfully brought her back into our conversations in the 1970s” (Looser xiv). As just outlined, there have been many transformations in British Romantic literary and cultural studies in recent years. Still, the public and also some scholars have the wrong image in their minds that Romanticism is mainly about the six well-known canonical male poets (Behrendt 2009: 6). In order to challenge these still existing perceptions and to appreciate their achievements, this thesis will discuss Romantic-era poetry by female writers, who have been neglected in traditional literary history and have been excluded from the literary canon. I will focus on rebellious, politically active writers and analyse their various revolutionary thoughts in poetry. The poets, discussed in this thesis, engaged with traditionally ‘male’ topics and addressed pressing social and political issues, e.g. the French Revolution, and supported movements, e.g. campaigns to abolish the slave trade and slavery in the British colonies. In addition, these women fought against oppression, advocated equal rights for women and suppressed minorities, and supported a fundamental rethinking of gender issues. The aims of this diploma thesis are to demonstrate how revolutionary women raised their voices through literature and used poetry as a medium of ‘writing back’ and consciously breaking with former traditions. I will analyse how these poets rebelled against patriarchy and evoked change in politics and society. Their achievements were also significant for emancipation and the development of women’s rights. I further argue that these women are of the utmost importance for our understanding of the Romantic period and transformed British culture, poetry, and literary history. Therefore, another aim is to increase the reader’s awareness of the pivotal role of poetry by women during that time and its immeasurable influence on society.
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The objectives will be achieved by conducting research on the historical, cultural and social context of the Romantic era. In addition, I will provide various close readings of Romantic poems composed by revolutionary women to substantiate my thesis. In addition, their writings will be compared to each other in order to detect similar ambitions and intentions but to demonstrate contrary approaches and divergent political views as well. Since it is conceivably difficult to understand Romantic poetry without understanding the background of the time the poetry is embedded in, the first part of this thesis will provide a theoretical and cultural framework. After briefly outlining the current state of the art, a short overview on the Romantic era in Britain and its historical, social, cultural, and political background will be given. In the scope of this work, I will focus on three major concerns of the Romantic-era, namely the French Revolution and its impact on Great Britain, the British slave trade and its campaign for abolition, and women’s struggle for freedom and equal rights. Furthermore, the chapter will impart knowledge on women’s writing and their legal and political status in Britain around 1800. As it was the most important political event in late eighteenth century and had far- reaching consequences on society, the following chapter will discuss female poets’ reactions to the French Revolution. I will present close-readings of Charlotte Smith’s “Sonnet LIX “ (1792) and “The Emigrants” (1793) and Helen Maria Williams’ “The Bastille: A Vision” (1790). I will illustrate how women, for the first time, publicly expressed their political views and how they addressed their main concerns through the medium of poetry. Moreover, the chapter will explore the changing attitudes towards this political event in the course of time. While lots of poets were very optimistic at the beginning and applauded the revolution, they started to reject it as soon as the upheaval in France radically turned violent. The abolition of slavery is another highly relevant issue many Romantics were concerned with. I argue that female writers supported abolitionist campaigns and were able to empathise with slaves due to their own experiences of oppression. In this chapter, I will study anti-slavery poetry written by Ann Yearsley, Hannah More, Mary Birkett, Mary Robinson, and Helen Maria Williams in order to demonstrate how these poets took a stand for the enslaved Africans, raised their reader’s awareness of the inhumanity of slavery, and argued for its abolition. It can be assumed that the French Revolution with its claim for human civil rights and Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) inspired Romantic female poets to fight for their own liberty and equality. Women’s struggle for their rights and their attempt to be heard and seen can especially be discovered in publications towards the end of
3 the Romantic era. I will discuss three poems of Felicia Hemans’ poetry collection Records of Woman (1828) and Anna Laetitia Barbauld’s “The Rights of Woman” (1825). I will prove that Hemans was not a ‘poetess’ writing about domestic issues only and show how Hemans subtly criticised nineteenth-century society with her powerful poetry. With regards to Barbauld, I claim that the critics’ assertion that her famous poem “The Rights of Woman” is anti-feminist, is not entirely convincing and will provide an alternative point of view. The final chapter aims to offer suggestions how this topic could be covered in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom and will provide appropriate teaching material.
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2 State of the Art
This chapter will give an overview of the state of the art by presenting the most significant secondary sources in the context of British female poets and their poetry in the Romantic era. The aim of this critical review is to show what research has already been conducted in that area of study and should lead the reader to the stated research question. Therefore, the main arguments and research findings of literary scholars relevant to this thesis will be summarised briefly. It can be said that scholars have increasingly been engaged in the rediscovery and reassessment of female Romantic writers in recent years (Behrendt 2009: ix). A major academic in this context is Stephen C. Behrendt, who focuses on female poets whose writing has, for a long time, been neglected and marginalised in literary history. The main message of the book is the clarification that Romantic poetry was not only composed by the famous ‘big six’ male poets. Furthermore, Behrendt elucidates that women were not only passive, and suppressed but, on the contrary, played a key role in actively producing and consuming literature. Behrendt analyses how female poets addressed public issues, how they expressed their opinions during the war years, and demonstrates how they experimented with genre. These revolutionary and sometimes rebellious writers transformed British literature and culture and began – a slow but none the less steady – rethinking of women’s traditional roles and a reconsideration of their political and legal rights. A History of British Poetry (2015) by Sibylle Baumbauch, Birgit Neumann & Ansgar Nünning provides a first insight into Romantic poetry and women’s writing in the eighteenth century. The scholars offer a comprehensive definition of poetry and the different poetic genres. They further address the challenges of the canon formation and of writing literary histories. In Mothers of the Nation – Women’s Political Writing in England 1780-1830 (2002), Anne K. Mellor shows how tremendously influential women writers were during the Romantic era in the creation of public opinion and political ideology. While a range of scholars have followed the lead of Mary Poovey, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Elaine Showalter, Nancy Cott, Nancy Armstrong, and Leonore Davidoff and Catherine Hall in studying the ‘doctrine of separate spheres’, which confined women to the domestic realm in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, Mellor challenges this assertion and argues that this concept needs revision since women had an active role and participated in the discursive public sphere through writing literature (Mellor 2002: 6-7). Exploring all genres of literature, Mellor claims
5 that women’s writing affected society, economy, education, religion, and politics and caused a transformation of the traditional view of a woman as a domestic wife and mother to a new, educated, independent, and virtuous woman. Paula R. Backscheider (2005), who conducted research in the field of eighteenth- century women poets, places special focus on altering genres and women’s invention of new poetic genres. Her findings demonstrate that female poets cannot only be regarded revolutionary because of the content of their poetry but because they altered, revised, and even created new poetic forms in order to break with traditions. Especially relevant for this research is Stuart Curran’s pioneering article “The I Altered” (1988), in which he deals with important literary voices of the 1790s such as Mary Robinson, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Hannah More, Felicia Hemans and Charlotte Smith. Curran mainly highlights their struggles of composing poetry in a male-dominated world and praises their accomplishments, which he thinks are central to Romanticism: The achievement of these women poets was to create literature from perspectives necessarily limited by the hegemony of male values. And that those perspectives should enter the cultural mainstream, was, in the large sense, the foremost view they had in mind, even though they could not from their contemporary recognition have anticipated the effacement they suffered from history (Curran 1988: 205-206).
While the just mentioned scholars mainly provide general information for the cultural and historical framework, the following scholars offer pivotal research findings and close readings which are essential for the analytical part. With regard to the French Revolution, this diploma thesis provides an in-depth analysis of poetry by Charlotte Smith and Helen Maria Williams and links these writings to the political context of their time. Adriana Craciun & Kari Lokke’s ground-breaking collection Rebellious Hearts: British Women and the French Revolution (2001) is one of the first works concentrating on the diverse responses of British women to the revolutionary upheavals and highlighting women’s participation in this political conflict. Further relevant for this thesis is Susan Wolfson (2000), who claims in her close reading of “The Emigrants” (1793) that Smith challenged the notion of gender within literary tradition and history by expressing her political views through a traditionally male-dominated form of literature, namely poetry. Wolfson’s research findings, for example, show that Smith is gendering war: Anarchy, combat, and violence are gendered as the “work of ‘Man,’ with Freedom and Liberty, allegorical females […], his victims” (Wolfson 2000: 536). Neil Fraistat & Susan S. Lanser, who wrote an informative introduction to Helen Maria William’s collection Letters written in France (2001), provide background information on the fall of the Bastille and on the life of the poet in general. The scholars claim that Williams was
6 an “enthusiastic supporter of the revolution” (9) and expressed, in her poetry, her “hopes that the new spirit in France […] will in turn infuse England and all of Europe with a new commitment to human rights“ (15) and will secure peace and liberty. In the context of slavery, the British slave trade, and the evolving abolitionist movement, Moira Ferguson (1986; 1992) demonstrates how poets such as Ann Yearsley and Hannah More implemented these issues in their poetry. The scholar argues that they depict the atrocities of slavery and portray slaves as the victims of barbarous, unchristian Britons. Behrendt (2009: 155) states that by giving the oppressed slaves a voice, female poets also dealt with their own experiences as women. They rebelled against authority and supported the abolition of slavery (ibid.). The final analytical chapter deals with poetry by Anna Laetitia Barbauld and Felicia Hemans. A lot of critics regard Barbauld’s “The Rights of Woman” (1825) as “anti-feminist and a reactionary reassertion of traditional feminine roles in response to Mary Wollstonecraft’s 1792 polemic, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman“ (Bradshaw 23). Bradshaw, however, contradicts this presumption and suggests a refreshingly new view that Barbauld does not approve the ideology of separate spheres but was actually very sensitive to injustice of any kind and was at the same time aware “of the legal, political, and ideological obstacles which impeded women’s battle for recognition […] and of the difficulties inherent in challenging those in a powerful political position” (ibid. 34). In this regard, the thesis draws on Bradshaw’s point of view and will provide further examples to show that Barbauld was not anti-feminist but an important “Voice of the Enlightenment” (McCarthy, Book Title). Regarding Felicia Hemans’ Records of Woman (1828), Feldman (1999) disagrees with various scholars’ assumption that Hemans is a poetess only writing about the home and the family. Instead, Feldman (xi; xvii) argues that Hemans represents strong, powerful heroines in her poetry and thereby challenges stereotypical views about the character and emotional resources of women and criticises patriarchal society’s treatment of women and women’s confinement to the private sphere. In general, the above-mentioned scholars tend to concentrate on one individual poet and view Romantic poems in separation. This is exactly where this thesis sets in and aims at highlighting similarities and differences in women’s poetry. Additionally, it attempts to show how revolutionary these writers really were and how substantial their achievements were for the development of women’s rights but also for the Romantic period itself and British literature and culture in general.
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3 Romantic Revolutions and Women’s Writing
In Great Britain, the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century was a momentous time in which considerable changes in politics, society, philosophy, religion, and in the arts of literature, music and painting took place (Neumann 124). This era intended to break away from patterns of the previous age. Therefore, British politics, but also the rational world-order in general, were reconsidered (ibid.). New political thought (as a consequence of the French Revolution), social upheaval and transformations in economy (e.g. Industrial Revolution) as well as in demography (increasing population and urbanisation) influenced society and people’s daily lives (Looser xiii). These political events and social developments found its way into literature and were reflected upon by novelists, dramatists, and poets. It is conceivably difficult or even impossible to understand Romantic poetry without understanding the historical context of the time the poetry is embedded in. Therefore, this chapter will present required background knowledge and provide an overview of the major cultural, political, and social issues Romantic period. I will start by briefly discussing women’s status and traditional roles in Britain around 1800. As will be shown, women were regarded as inferior to men and had to experience different forms of oppression. Political upheaval and cultural revolutions during this time led to a reconsideration of women’s status and their rights, since women rose against the patriarchal society and were no longer willing to accept subordination and inequality. An overview of these political transformations and of some outstanding revolutionary women will be given. Towards the end of the theoretical section, I will also discuss women’s writing and some obstacles women were confronted with on the literary market.
Periodisation
In terms of time the period is not that easy to narrow down and scholars’ opinions regarding periodisation differ. Neumann (124-125) claims that the Romantic period began around 1780 which were “politically significant years of rebellion and revolution.” Looser is more precise and outlines:
When ‘Romantic’ is defined as beginning in 1789, it marks the beginning of the French Revolution. When 1798 is used, it is to reference the publication of the ‘Preface to Lyrical Ballads,’ a ground-breaking piece of writing about changes in poetic form and content. When the Romantic period is said to end in 1832, it marks the passing of the first Reform Bill and when 1837, Queen Victoria’s coming to the throne (xviii).
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Often scholars state that the Romantic era started in 1780 and ended in 1830 which simply shows the request to delimit periods using beginnings of decades (ibid.). In my thesis, I will adhere to the definition that the Romantic era in Britain began with the French Revolution in 1789 because the period was substantially shaped by the impact of this revolutionary upheaval. I will consider the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832 as the end of the era, since the bill can be seen as one of the first responses to the revolution and “to the increasing calls for reform in Britain” (Neumann 125). In this thesis, I will only discuss poems which were published during this time.
3.1 Oppression of Women
During the Romantic era, women had to face various kinds of oppression. They were seen as inferior to their male counterparts, were suppressed and basically had no rights at all. Women only had few choices and were controlled by the men in their lives – daughters by their fathers and wives by their husbands (Poovey 1984; Mellor 2015: 46-48). It was the opinion of society that a woman’s place should be in the home and she should engage in traditional, socially acceptable activities such as caring for her family, raising her children, running the household, and perhaps doing the shopping (Thompson 227). In addition to staying at home, a woman had to have certain characteristics. She should be kind, sensitive, and obedient. Rousseau depicts this ‘ideal woman’ in his novel Emile (1762): The first and most important qualification in a woman is good-nature or sweetness of temper: formed to obey a being so imperfect as man, often full of vices, and always full of faults, she ought to learn betimes even to suffer injustice, and to bear the insults of a husband without complaint (qtd. in Wollstonecraft 65). For a woman it was of utmost importance to be good-natured and sweet, and to tolerate offences of her husband. Girls were taught to be obsessed with personal beauty and appearance. They had to arouse male sexual desire to get a husband in order to secure their financial situation as it was not respectable for women to work and earn money (Mellor 2015: 47). Moreover, women obtained no education and were only trained in “female accomplishments” (ibid.), such as penmanship, sewing, dancing and singing. Wollstonecraft claims that women were kept “in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone” (6). When finally married, a proper woman was regarded a “familiar household companion” (Poovey 3). A woman had no chance to make her own choices or to follow her own interests as she had to submit to her husband’s will and satisfy his demands. A wife was
9 seen as a husband’s property. She had to obey, had to efface herself and was only allowed to desire what her husband approved and allowed (ibid.). In accordance with this perception of women is the law of couverture, which states that [b]y marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband: under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs everything; and is therefore called in our law-french a feme-covert [married woman] (Blackstone, Chapter 15).
This means that married women had no separate identity, neither did they have personal, economic or property rights. Women “could not own or distribute property, even their own body, or possess custody of their children” (Mellor 2015:46). All these factors led to an increasing separation of spheres during this period and the differences between male and female social roles were strictly defined. Especially middle class women were excluded from public life and had to concentrate on domestic duties, such as housekeeping and child-rearing, while the men’s sphere was the public one, including politics, work and law (Poovey 6-7). Hughes (n.p.) argues that this ideology of ‘Separate Spheres’ emerged because of the ‘natural’ characteristics of the sexes: “Women were considered physically weaker, yet morally superior to men” (ibid.). Therefore, women’s appropriate place was the domestic sphere – the home, the hearth, and the family. There, they had great influence, which was regularly heard “as an argument against giving them the vote” (ibid.). Towards the end of the eighteenth century, various revolutions, which will be discussed in the next section, took place. These led to a general change of thinking but also to a reassessment of gender roles. British female poets and French revolutionary women ventured to engage in political happenings, the French Revolution in particular, and showed that they will no longer accept oppression. Women saw the revolution as an opportunity to gain equal rights and revolted against patriarchy and authority. Because of their major role, the French Revolution is also frequently regarded as a women’s revolution.
3.2 Political and Social Contexts
The French Revolution and the following bloody Napoleonic Wars “turned Europe upside down” (Neumann 125). The revolution was the main symbol of change and threatened the traditional way of life (Poovey xv). Before considering the French upheaval in more detail, it has to be highlighted that there were also other significant social and economic developments which challenged British society and its ideology (ibid.).
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There was, for instance, the Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain in the late eighteenth century and brought many technological and scientific innovations with it. Also the emerging ideology of capitalist individualism was, according to Poovey “invisibly at work” (xv) and was one of the “real antagonists” (ibid.) to traditional life. Further historical and political occurrences were the acquisition of new colonies in the Mediterranean and Africa, the administration of older colonies in India, Africa and Ireland, slavery and the commencing campaign to abolish the slave trade (Fulford & Kitson 2). Slavery, as Murray claims was “one of the most significant social, political, and cultural issues of the Romantic era” (1057). During the 1780s, the slave trade flourished in Britain. In these years, more than one thousand slave ships sailed to Africa and brought over 300,000 Africans to Britain (Walvin 12). It was a well-organised industry and millions of slaves were brought to Britain, sold, and then distributed to plantations in the New World. There, their duty was to plant crops such as sugar, tobacco and cotton (ibid.). The labour was gruelling and wearing their bodies out. As if this was not enough, slaves had to endure floggings and mutilations by their white masters (Murray 1057). The brutality and inhumanity of slavery in the colonies of European countries appalled many and, although defended by some, gave rise to widespread movements for abolition and emancipation (ibid.). Social imbalances like these aroused the attention of female writers in particular and led to various responses in literature. One of the reasons why many women engaged in the abolition movement and anti-slavery poetry might be that they were particularly sensitive towards the suppressed, since women experienced different injustices and oppression as well. This will be discussed in greater detail in chapter five. Then, in 1789, French people started to revolt against the ancien regime and its feudal system and caused the French Revolution (Mellor 2015: 48). This was a momentous time for France, but also had a major impact on other European countries and influenced British politics in particular (Neumann 125-126). In France, absolute monarchy was abolished by the self- proclaimed National Assembly (ibid. 125). This assembly then developed a constitution based on the revolution’s principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity in order to establish “a limited form of representative government, […] [refashion] the administrative and judicial system and […] [curtail] the influence of the church” (ibid. 125-126). Often, the Storming of the Bastille is regarded as the starting point of the riots. The Bastille, a state prison in Paris, became a symbol of the monarchy’s dictatorial rule and its despotism and was stormed by an aggressive mob on the 14th of July (British Library, “Storming of the Bastille”). Clemit claims that the outbreak of the revolution “ignited the
11 biggest debate on politics and society since the Civil War 150 years earlier” (xv) and Neumann (125) explains that the revolution and the subsequent bloody Napoleonic Wars transformed and inverted whole Europe. The origins of the revolution are complex and historians’ opinions vary greatly. A general reason was the social structure of the West and the feudal regime which continually disappeared in Europe (Encyclopædia Britannica, “French Revolution”). According to Neely (xvi), Karl Marx stated that a rising middle class, the so-called ‘bourgeoisie’, called for transformation because its growing economic wealth was no longer compatible with the class’ low reputation in French society and its exclusion from political power. In order to occupy its legitimate place in the country, the bourgeoisie “overthrew the nobility and the monarchy and established a system more congenial to the needs of capitalism” (ibid.). But also peasants, who wanted the full rights of landowners, and other members of the working-class did not want to accept the feudal regime, its oppression, and the fiscal mismanagement any longer, started to revolt and attempted to overthrow the monarchy (Encyclopædia Britannica, “French Revolution”). In addition to social and economic matters, intellectual thinkers (e.g. Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau) demanded change and thought a revolution is necessary to enforce the Enlightenment ideals of liberty and equality (ibid.). During the revolution, crowds of people marched to Versailles to protest and in the provinces, peasants rose against their lords (ibid.). Soon the revolution turned radical and violent. Two prominent political groups, which both fought for power, were the Girondins and the Jacobins. The Girondins, a more moderate group consisting of educated, intellectual men, had a leading role in the Legislative Assembly from 1791 till 1792. The group advocated social equality and economic liberalism, for example, by opposing government control of trade and prices. They also declared war against Austria in 1792 but were then made responsible for defeats. Especially during the September Massacre, the French people turned to the Jacobins, a politically radical and extremely violent club. The Jacobins executed some leaders of the Girondins and led the revolutionary government from 1793 to 1794 (Encyclopædia Britannica, “Girondin”; “Jacobin Club”). The political upheaval influenced not only France but also neighbouring Great Britain. Due to its main principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity many Britons were in favour of the revolution (Ferber 106). They saw in it “the fulfilment of the Enlightenment ideal” (ibid.) and believed that the riot would constitute “an enlightened, socialist republic that would respect the natural rights of all” (Mellor 2015: 45).
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However, the positive attitudes towards the revolution were not shared by all Britons. A lot of conservatives rejected revolutionary ideas as they considered these principles to be an attack on their property and feared insurrections and the destruction of the existing order (Neumann 126). One of the first and most powerful reactions came from Edmund Burke. In his publication Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) he argued for tradition, refused innovation and advocated moderate reform instead of radical revolution (Neumann 126.) In addition to Burke, other poets, novelists and dramatists took to their pens and reflected on the ongoing events by advocating democracy, justice, and equality (ibid.). At the beginning of the revolution, writers reacted positively and supported the revolution. This initial optimism changed immediately after the revolution turned radical. Following the violent and bloody September Massacres, in which Louis XVI was executed, the belief of radical democratic transformation faded even among enthusiastic proponents of the revolution (ibid. 126-127). More generally, the downfall of an entire political system led to disputes about British politics. Many writers realised social injustices and disparities in British society and started to illustrate and criticise these in their literary works (ibid. 124). Romantics transformed their attitudes towards society, as “society had become a repressive, even corrupting force, controlling and dominating its citizens” (ibid.). Despite the September Massacres which “alienated the majority of British at home” (Craciun & Lokke 3), some radical British expatriates, members of the British club “Friends of the Rights of Mas associated at Paris” (ibid.) still supported the French Revolution. During a meeting to celebrate the new Republic, the British Club acknowledged women’s contributions to the revolution and to liberty: (11) [to] the Women of Great Britain, particularly those who have distinguished themselves by their writings in favour of the French revolution […]; (12) [to] the Women of France, especially those who have had the courage to take up arms to defend the cause of liberty (ibid.)
This praise shows the important role British and French women played during the political upheaval. Their significance and involvement in the French Revolution will be further discussed in the following subchapter.
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3.3 Revolutionary Women
As just outlined, the turmoil in France also gave rise to revolutionary women who believed in liberty and equality and opposed their inferior status and suppression. During the revolution women rose in order to march the streets to proclaim their discontent and to support the revolution’s principles. The upheaval also ignited a revolutionary spirit in Great Britain and women began to campaign for civil rights and education for all.
Women’s Role in the Revolution
Even before engaging in revolutionary activities, women wrote and were the subject of pamphlets to reveal different inequalities in French society. They showed their disapproval regarding marriage laws, endorsed the legalisation of divorce and complained about the lack of education for girls (Thompson 226-227). Then, during the political riots in France, women actively supported the revolution’s cause. This is in keeping with Thompson (226), who claims that women played an important role in revolutionary France. They took action and frequently engaged in rallies and demonstrations. Women in need, for instance, took to the streets, marched to Versailles, and protested about the lack of food and the high cost of bread (ibid.). Women also gained fame through other efforts. Charlotte Corday became well-known as the assassin of the French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat (Encyclopædia Britannica, “Charlotte Corday“). She worked for the Girondin cause and during a conversation with Marat she told him about dissidents in Normandy. Marat, then, promised her that they will be guillotined; consequently, Corday took a knife and stabbed him (ibid.). Other women volunteered to take up arms to support the Revolution (women were in fact forbidden to do so) and some women, such as Théroigne de Méricourt, became well-known ‘feminist’ activists. (Thompson 226) De Méricourt was a supporter of the revolution and especially endorsed its promise of liberty: "For I have always been extremely humiliated by the servitude and prejudices under which the pride of men has held my oppressed sex” (qtd. in Encyclopedia.com, "Théroigne de Méricourt”). The activist advocated equality for women and the right to bear arms: “Let us arm ourselves; we have the right by nature and even by the law. Let us show the men that we are not inferior to them, neither in virtues nor in courage” (ibid.). In addition, various revolutionary clubs and organisations emerged in the course of the revolution. One of these organisations was the Société des Citoyennes Républicaines
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Révolutionnaires (Society of Revolutionary Republican Women)1, a political group consisting of exclusively female members (Thompson 225). An assembly in which only women were allowed to participate was unique for this period (ibid. 227). This radical group confederated with the Jacobins, advocated the revolution and engaged in various political activities:
[T]hey complained about indecision and corruption in government, petitioned the Paris Commune to arrest the wives of émigrés and to place prostitutes in national homes for rehabilitation, reported food hoarding, and forced the market women of Paris to wear the tricolor cocarde, the ribbon symbolic of revolutionary patriotism (ibid. 225-226). The establishment of such a society, formed by and for women, denotes the beginning of a radical change since political activism and rhetoric was an exclusively male domain (ibid. 225).
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the major British radical writers during Romanticism, “was a Revolutionary feminist – an advocate of the rights or claims of women in a specific revolutionary situation” (Kelly 1). She believed that the French Revolution would give rise to “an enlightened, socialist republic that would respect the natural rights of all” (Mellor 2015: 45). When she learned that the French minister suggested public education only for men, Wollstonecraft was aghast. She responded with her political essay A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) and “initiated her own revolution, ‘a REVOLUTION in female manners’” (ibid.). Her revolutionary feminism was, as Kelly (1) states, “a writing revolution, exemplified and conducted in writing.” Wollstonecraft was convinced that gender inequality in revolutionary France but also within British society was a threat and an impediment to the development of a democracy. She further argued that “denying an equal education to women was tantamount to denying their personhood, their full participation in natural and civil rights” (Mellor 2015: 45) In her polemic, Wollstonecraft approaches various inequalities between men and women and attempted to achieve educational and social equality for her own sex. By referring to Enlightenment thinkers, such as Voltaire, Rousseau and John Locke, and their universal human rights, Wollstonecraft mainly claims that females and males are the same and should,
1 The Revolutionary Republican Women were responsible for the whipping of Théroigne de Méricourt, “a supporter of the Girondins and ironically an advocate of women’s rights” (Thompson 229).
15 therefore, possess equal civil and legal rights (ibid. 45-46). She even argues that if men would stop oppressing women and finally accept that they are equal human beings, women would become better wives and mothers: Would men but generously snap our chains and be content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, they would find us more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers – in a word, better citizens (Wollstonecraft 118). Wollstonecraft believed that through equal education would come emancipation. She also demanded a reform of female education as girls should be educated in the same subjects as boys (Mellor 2015: 46). The feminist activist also argued that women need an education comparable to men’s in order to raise and properly educate their children. Concomitantly, an educated woman is not just a mere wife or mistress but can become her husband’s companion (Wollstonecraft 2). Furthermore, Wollstonecraft criticises the inequalities of marriage. In her opinion, the already mentioned legal condition of couverture was equivalent to female slavery (Mellor 2015: 46). She argues that husband and wife must be equal partners and believes that friendship is the foundation of a stable marriage, which should be based on “mutual respect, self-esteem, affection, and compatibility” (Mellor 2002: 87). According to Mellor (2015: 46), Wollstonecraft “advocated a revision of British law to enable a new, egalitarian marriage in which women would share equally in the management and possession of household resources” (ibid.). Moreover, women should be paid the same wage for their labour and should be given the right to vote (ibid.).
Bluestocking Circle
Similarly to Wollstonecraft, even upper-class women supported social equality and the provision of education for all. The Bluestockings were a group of intellectual and educated ladies and were led by Elizabeth Montagu (Curran 2010: 171). The women invited men of the aristocracy to their gatherings and refused to spend social evenings with playing cards but discussed literature and debated moral questions (ibid.). They engaged in “classical learning and philosophical meditation, from which women had traditionally been excluded by their education” (ibid. 172). According to Eger (165) these enlightened women were increasingly concerned with questions of liberty and female education. Poets, such as Anna Laetitia Barbauld and Hannah More, who will be discussed in this thesis, were notable members of the Bluestocking Circle.
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Revolutionary Female Poets
The Romantic era also witnessed the rise of the professional woman writer and, concomitantly, the emergence of numerous revolutionary female poets. These poets can be considered revolutionary due to different reasons. First of all, they began to compose poems in a time in which poetry was an almost exclusively male domain (Schabert 446). Secondly, these poets engaged in traditional male topics such as, the revolution in France, politics and economy in Britain, and the abolition of slavery. Thereby they challenged gender roles and the status quo. According to Mellor female writers demanded political and social revolutions and used literature “to promote radical changes in Britain’s legal system of governance, both at home and abroad” (2002: 103-104). However, writing and publishing were not easy for Romantic women in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Therefore – before analysing their revolutionary poetry – an overview on women’s writing and on the obstacles, they were confronted with, will be presented.
3.4 Women’s Writing
Around 1800, new printing technologies and a growing interest in books enabled writers to raise their voices and to be heard in public. During this time, one can recognise an increased presence of women on the literary marketplace. Virginia Woolf describes this transformation as follows:
Thus, towards the end of the eighteenth century a change came about which, if I were rewriting history, I should describe more fully and think of greater importance than the Crusades or the Wars of the Roses. The middle-class woman began to write (78). That a growing number of women composed literature can be observed by looking at the number of biographies, dictionaries, anthologies and assessments of women writers, which were published in this time. One example is Mary Hay’s Female Biography: or Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women of All Ages and Countries (1803) (Shattock 1-2). Women’s writing was multifaceted and women highly contributed to nineteenth-century literary culture (ibid.). Female writers engaged in different genres and addressed various topics. Some contributed to children’s literature, religious discourses or self-writing, which includes autobiographies, letters and personal memoirs (Shattock 1-3). These women adhered to traditional feminine subjects by writing about the home, family life, and further domestic
17 issues. Other female writers were more radical and interested in history, science, economy and politics which were typical masculine disciplines (ibid.). Women’s writing could be traced back to the fact that there was, as already mentioned, a division of men and women into separate spheres and engaging in literature was one way for women to cope with this rigid system (ibid.). They rebelled against authoritative men and society’s corruptions in general. Women also used their increasing influence in order to share their political opinions (ibid.). Following, Mary Robinson characterised the literary landscape of the 1790s:
The best novels that have been written, since those of Smollet, Richardson, and Fielding, have been produced by women: and their pages have not only been embellished with the interesting events of domestic life, portrayed with all the refinement of sentiment, but with forcible and eloquent, political, theological, and philosophical reasoning (qtd. in Curran 1988: 186). Curran (1988: 186) claims that there were actually more female than male novelists in the Romantic era and also the theatre was dominated by women. While publishing in general became easier because of new technology and public demand for literature, female authors had to face severe difficulties due to their sex. Writing in general but especially engaging in public issues, such as politics, was still not considered appropriate for the female sex. Women were aware of this notion but middle-class women, in particular, had to earn some money to provide for their families and writing was an appropriate means of employment which could be accomplished from home (Potter xiv; Shattock 3). Lots of these women, who had to write out of financial necessity, included prefaces to their novels in which they apologised for publishing and argued that they had to do it because of poverty (Potter xiv; Donoghue 160 qtd. in James-Cavan 9). When a woman finally published her work, she had to encounter various obstacles on the literary market. Often they were not taken seriously, were confronted with special restrictions, and had to deal with severe criticism from male scholars (James-Cavan 9). Jane Austen, for example, did not want to state her own name and published her literary works with the simple information ‘to be written by a lady’. However, James-Cavan (9) explains in her introduction to Austen’s Sense and Sensibility that a literary work “with ‘by a lady’ on its title page, if it was reviewed at all, was treated with condescension my male critics; worst of all, a female author’s exposure in print opened her to public accusations of immodesty”. In order to avoid discrimination or prejudices, many writers remained completely anonymous. Virginia Woolf was aware of this and stated: “I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman” (58). Other female authors hid their identities by using male pseudonyms, pen names, or abbreviations of their
18 names (Showalter 58). Letitia Elizabeth Landon was better known by her initials L.E.L., Mary Ann Evans wrote under the male name George Eliot, and Emily Brontë used the pen name ‘Currer Bell’. Besides receiving fair and serious treatment from critics and scholars, publishing anonymously or using pseudonyms preserved a woman’s reputation and privacy and she was saved from her own family’s indignation (Showalter 57-58; Potter xiv).
Women’s Poetry
Despite these impediments, women could not be held from writing. According to Behrendt (2009: 7), one can register around 400 English women who were publishing their poems between 1770 and 1835 and if one also takes Scotland and Ireland into account, this number increases to more than 500. Schabert (448) even claims that women dominated in this genre around 1790. Because of the influence of all these female writers, poetry has started to transform and Robinson proudly stated in her feminist work A Letter to the Women of England on the Injustice of Mental Subordination (1799): Poetry has unquestionably risen high in British literature from the production of female pens; for many English women have produced such original and beautiful compositions, that the first critics and scholars of the age have wondered, while they applauded (qtd. in Schabert 448). However, since poetry was traditionally a male domain, there were again some clear differences between poems written by men and women. Women rarely had the possibility to receive the classical education expected of poets (Heinen 192). Therefore, female writers were clearly demarcated and were inferior to male writers (ibid.). The ‘female’ poem was also distinguished from male poetry because of its tender, delicate, melancholic or cheerful, virtuous, humble, ornamental verse and the social norms women were bound to (Schabert 446). The division of poetry into male and female can be, among other issues, ascribed to the separate publication of literary works. There are, for example, Robert Anderson’s The Works of the English Poets and Alexander Chalmers’ The Works of the English Poets from Chaucer to Cowper. These two well-known collections, which also highly influenced formation of the canon, only contain poems of male authors, while female poets are represented in separate anthologies such as Thornton’s Poems by Eminent Ladies or Dyce’s Specimens of British Poetesses (Schabert 447). According to Heinen, these tendencies to regard women’s poetry as different and subordinate to men’s writing “finds expression in the derogatory concept of the ‘poetess’” (192). A term like this consciously constructed difference and specifically created a ‘feminine’ poetry which demonstrated that women poets were treated differently (Mellor 1997: 261).
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Mellor (1997: 261) claims that the so-called poetess dealt with religious issues and the countryside, wrote about love and the domestic and celebrated home and family. Although these poetesses accepted the hegemonic doctrine of the separate spheres and rejected poetic fame, they “engaged in extremely subtle rhetorical subversions of and resistances to the representation of feminine subjectivity as entirely private and domestic” (ibid.). Their way of implying criticism of masculinity and of the patriarchal society was by identifying with powerful mythological female figures such as Philomela’s Nightingale, the Greek Pythia or Sappho (ibid). In contrast to the poetess, there is the female poet whose “literary tradition […] is explicitly political; it self-consciously and insistently occupies the public sphere” (ibid. 262). Mellor further states that female preachers in the seventeenth-century, calling themselves “the voice of Christian virtue” (1997: 263), paved the way for later women poets, as they fought for the right of women to speak publicly about religious but also political issues. The female poet composed poetry that is both political and didactic. In general, her poetry either
1) responds to specific political events; or 2) argues more broadly for wide-ranging social and political reform; or 3) attempts to initiate a social revolution, […] a redefinition of gender that will ensure equal rights for women (Mellor 1997: 265).
Despite all these obstacles, stereotypes, and discrimination, a great number of female poets raised their voices and revolutionised British literature and culture by discussing influential political and historical events and by simultaneously taking a stand for women’s rights and equal treatment. The following writers can be considered as revolutionary female poets: Charlotte Smith, Helen Maria Williams, Hannah More, Ann Yearsley, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Mary Robinson, and Felicia Dorothea Hemans. Charlotte Smith, a politically radical writer, is famous for her political poems “The Emigrants” and revived the sonnet with her poetry collection Elegiac Sonnets (Schabert 448-449). Anna Laetitia Barbauld sparked controversy with “The Rights of Woman” and her unfeminine political poem “Eighteen Hundred and Eleven”. Other successful poets during the end of the eighteenth century were Hannah More, Ann Yearsley, Mary Robinson, and others, who lent their voices to the oppressed, supported the abolition campaign and advocated liberty and equality. Felicia Hemans earned reputation for her Records of Women, in which she portrays strong, powerful female heroines and renounces men.
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Curran claims that these women poets were the unacknowledged subtext to Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman and that their achievements led to “a radical reordering of existing social institutions” (1988: 188). All these female poets responded to political events, argued for reforms, or attempted to initiate a social revolution, which will be shown in the subsequent chapters.
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4 Liberté, égalité, fraternité2: Charlotte Smith, Helen Maria Williams, and the French Revolution
After the Storming of the Bastille in 1789, a considerable number of British female writers took up their pens and started to engage in the traditionally male domain of political writing. Consequently, a “women’s war” (Walker 145) in print emerged in which “their reactions to momentous events across the English Channel kept pace with those of their male contemporaries” (ibid.). As female writers were so influential, this chapter will deal with women’s poetry on the French revolution and will explore how particularly diverse authors reacted to this political event. While some poets openly admired and defended the revolutionary upheaval, others disdained and rejected it. Furthermore, there were some poets who were very optimistic at the beginning of the revolution, supported its ideals, and hoped for various changes and reforms. They changed their minds as soon as the revolution turned toward violence and war, and declared themselves against this turmoil (Ferber 96). Before going into a detailed analysis of pro- and anti-revolutionary poems of the 1790s, the close connection between their writing and the politics of the public sphere has to be considered (Craciun & Lokke 6). British women’s interest in the revolution in France can be traced back to their own experiences of oppression, their struggle for equal rights and liberty, and the similar social and political deficiencies prevailing in England. Craciun & Lokke add that “French women’s participation, both as [active] agents and victims, in revolutionary events” (ibid. 4) influenced writers in neighbouring Britain as well. Women’s engagement with the revolution through literature and public activism initiated a new era in which the public role of females broadened and from which all women from all classes benefited (ibid.). Therefore, women’s involvement can be seen as revolutionary because female authors discussed issues outside their ascribed private sphere and composed poetry “on those most ‘masculine’ of subjects: politics, revolution, and war” (ibid. 9). One female poet engaging with revolutionary politics and writing to defend the cause of liberty was Charlotte Turner Smith (Craciun & Lokke 3-4). Smith had to start writing for publication out of financial necessity. At the age of sixteen, Charlotte’s father and aunt compelled her to marry Benjamin Smith, a London merchant involved in the slave trade and owner of sugar cane plantations on Barbados (Blank & Todd 7). In a letter to Lord Egremont (1803), Smith described that she was sold like a sheep, that her relatives would have done her
2 French for “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity“; Motto of the French Revolution
22 a greater kindness if they had shot her, and that her marriage was “worse than African bondage” (qtd. in Blank & Todd 7). Her husband was often violent, frequently promiscuous, and harassed her. He was also deeply indebted (ibid. 7-8). Because of the need to provide for her children, Smith started to compose poetry as the only respectable means to earn some money (Mellor & Matlak 225). Mellor & Matlak claim that the writer, in the course of time,
articulated a distinct poetic voice, that of a woman acutely suffering from the inequities of patriarchal privilege, and at the same time developed an artistic craft that powerfully shaped (without acknowledgement) the blank verse and sonnets of her male followers (225). Smith was, as critics stated, one of the “most political, and politically radical” (Craciun & Lokke 4). Accordingly Backscheider explains that Smith “rejected the mid-century turning away from history and participates in the deep engagement with political events and thought that would characterise the work of the women poets of the 1790s” (322). The poet engaged in politics, reflected upon political authority and dominance, and emphasised the power of poetry (ibid.). Smith even defended women’s writing about politics in the preface to her novel Desmond (1792):
But women it is said have no business with politics – Why not? – Have they no interest in the scenes that are acting around them, in which they have fathers, brothers, husbands, sons, or friends engaged! – Even in the commonest course of female education, they are expected to acquire some knowledge of history; and yet, if they are to have no opinion of what is passing, it avails little that they should be informed of what has passed (qtd. in Backscheider 323). Regarding the French Revolution, the writer initially welcomed and approved it but opposed the upheaval as it progressed into the Terror (Birch 928). Her political attitude towards the revolution will be evaluated by discussing one poem out of her successful and ever-expanding Elegiac Sonnets, “Written September 1791, During a Remarkable Thunder Storm, in which the Moon Was Perfectly Clear, while the Tempest Gathered in Various Directions Near the Earth” (1791) and her long blank verse poem “The Emigrants” (1793). Smith’s contributions to the revival of the sonnet are particularly outstanding. Backscheider argues that the sonnet celebrated its rediscovery, which was a “genuine artistic movement” (Curran, qtd. in Backscheider 316), in the eighteenth century and women had a considerable influence in making the sonnet “a great English and major poetic form” (Backscheider 316) again. The sonnet was a prestigious form in England in Shakespearean times. However, “this difficult form with its depths of personal emotion, intellectual rigor, dignity, and sensuousness” (ibid. 318) lost its popularity in the seventeenth century. Similarly, Weisman (23) states that the sonnet vanished from literature after Milton and was neglected
23 throughout the eighteenth century until it was reintroduced by female Romantic poets. Among the earliest poets experimenting with the genre in the Romantic era were Charlotte Smith, Mary Robinson, and Helen Maria Williams. Of prime importance was Charlotte Smith, who published her Elegiac Sonnets in 1784 and was hence regarded as a major contributor to the revival of the sonnet as a popular poetic form (Backscheider 316-317). According to Backscheider, Smith “let sensibility, the picturesque ode, and somber tones flow into her sonnets and impressively compressed them, thereby reinventing the sonnet and extending its purposes” (317). Sonnet LIX, “Written September 1791, During a Remarkable Thunder Storm, in which the Moon Was Perfectly Clear, While the Tempest Gathered in Various Directions Near the Earth” (1792) addresses a crucial historical event, namely the revolution in France. What awful pageants crowd the evening sky! The low horizon gathering vapours shroud; Sudden, from many a deep-embattled cloud Terrific thunders burst, and lightnings fly (Smith 1792: 1-4)
Smith starts her poem by referring to the ongoing political events as “awful pageants” (1). While one associates something positive with a pageant – a kind of show or entertainment – the attributed adjective ‘awful’ reverses this, immediately sets the tone of the poem, and demonstrates Smith’s disapprobation. Describing the revolution as a pageant is nothing new as Helen Maria Williams, a supporter of the upheavals in France, depicts the entire Revolution as a sublime spectacle carrying forth the spirit of the Federation, appealing to the noblest human sentiments, and establishing aesthetic and moral harmony across differences of sex, race, and condition (qtd. in Fraistat & Lanser 14-15).
Similarly, Backscheider (324) elucidates that the French Revolution, from its initial phase until its end, was denoted “as a mesmerizing and increasingly horrifying spectacle and ‘pageant’” (324). Smith creates a gloomy and alarming atmosphere by using various references to nature. The September day seems to be dark and misty. “[D]eep-embattled” (Smith 1792: 3) clouds darken the sky and suddenly “lightnings fly” (ibid. 4) and a violent thunderstorm begins. The poet draws a connection between these natural scenes and the ongoing political turmoil in neighbouring France. Thunder and lightning are loud, perilous celestial phenomena and represent a fighting in a battle. Lokke, too, holds the view that the sonnet’s “first quatrain subtly evokes French Revolutionary struggles” (91) and that “the verb ‘shroud’ and the phrase ‘deep-embattled’ suggest a potential for deadly violence” (ibid.) Moreover, weather is something unforeseeable and no one is able to prognosticate it accurately. It can be assumed
24 that Smith referred to the weather, since she is afraid of how the revolution proceeds and what consequences there will be. Accordingly Backscheider remarks that “[t]he first quatrain captures the increasingly unpredictable and threatening course of the French Revolution and the political and social unrest in Great Britain” (324). Then, the poet writes about the “Night’s regent, of her calm pavilion proud […] / A spirit conscious of superior worth” (Smith 1792: 6; 10). According to Mellor & Matlak, the Night’s regent is a “moon goddess” (228). Lokke states that “throughout the Elegiac Sonnets, the prominent figure of the moon resonates in powerful tension with archetypical female symbolism” (88). Smith genders the moon as female by using the third-person singular pronoun ‘her’ and depicts her as serene, calm, and “[u]nvex’d by all their conflicts fierce and loud” (Smith 1792: 8). The representation of the placid moon as a female being evokes the impression that women are calm and peaceful. Additionally, the moon seems to have dominance and supremacy over the earth. This favourable depiction conveys the message that women are, due to their positive characteristics, superior to men who can be violent, provoke conflicts, and fight in war. In this context, Lokke argues that Smith was aware of her own “mental superiority and spiritual elevation” (89) as a woman. Furthermore, the scholar compares the “calm pavilion” (Smith 1792: 6) of the moon to the “gilded pavilions of Versailles and of the French aristocracy” (Lokke 91), which were destroyed or covered in blood. The struggles in France have motivated Smith “to envisage a female regent […] who transcends conflict and aggression” (ibid.). Towards the end of the poem, the moon is “blest with peace above the shocks of Fate” (Smith 1792: 13) and “[s]miles at the tumult of the troubled earth” (14). Although one can discern the speaker’s scorn throughout the whole poem, she eventually seems to distance herself from the political battles and longs for tranquillity. This detachment is again represented with the moon, which is blessed with peace because of being far away from the conflict-ridden earth. Similarly, Backscheider describes the end of the sonnet as “a striking reversal [in which] war becomes distant and the moon sublime” (323). This longing for peace and tranquillity is also reflected in Smith’s “The Emigrants” (1793) and will be analysed more precisely after briefly introducing this political poem and its main objectives. The poem was written during a time when “the ideals of the French Revolution were giving way to the excesses that produced the Reign of Terror” (Behrendt 2009: 164). The violence was out of control in Paris and England was at war with France after the execution of Louis XVI (ibid.). Behrendt further claims that, in England, those “who had at first supported the revolution enthusiastically were already beginning to recant, especially
25 in light of the government’s growing intolerance of dissent and opposition to official policy” (ibid.). “The Emigrants” is a response to the hardship of French émigrés in England and is known as Smith’s most powerful and most significant anti-war poem (Lokke 92). Heinen (198) states that Smith “speaks on political issues such as nationalism, government, class, and gender relations, issues which were not considered the most suitable topics for women writers at the time” (198). Smith does not address the French Revolution directly but focuses on the French people who had to flee to England’s south coast as the revolution turned violent and people could not feel save in their home country any more. The writer condemns the turn towards atrocity and death, points out the injustices towards the exiles, and advocates freedom and equality. Craciun & Lokke outline that the poet wrote “in support of the French emigrants, particularly the clergy, urging their fellow Britons to show mercy to these refugees of war despite the political and religious differences between Britain and France” (12). Apart from evoking sympathy for the refugees, Smith aimed at raising awareness for “the need for reform of both English and French political systems, legal institutions, and religious establishments” (Lokke 92). “The Emigrants” is divided into two books. The scene of the first book is set “on the Cliffs to the Eastward of the Town of Brighthelmstone in Sussex” (Smith 1793: Book I) on “a Morning in November, 1792” (ibid.). The chosen time and place are no coincidence as during that time many French inhabitants, especially the clergy and the nobility, fled to Great Britain due to the ongoing war in their home country. This has also been noted by Wolfson, who outlines in more detail that the scene of Book I is set six months after priests who refused to support the Constitutional Church were declared traitors, three months after the decree for their expulsion and the arrest of the royal family at the Tuileries, two months after the September massacres (3 bishops and 220 priests among the slaughtered) and the confiscation of emigrants’ property, and one month after the death penalty was established for any returnees (2000: 511). The scene overlooking the coast on a calm morning reflects Smith’s yearning for peace and recreation. Smith needs nature with its “pale Sun” (Book I, 6), the “troubled waves” (2), and the “cold northern Isle” (7) as a “futile effort to escape the injustice” (Lokke 93) of what she names “legal crimes” (Smith 1793: Book I, 36):
How often, when my weary soul recoils From proud oppression, and from legal crimes (For such are in this Land, where the vain boast Of equal Law is mockery, while the cost
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Of seeking for redress is sure to plunge Th’already injur’d to more certain ruin And the wretch starves, before his Counsel pleads), How often do I half abjure Society, And sigh for some lone Cottage, deep embower’d In the green woods, that these steep chalky Hills Guard from the strong South West; (35-45)
As just stated, nature plays a significant role in the poem. Smith longs for retreating to nature, which she terms “beauteous works of God, unspoil’d by Man” (56). In order to bring a sense of tranquillity to her startled soul and to elude “proud oppression” (36) and “legal crimes” (ibid.), Smith dreams about living somewhere lonely – a “lone Cottage” (43) – surrounded by nature – “deep embower’d / In the green words” (43-44). Birch claims that Smith’s poetry is “concerned with the notion of the solitary poet meditating on the beauty and sublimity of the landscape. However, her poetry does not share the Wordsworthian confidence in the restorative potential of nature” (928). This argument is not entirely convincing. Firstly, in the verse above, the poetic speaker obviously wishes to live in contact with nature. Secondly, nature is seen as a place of silence and recreation, a place to hide oneself from society, a place to think, dream and reflect, and a place to effectively distance oneself from all the ferocity going on in the ‘real world’. Referring to nature and highlighting its powers and positive impact is typical for Romantic writers. Murray, for example, states that “[t]he concept of nature is one of the most central and most diverse of the Enlightenment and Romantic eras” (792). Also male Romantic poets such as Wordsworth, Keats, and Shelley are famous for their appreciation of nature. The reason for the poetic speaker’s desire to find a safe haven in a small cottage between green woods are the “misguided Man” (1793: Book I, 32), “oppression […] and legal crimes” (36). She explains that “equal Law is mockery” (38) and, therefore, often wants to “abjure Society” (42). The used language is very powerful and expressive: Smith denotes man as misguided and law as mockery. This immediately reveals her discontent and resentment against British society and politics. Smith knew that there was no equal law for women. They were denied equal civil rights and were oppressed in society. The poet rejected society because of its authoritative men who dominated and oppressed women. Especially with her comment that “equal Law is mockery” (38), the writer attempts to raise people’s awareness that women were excluded from the natural rights of mankind and have a considerably lower civil and political status. As explained in chapter three, women basically had no legal rights at all and their lives were predominantly controlled by their fathers and husbands. Because of the law of
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‘couverture’, women did not even have the right of custody for their own children. This unequal treatment could not only be found in the legislation, but influenced women’s daily lives as well. While men were part of the “public realm of government and commerce”, women were restricted to a “private, domestic realm of the family, the emotions, and spirituality” (Mellor 2002: 1). Considering all these aspects, it is comprehensible that Smith rejected society and its misguided, conceited men. While escaping British society and seeking peace in nature, Smith’s poetic persona encounters a group of emigrants: A group approach me, whose dejected looks, Sad Heralds of distress! proclaim them Men Banish’d for ever and for conscience sake From their distracted Country, whence the name Of Freedom misapplied, and much abus’d By lawless Anarchy, has driven them far To wander […] (Smith 1793: Book I, 95-101)
The French exiles seem sad, despondent, and exhausted. The poet strategically employs a pitiful depiction of the emigrants and repeatedly refers to them as “[s]ad Heralds of distress” (96), “the unhappy lot” (Book II, 9), “lorn Exiles (10), and “shipwreck’d sufferers” (12) who perhaps “no more [see] their native land, / [w]here desolation riots” (13-14). The reader immediately feels sympathy with them because they are in distress, were banished from their home, and had to wander far to find a safe place. Lokke claims that Smith’s “self-imposed isolation from and sense of victimization by the ‘legal crimes’ of the British justice system opens her up to sympathy for these outcasts” (93). Noteworthy in this context is that Smith did not only try to familiarise her readers with the plight and pain of “the displaced French loyalists” (Behrendt 2009: 165) but set a good example herself by offering refuge to some “clergy and aristocrats in her home” (ibid.). On the one hand, the poet appeals to her readership’s empathy. On the other hand, Smith criticises social imbalances and the “wild disastrous” (1793: Book II, 11) or even “lawless Anarchy” (Book I, 100). Thereby, Smith creates “an internationalist consciousness of the need for reform of both English and French political systems, legal institutions and religious establishments” (Lokke 92). Additionally, Behrendt claims that she denounces the "international system of injustice and inhumanity“ (2009: 165) and elucidates that the displaced French citizens are as powerless to redress their situation as Smith and all sympathetic English citizens are: individual freedom and dignity vanishes when subjected to the undiscriminating instruments of institutional power (ibid. 165-166).
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A further aspect in “The Emigrants” is that the poet repeatedly focuses on her own misery and compares it to the hardship of the French exiles. As stated above, Smith’s personal life was tough because of her violent husband. It can be assumed that when writing about misguided men, Smith does not only address men in general but also refers to her own husband who suppressed her and brought misery to the whole family. This is made very clear when the poetic speaker identifies herself with the French emigrants and explains that she is able to relate to their distress: “I lament your fate” (Smith 1793: Book I, 107); “I mourn your sorrows; for I too have known / Involuntary exile” (155-156). Smith did not have to flee from her home country because of war and persecution. Nevertheless, she is able to empathise with the abject situation of the exiles as she had to leave her home involuntarily as well. An explanation for Smith’s banishment from her home can be found in the introduction to her epistolary novel Desmond, in which Blank & Todd (8) explain that Charlotte’s husband was sued and the couple was arrested in King’s Bench Prison together. This is a further explanation why Smith ridicules British law, since husband and wife were not treated as two individual beings but as one person.
Gendering the Revolution
Smith deliberately genders allegorical forces, e.g. liberty, peace, and anarchy, as male or female in order to challenge social circumstances.
Tranquil seclusion I have vainly sought; Peace, who delights solitary shade, No more will spread for me her downy wings (Smith 1793: Book I, 65-67)
In these lines, it becomes particularly obvious once more that only solitude can save the poetic persona from domination and control and will enable her to lead a peaceful life in freedom. Peace, which is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “a state of tranquillity” (1), “a state of security” (1b), “harmony” (3), and “freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts and emotions” (2), is represented as female through the usage of the first-person singular pronoun ‘her’. Smith pursues the same strategy as in her “Sonnet LIX” and radically attributes the positive features of peace – harmony, security, and freedom – to her own sex. Apart from peace, liberty is depicted as a female being as well. Smith claims that “lawless Anarchy” (341), “Vengeance, seeking blood / And Avarice” (347-348) pollute and disgrace Liberty and “[d]ismay her votaries, and disgrace her name” (Smith 1793: Book I, 350). The poet neither praises nor endorses the revolution, or, as Wolfson states “[s]he
29 summons this text not to evoke the glory of war” (2000: 536) but despises anarchy, avarice, and bloodshed. Moreover, she advocates justice and liberty and laments the “suffering world, / Torn by the fearful conflict” (Smith 1793: Book II, 79-80). Another depiction of Liberty can be found in Book II: And Liberty, with calm, unruffled brow Magnanimous, as conscious of her strength In Reasons’ panoply, scorns to distain Her righteous cause with carnage, and resigns To Fraud and Anarchy the infuriate crowd. (57-61)
Liberty is aware of her strength and power. She is described as being calm, magnanimous, and powerful. Her “righteous cause” (60) is dishonoured with bloody massacre and she opposes “Fraud and Anarchy” (61). The poet increasingly designates the various evils of war, such as anarchy, carnage, and injustice, as the work of men (Wolfson 2000: 536), while allegorical female figures – Liberty and Peace – are presented as the victims of war and of men (ibid.). This representation implies that women are good-natured, and strive for peace and domestic happiness, while men are violent, treacherous, and controlling. Accordingly, Cooke & Woollacott explain that various scholars have conducted research on the roles and representations of women and men in war and state that the existing image is that “women are pacifists, or […] Patriotic Mothers […] [and] men are essentially aggressive, or that they are threatened by their lack of aggressivity” (ix). Smith further strengthens her argument by depicting the suffering of wives and children at home and by blaming men for causing such woes:
Such are thy dreadful trophies, savage War! […] The Widow’s anguish and the Orphan’s tears! – Woes such as these does Man inflict on Man (Smith 1793: Book II, 313; 318-319)
The poet despises the “savage War” (313) and attempts to convince her readers to fear and disapprove this kind of violence by ascribing negatively connoted adjectives such as ‘dreadful’ and ‘savage’ to war. Smith further demonstrates the atrocities of war by illustrating the beloved wife as a mourning widow and children as crying orphans. She clearly evokes emotions and compassion as she writes affectively about the mother’s and child’s suffering and uses emotional wording such as anguish, tears, and woes. The “Orphan’s tears” (319) are striking in particular and are a powerful symbol. Most readers will immediately imagine a fatherless child weeping bitterly because he or she misses a protective father who deserted him or her and had to go to war. According to Wolfson, Smith “brings the ‘male’ world of warfare into
30 the ‘female’ world of home” (2000: 534) by depicting “the widow’s and orphan’s peril – indeed, fatal vulnerability” (ibid.). Anti-war poetry did not only address issues concerning war and violence but contemporarily raised the reader’s awareness on the suffering and anguish of deserted family members – mourning wives and afflicted children who have to grow up fatherless. Charlotte Smith is no exception in the tradition of gendering war. Another example can be found in Mary Robinson’s exceedingly powerful poem “Ainsi Va Le Monde” (1790). In her poem, Robinson terms freedom as a “blithe Goddess” (1790: 319) and states: Celestial Freedom warms the breast of man; Led by her daring hand, what pow'r can bind The boundless efforts of the lab’ring mind (160-162)
Robinson compares freedom to a woman who is cordial, gentle, and warms the breast of men. The poet possibly tries to convey the message that if people would be “[l]ed by her daring hand” (161), implying that if women would be leaders in society, liberty and humanity would prevail. There is a certain similarity to Mary Wollstonecraft’s request to educate women properly so they can become moral guides. It implies that hope lies in mothers because they will raise their children and, therefore, educate the future generations by teaching them what is right and wrong.
The Mother Figure in Romantic Poetry
Women were seen as very powerful due to their ability of giving birth to children and raising the succeeding generations: “Because they could bear children, women were seen as possessing a biological power worthy of both admiration and fear” (McLeod n.p.). Admiration might derive from the belief that women had “a naturally sympathetic temperament that made them uniquely equipped to nurture children” (ibid.). Concurrently, Romantics also worried about confiding the British nation’s future to mothers’ care only (ibid.). This debate proves that the mother figure played an important role and had a certain function in Romantic literature. Especially in poetry, motherhood and maternity were often used symbols. However, there were significant differences how male and female authors approached this topic. Male writers wrote about women’s biological power to create life, to bear children, and focused on the body of the mother, especially on her milk-filled breasts (Mellor 1993: 83). Alternatively, female authors were concerned with the “socially constructed role of motherhood“ (ibid.) and
31 portrayed the mother “as educator and moral guide, as the provider of spiritual and emotional comfort“ (ibid.). In “The Emigrants”, Smith frequently refers to mothers and their sorrows and uses the mother figure as well as the representation of mother-child bonds to symbolise unconditional love, warmth, and security.
The desolate mourner; yet, in Death itself, True to maternal tenderness, she tries To save the unconscious infant from the storm In which she perishes; and to protect This last dear object of her ruin’d hopes From prowling monsters, that from other hills, More inaccessible, and wilder wastes, Lur’d by the scent of slaughter, follow fierce Contending hosts, and to polluted fields Add dire increase of horrors [.] – But alas! The Mother and the Infant perish both! – (Smith 1793: Book II, 281-291)
Smith depicts the mother as a “desolate mourner” (281) who, full of motherly love and care, attempts to protect the final object which counts in her miserable life – her dear infant. The poet provokes horror in the reader as the mourning mother and her child – characters everyone can relate to – are exposed to war, violence, and destruction brought about by “prowling monsters” (286). Smith increasingly causes discomfort in her readership by writing about the “flames of burning villages” (226) and the wind that “brought the groans / Of plunder’d peasants, and the frantic shrieks / Of mothers for their children” (227-230). The poet recurrently evokes mental images of destruction, and misery. The detailed description enables the reader to imagine the houses on fire and the devastation of whole villages. Furthermore, one can almost hear the desperate groans and panicked shrieks of the war victims. Despite all the terror and suffering, the mother can be seen as a symbol which represents hope. It seems as if mothers would be inherently good, compared to the “prowling monsters” (286) of war. Mothers are, as mentioned above, moral guides by trying to behave correctly. They are able to feel empathy for others, express their emotions, and mourn for lost family members. Maternal feelings and a mother’s ability to love deeply make her incapable of violence. The mother figure conveys some peace and optimism as she is frequently portrayed as a guardian, protecting her own family and simultaneously being a protector of society, humanity and moral standards. Similar notions can be detected in Ann Yearsley’s poem “To Mira on the Care of her Infant” (1796), in which she criticises political activity and condemns the revolutionary riots
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(Ferguson 1995: 67). Yearsley “features a gendered concept of war” (ibid. 68) as well. While husbands and fathers leave their homes and families to fight in war, women stay at home to nurture their children.
We are not made for Mars; we ne’er could bear His pond’rous helmet and his burning spear; Nor in fierce combat prostrate lay that form That breathes affection whilst the heart is warm (Yearsley 1796: 13-16)
Yearsley explains why women are incapable of fighting. The poetic speaker identifies with other women and outlines that while a man is made to wear a helmet and a spear to go to war, a woman is not made for Mars, the ancient Roman god of war. Due to their good-heartedness, women cannot be warriors, instead they represent the opposite of war – peace and affection. This is in keeping with Landry who states that “the poem opposes male militancy to a female world of education and nurturance” (260). Furthermore, she adds that Yearsley hopes for changes women “may bring about in future generations by taking command of education” (ibid. 260-261). In “The Emigrants”, Smith does not only refer to mothers in general. She also highlights the pity of a certain individual – the Queen of France – in Book II, which is set in April, 1793, after the king’s execution in January and England’s declaration of war against France, with the queen, Marie Antoinette, and her children imprisoned (Wolfson 2000: 511). The speaker is sorry for “the wretched mother, petrified with grief” (Smith 1793: Book II, 152): “Ah! Much I mourn thy sorrows, hapless Queen!“ (154). Accordingly, Kipp notes that the mother cannot feel anything besides all-consuming horror and that Marie Antoinette is depicted as “an object of the poet’s and reader’s sympathy” (72). This is one of Smith’s major intentions as she “wants her reader’s heart to bleed openly for […] [the victims of the revolution]” (ibid.). In connection with the queen’s representation as a pitiful, sorrowing mother, Lokke offers an explanation why women readers responded so intensely to Smith’s poem (97). Firstly, the poet’s expression of empathy for Marie Antoinette reveals that Smith is writing as a mother herself (ibid.). Secondly, Smith’s “linking of compassion and ‘pure humanity’ with considerations of familial relations that cut across nationalities and classes appeals directly to the sensibility of her reader” (ibid.). In general, sympathy for the French queen and her plight was strong in Britain (Rice 46). However, English women writers had different opinions regarding Marie Antoinette. For Mary Robinson, “she was a heroic, feminist figure who rose above the perceived traditional weakness of her sex; for Mary Wollstonecraft, the Queen was a ‘sexual and political
33 abomination who was the corrupt head of an oppressive political state’” (ibid. 47). Robinson writes in favour of the French queen, glorifies her, presents her as a wronged woman, and turns her into a martyr figure (Robinson 2011: 96). In “Marie Antoinette’s Lamentation, in her Prison of the Temple” (1793), the poet portrays the queen as a grieving mother: “When I behold my darling Infants sleep, / […] Why do I start aghast and wildly weep / And madly snatch them to my eager arms?” (Robinson 1793: 19; 21-22). The devoted mother, in this case Marie Antoinette, is someone who deeply loves her children and would do everything in her power to protect them. However, all her desperation and fear for her children have taken away her calmness and now she “wildly weeps[s]” (19) and almost goes insane.
Why do maternal Sorrows drench my face? Alas! Because inhuman hands unite, To tear from my fond Soul its last delight! (28-30)
Inhumane conditions placed the queen in this situation and vicious “hands unite” (29) to take away a mother’s most important part, her dearest child. Once again, maternal feelings are used as an effective strategy to evoke the reader’s compassion, and especially caring mothers will be able to empathise with the queen’s sorrows.
Giving Voice to the Voiceless
Apart from French exiles and women, other oppressed minorities are given a voice, too. In her endeavour to highlight injustices, Smith also refers to the the discriminated peasants in France. It was common for Romantic-era female writers to sympathise and identify with other oppressed people who suffered from patriarchy and authority as well.
The simple shepherd in a rustic scene, And, ‘mid the vine – clad hills of Languedoc, Taught to the bare-foot peasant, whose hard hands Produc’d the nectar he could seldom taste, Submission to the Lord for whom he toil’d; (Smith 1793: Book I, 170-174)
Smith illustrates the peasants’ destitution by using the adjective ‘bare-foot’ which implies that the peasant cannot even afford to buy proper footwear in order to do his exhausting, backbreaking work. This assumption is further strengthened when Smith states that the peasant produces nectar but can hardly ever drink it. Although the peasant and his family work hard, they are very poor and suffer hunger because they have to submit most of their harvest to the nobility. Furthermore, the poet mentions the peasant’s complete subordination to his Lord, for whom he and his family toiled. The peasantry had no rights at all and lived in total dependence
34 on the nobility. Due to these reasons, also the peasantry fought for the abolition of the feudal regime, which was “one [of] the defining and most original features of the French Revolution” (Plack 347). The scholar elaborates on this struggle and explains that the peasants were no longer willing to accept the unequal treatment and the enormous income gap, and complained about the unfair tax system, which was one of the most important issues for rural parishes. They started their own rebellion, a huge uprising, and so the revolution had great impact on rural life as well (ibid. 347-349). Because of these circumstances, it is not entirely accurate to describe the French Revolution as a bourgeois movement since two thirds of the French were neither aristocratic nor bourgeois but belonged to one of the several classes of peasantry (Gottschalk 589). This part of the uprising has often been neglected. A possible reason for this could be that the peasants were an inferior class without a voice (ibid.). In her poem “The Bastille: A Vision” (1790), “a dream-vision poem that foretells the destruction of the prison” (Adams 728), Helen Maria Williams also refers to the impoverished peasants, from a different perspective though. As an advocate of the revolution, the poet praises the ideals of the new regime. No more bewails their future lot By tyranny's stern rod oppressed While freedom guards his straw-roofed cot And all his useful toils are blessed. (Williams 1790: 85-88)
Williams does not pity the peasants’ plight but celebrates that they will be no longer oppressed by tyranny and will be able to enjoy their freedom now. “The Bastille: A Vision” is not only worth mentioning in the context of the peasant’s plight in France. Williams does not only address social issues, such as the wrongful suppression of peasants, but also focuses on various political issues. Williams, well known for her Letters from France, in which she reported on the events during and after the French Revolution, was interested in French politics throughout her life, opposed the ancient regime, and was an ardent supporter of the revolutionary upheavals (Murray 1223; Fraistat & Lanser 9). She also took part at the Fête de la Fédération in July 1790, where thousands of people assembled near the Bastille in order to celebrate “France’s commitment to unity and harmony on the first anniversary of the fall of the Bastille” (Fraistat & Lanser 9). Williams later claimed that she was overwhelmed by the significance of that festival and that it affected her political vision (ibid.). As an advocate of liberal causes and reforms, Williams responded to the turmoil in France with “The Bastille: A Vision”, written in full sympathy with the revolution and its
35 principles (Fraistat & Lanser 20; 191). It has to be mentioned that Williams wrote her pro- revolutionary poem in the very early stages of the French Revolution and before it turned towards violence. At the time Williams composed her poem, everyone seemed to be a bit optimistic because after the fall of the Bastille even conservative counterrevolutionary poet Hannah More had to confess that “at the outset every ‘English heart’ was right to ‘exult at the demolition of the Bastille’ and to ‘triumph in the warm hope, that one of the finest countries in the world would soon be one of the most free’” (qtd. in Fraistat & Lanser 13). The poem is said to be written by an inmate who was imprisoned for crimes against France (Adams 729). One night the prisoner dreams about the Bastille, envisions its fall, and predicts “universal freedom” (ibid.). Drear cell! along whose lonely bounds, Unvisited by light, Chill silence dwells with night, Save where the clanging fetter sounds! Abyss, where mercy never came, Nor hope the wretch can find; Where long inaction wastes the frame, And half annihilates the mind! (Williams 1790: 1-8)
Since a prison symbolises captivity, restriction, and oppression, Williams attempted to demonstrate her abhorrence by describing the infamous Bastille in a very negative and hostile manner. According to Fraistat & Lanser, the Bastille is a “powerful symbol of ancien regime power to imprison innocent people for indefinite periods on the flimsy basis of the infamous, easily procured official orders known as lettres de cachet” (11). The poet depicts the Bastille as a gloomy, dark place without mercy or justice. In the prison, which she also terms ‘abyss’, silence, desperation, and hopelessness prevail and dull the prisoner’s mind.
Where this dark pile in chaos lies, With nature's execrations hurl'd, Shall Freedom's sacred temple rise, And charm an emulating world! (Williams 1790: 61-64)
Williams describes the transformation of the fortress and political with the help of colour contrasts. Initially the Bastille is “dark” (61) and “[u]nvisited by light” (2). The “living tomb” (9) then changes to a “sacred temple” (63) of freedom and one can suddenly “feel the vital air” (51) and “see the light of day” (52). This is in keeping with Adams, who states that the poem “predicts the image of the metamorphosed Bastille” (729) – transformed from a “dark, dank, ‘guilty’ site […] [to] a place filled with light” (ibid.). Adams further claims that Williams focuses on the visual in her depiction of the changing cell and “places the reader in the position
36 of the prisoner” (730) by repeatedly writing in the first person singular: “I lose the sense of care / I feel the vital air / I see, I see the light of day” (Williams 1790: 50-52). With the line “this dark pile in chaos lies” (61), Williams certainly refers to the burned down Bastille and rejoices over that spectacle. She endorses the Storming of the Bastille as it represents the end of royal superiority and authority. Freedom, justice, and equality can now arise from the famous ruins and will have influence on the whole world. Fraistat & Lanser, too, hold the view that Williams wished that the new spirit in neighbouring France would have impact on Britain and whole Europe by activating a new devotion to human rights (15). The fall of the prison received popular support and encouraged reforms of the government. Fraistat & Lanser state that “[w]ithin a few weeks the National Assembly, though it included many aristocratic members, had abolished the privileges traditionally accorded the nobility, effectively ending feudalism in France” (11). As a consequence, local judicial and executive authority was reinstated to “prevent arbitrary taxes and other abuses of power” (ibid. 12). Did ever earth a scene display More glorious to the eye of day, Than millions with according mind, Who claim the rights of human kind? (Williams 1790: 69-72) Williams repeatedly admires the revolution by glorifying the scene of the capturing of the prison and applauding everyone who rejects absolute power. In August 1789, the same year of the Storming of the Bastille, the Revolution’s fundamental principles were implemented in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (Fraistat & Lanser 12). The Declaration “granted freedom of speech, press, and belief, outlawed arrest and imprisonment without due process, made taxation a matter for legislative consent, and held all officials accountable to their constituents” (ibid.). As has been shown, Romantic poets’ opinions regarding the revolution varied greatly. While Smith, as Lokke summarises, “attacks social hierarchy and economic inequality as the source of violence of the French Revolution“ (93), Williams is optimistic and praises its liberal causes. In this context, it has to be noted that the time the poems were composed in played a significant role because attitudes towards the French upheaval transformed in the course of time. Regardless of their political views, what all these women writers had in common was their compassion for the oppressed and their desire for humanity and freedom. Therefore, they envisioned a future in which suppression, anarchy, and avarice get overruled by justice, liberty, and equality:
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May lovely Freedom, in her genuine charms, Aided by stern but equal Justice, drive From the ensanguin’d earth the hell-born fiends Of Pride, Oppression, Avarice, and Revenge (Smith 1793: Book II, 431-434)
Since Smith opposed the bloodshed and the violent turn of the upheaval, she distanced herself from the principles of the French Revolution in the final line of her poem and changes Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity into “Reason, Liberty and Peace!” (Smith 1793: Book II, 444). Lokke contends that the final lines of the poem affirm “the strength and the courage of Smith’s commitment to republican and emancipatory politics” (99). This strength and courage to actively engage in politics and raise one’s voice in such a tumultuous time cannot only be found in Smith’s poetry but in various writings of the above mentioned “[r]ebellious hearts” (Craciun & Lokke, Book Title) and many other British female poets of the 1790s.
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5 “We feel enslaved”3: Ann Yearsley’s and Her Contemporaries’ Call for the Abolition of Slavery
Nothing in May 1789 is surely so interesting as the noble effort in asking for the abolition of the slave-trade. Nothing, I think, for centuries past, has done the nation so much honour; because it must have proceeded from the most liberal motives – the purest love of history and justice. The voice of the Negroes could not have made itself heard but by the ear of pity; they might have been oppressed for ages more with impunity, if we had so pleased (Anna Laetitia Barbauld qtd. in Ferguson 1992a: 3).
In the quote above, Anna Laetitia Barbauld refers to the abolition of the slave-trade in Britain. Slavery was one of the most significant social and political issues in late eighteenth century and was also discussed in Romantic literature. The poet most probably alluded to William Wilberforce, who ardently engaged in “the noble effort in asking for the abolition of the slave- trade” (ibid.) and held his famous abolition speech in the House of Commons in May 1789 (Encyclopædia Britannica, “William Wilberforce”). With the most liberal motives in their minds, women, slave revolt leaders, some parliamentarians, and religious Quakers realised how inhumane slavery is and played a vital role in abolitionist movements. The oppression of slaves raised women’s awareness in particular. Their experiences of different forms of suppression in patriarchal society, contributed to their motivation to deal with this topic. As I will argue female poets empathised and sided with the African slaves because British women were also often regarded as inferior, had no voice, and barely any legal rights. This chapter will discuss several Romantic-era women poets – Ann Yearsley, Hannah More, Mary Robinson, Mary Birkett, and Helen Maria Williams – who shared the revolutionary idea that slavery is wrong and has to be abolished. The poets united in this respect, lent their voices to the oppressed Negroes, and despised British slave traders. I will analyse the poet’s main arguments for attacking and opposing the institution of slavery and will demonstrate how poets succeeded in strongly affecting readers and evoking their sympathy for the African slaves. In order to better understand anti-slavery poetry, a short overview of the history of British slavery and its abolition in late eighteenth century will be given first.
3 (Yearsley 1788: 20)
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Abolitionism in Britain
In the 1780s slavery and the slave trade flourished in Britain. During these years, more than one thousand slave ships sailed to Africa and brought over 300,000 Africans to Britain (Walvin 12). It was a well-organised industry and millions of slaves were distributed to plantations in the New World. There, their duty was to plant crops such as sugar, tobacco, and cotton. The labour was gruelling and wearing them out. Additionally, slaves had to endure cruel treatment, such as floggings and mutilations, by their white masters (Murray 1057). The years 1787-88 can be denoted as the heyday of the abolitionist movement in Britain. Drescher states that popular abolitionism arose during a shining time, when the “nation revelled in its ‘prosperity, security and power’” (qtd. in Coleman 172). When discussing the driving force of abolitionism, different aspects need to be taken into account. Firstly, twentieth-century scholars emphasised the impact of economic and social change as triggers for the anti-slavery sentiment (Coleman 172; Page 741). Secondly, it can be assumed that religion was important for this political movement as well, as a small group of men consisting of religious Quakers and evangelical Anglicans formed the London Abolition Committee in 1787 (Walvin 15). During this time, petitioning4 became a new force in politics. Since petitioning was “a political tactic that gave voice to the dispossessed” (Ferguson 1992a: 6), especially women took part in this political activity. Women only organised and promoted petitions because they were not allowed to sign them (Coleman 179). Nevertheless, women’s active engagement in the campaign was criticised by society. Wilberforce, for instance, opposed their “going ‘from house to house stirring up petitions’, behaviour which he felt to be ‘unsuited to the female character as delineated in scripture’” (qtd. in Coleman 173). It is also significant to take into account that Enlightenment ideas in general, but also writers, artists and musicians played a pivotal role in educating the masses, achieving changes in their thinking, and raising people’s awareness of how inhumane slavery is. Walvin convincingly summarises that “the slave trade was denounced for its inhumanity, for its commercial inefficiencies, for its immorality and for its offence to religious sensibilities” (15). One medium used to disapprove the practice of slavery and the concomitant violation of the fundamental rights of men was poetry (Murray 1057). As already stated, British Romantic poets believed in freedom and equality and started to fight for abolition and emancipation. This new political movement especially attracted a
4 Although the parliament received hundreds of thousands of signed petitions, the abolition bill failed (Coleman 179).
40 substantial female support and women’s visibility in the public sphere can be observed in their petitioning and fund-raising campaigns. They also had an important role in the private sphere because they managed the household and boycotted West Indian sugar (Coleman 173). Female poets engaged with the broader public world by writing poems, so called “narratives of social commitment” (Behrendt 2009: 153-154), about pressing social and political issues. Thereby women proved that they possessed knowledge regarding traditional masculine matters, namely “the economic and social implications of colonial imperialism and bourgeois capitalism” (ibid. 155). Furthermore, some feminist scholars argued that the experiences women gained by engaging in slavery, taught them how to deal with their own experiences as women (ibid.). By writing powerful but also deeply emotional verse and giving personal insights into the lives of enslaved people, these female poets rebelled against authority and tried to persuade their readership of the injustice and wrongdoings of British slave holders and traders. What most anti-slavery poems have in common is that they all sympathise with the enslaved. These poems concentrate on evoking emotional reactions and conveying certain feelings such as grief, anger, and compassion. In order to achieve such reactions, poets portray slaves favourably by giving them names and depicting them as feeling human beings. In addition, Romantic women poets focus on loving relationships and strong family bonds and show the slaves’ physical suffering, due to the backbreaking work and torture, and their mental and emotional pain, caused by the separation of their families. This is, among others, exemplified in Ann Yearsley’s publication “A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave Trade” (1788) and will be studied in greater detail after briefly introducing the poet. Ann Yearsley, also known as the ‘Bristol milk woman‘, became well known in the late eighteenth century, as one of the first British writers raising gender issues and addressing social subject matter regarding the rural proletarian class and slavery in her poetry (Lenhart 15-16). Yearsley is a very revolutionary writer because she engaged in public issues and, even more outstandingly, composed poetry as an uneducated labouring-class woman. According to Lenhart she “was esteemed not for the quality of her verse but the novelty of her origin as if the mystery was that […] [an uneducated woman] wrote poems at all” (14). ‘Lactilla’, a pseudonym she gave herself, and her family lived in extreme poverty. As she had to endure watching her own family starving, she was able to identify with the cruel conditions slaves had to face (Lenhart 17; Ferguson 1986: 256). Due to these circumstances, Yearsley believed in justice and equality and abhorred the rich and their power, influence, and authority (Ferguson 1986: 247).
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In her famous “A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-Trade”, she condemns the commanding, insensitive, and cruel behaviour of the ruling class by holding slaves. While various other poets only focused on the African continent, Coleman claims that Yearsley took “a comparative view, denouncing with fury not just slavery in Africa but the hypocrisy of Christianity and a British justice system gone awry” (178). Moreover, she addressed “issues of marginality and bondage that she knew women as well as slaves had to face” (Ferguson 1986: 257). Yearsley’s long poem is written in blank verse and can be regarded as a narrative poem. Its overall aim is to convince readers that slavery is wrong and has to be abolished. In order to do so, the poet presents the story of a rebellious African slave called Luco. The young man was deported from his home, taken away from his family and his beloved Incilanda. Deprived of his liberty, he has to work for his slave holders under horrific conditions and has to suffer inhumane treatment and cruel punishment. According to Ferguson (1992b: 170), Yearsley, as a working-class woman, has herself experienced the refusal of civil rights and identifies with Luco as a class ally. The poet attempts to enable her readership to better understand a slave’s horrible life, to empathise with this individual, and to realise the inhumanity of slavery. In order to achieve this, Yearsley depicts scenes of death and suffering, as well as the traumatic segregation of families. She further portrays Luco, the character who represents all enslaved, as a gentle, feeling human being and addresses the maliciousness and ferocity of British slave traders and owners. In the following, I will elaborate on the just mentioned aspects and discuss them in further detail.
Portrayal of the Victims of Slavery
Throughout literature, Africans were often depicted as vicious savages and cannibals. They remained unnamed and were not given a voice. This is in keeping with Fatima, Jamil & Hanif, who claim that African natives have often been misrepresented in Western texts and depicted as “exotic others, barbaric, […] made for labour, powerless, […] uncivilized and as inferior” (41). On the other hand, Europeans have been regularly described as “whites, intelligent, civilized and superiors” (ibid.). In her anti-slavery poem, Yearsley demonstrates the relationship between servants and masters but does not adhere to their traditional representation. The poet adopts a very clear
42 position. She sides with the slaves by portraying them in a positive light, while condemning European slave traders and masters who she regards as savage, uncivilised people. As already mentioned, poets attempted to clarify that slaves are not exotic others but equal human beings and deployed different strategies to do so. First of all, the slaves in Yearsley’s poem are not name- and voiceless victims: instead, they are treated as individual human beings and are given a name. The poet named the love couple ‘Incilanda’ and ‘Luco’ and made them appear like real-life characters. Secondly, female poets deliberately presented Africans favourably. In “A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave Trade”, Luco, who represents all enslaved, is not characterised as barbaric or uncivilised, but as “gentle” (Yearsley 1788: 122) and “generous” (140). He is a reliable and diligent person who, despite the hard, burdensome work, “strives to please / [n]or once complains” (216-217). His wife Incilanda is also described as a “tender maid (141). Similarly, Mary Robinson presents the love story of an enslaved and cruelly segregated couple in “The Negro Girl” (1800). The two beloved ones are given names as well – Draco and Zelma – and, like Luco, the male slave is described as a brave man who never complains, although being under command of the white men (Robinson 1800: 122-123). Apart from naming slaves and presenting them as good human beings, the poets emphasise that slaves are capable of strong emotions and feelings. One powerful human feeling everyone can relate to is love. Incilanda and Luco are deeply in love. Luco, although being parted from his wife, is a “faithful lover” (Yearsley 1788: 129), who continuously avows his love for his Incilanda:
For Incilanda, Luco rang’d the wild, Holding her image to his panting heart; For her he strain’d the bow, for her he stript The bird of beauteous plumage; (148-151)
Reading this stanza, one recognises Luco’s devotion and everlasting love for his wife. He would do everything in his power for Incilanda and would always carry her image in his heart. Robinson also discusses love and affection in “The Negro Girl”. Zelma’s heart is full of “true Love” (Robinson 1800: 126) and she will prove “her fond, her faithful love” (108) for Draco. These examples prove that female poets attempted to convey the message that the enslaved Africans are equal human beings who are able to fall in love, be tender, and faithful. Apart from highlighting that slaves are capable of love, lots of anti-slavery poems focus on the slaves’ suffering, grief, anguish, or despair. This can be best seen in “The Negro Girl”, in which Zelma’ misery is illustrated. She “madly called” (Robinson 1800: 9) for her dear
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Draco because she dreadfully misses her beloved: “Poor Zelma’s eyes now dropped their last big tear” (113). Also Luco’s “little brothers weep” (Yearsley 1788: 114) because he is gone. His mother “roves, / With love, fear, hope, holding alternate rage / In her too anxious bosom” (117-119) and Incilanda is a “[d]efenceless mourner” (195) sitting on a stone and crying for her love: “Distracted maid! ah, leave the breathless form, / On whose cold cheek thy tears so swiftly fall” (188-189). Both poets applied the same strategy and tried to arouse compassion and affect their readers on an emotional level by depicting slaves as bitterly crying, being fearful and helpless, or becoming insane due to their pain of separation. Tears, a crying mother, and a desperate wife are powerful images which facilitate a better understanding of the slaves’ misery and enable readers to feel the slaves’ sorrows and commiserate with them. Female poets did not only try to provoke sympathy in their readership, but also other strong feelings such as anger, outrage, and disgust by using powerful, emotionally charged adjectives. Zelma, for example, is portrayed as standing “love-lorn” (Robinson 1800: 6) and “frantic” (115) on the beach, while “guiltless Slaves” (47) are “shackled” (97) and “exhausted” (118). Yearsley describes Incilanda as a “hapless maid”(1788: 202), who “pines / In anguish deep , and sullen” (197-198). As the examples have revealed, African slaves are not treated as wild, barbaric savages but are portrayed benevolently as feeling human beings. This favourable representation is surprising and can be regarded as revolutionary because, as previously mentioned, Africans were often seen as the barbarous “Other” and as an inferior, uncivilised race. According to Fulford & Kitson the other is always the “uncanny Other” and othering is a process of alienation and of epistemic violence (often a prelude to material force), whereby an exclusionary distinction is made between the white westerner and the colonised subject (6).
Moreover, the two scholars argue that a great number of different peoples subject to Western colonial and imperial processes “underwent a process of estrangement, frequently being homogenised and often demonised. Imaginary borderlines were constructed on the bases of imputed savagery, cannibalism and so on” (ibid. 7). Some male Romantics even shared the impression that “women offer a virgin terrain that needs to be civilised, domesticated, and filled with useful knowledge” (McKusick 124). This statement connotes that women were, by some men, seen in the same light as the Africans who needed to be civilised and educated by the white missionaries. A suitable evidence for this can be found in “The Negro Girl”, in which the owner, who wants Zelma as his mistress, teaches the girl: “The Tyrant WHITE MAN taught my mind / The letter'd page to trace” (Robinson 1800: 73-74). It can be assumed that
44 women were aware of some male Romantics’ impression that they have to be civilised and educated. In anti-slavery poems, they were able to identify with the captured slaves and sided with them because both groups – women and the victims of slavery – were confronted with stereotypes and were accused of being uneducated and uncivilised. Therefore, poets criticised and condemned patriarchal men and their convincement that they were superior to women.
Depiction of Slave Traders and Masters
British Romantic poets did not only represent slaves and their families favourably but alternatively described their fellow countrymen negatively and had a dismissive attitude towards slave traders and masters. They are not characterised as superior and civilised but as brutal, ferocious people. Yearsley calls slave owners “guileful crocodiles” (1788: 27), “slave[s] of avarice” (39), “selfish Christian[s]” (104), and “seller[s] of mankind” (83). This depiction of male Westerners in a disgraceful light can be observed in “The Negro Girl” as well. For Robinson her fellow countrymen, who are involved in slavery, are “proud rulers of the land” (1800: 49) and “tyrant white man” (73). Even more radical in her style of writing is Mary Birkett, who is obviously ashamed of the male slave traders in “A Poem on the African Slave Trade” (1792): There are, oh! scandal to the Christian name, Who fierce of blood, and lost to sense of shame, Dare lave their hands impious in human gore, And barter living souls for lust of ore; More rav’nous than the foulest beasts of prey, They but from Nature’s powerful cravings slay; More cruel than the thief, whose murd'rous knife At once deprives the trembling wretch of life (33-40)
She characterises the Britons as cruel and atrocious and further compares them to foul beasts and slaughtering thieves who lost shame, empathy, and all other human feelings. Romantic women poets abhorred the male slave traders and expressed their hatred openly. They applied a strong rhetoric and created terrifying images by comparing slave owners to abominable creatures such as beasts, crocodiles, slayers, and thieves. Thereby, they shocked readers as people are usually afraid of such monsters and reject them. Such representations might have influenced or even changed the reader’s attitude towards slave holders and they might have started to recognise their malignity and wrongfulness. In the stanza above, Birkett also accuses slave traders of being a “scandal to the Christian name” (33). As a Christian should be a pious and devout person, the poet is of the
45 opinion that it is scandalous that such people pretend to be religious. Birkett’s outrage is not surprising. Religion was of the utmost importance during the Romantic era and genuine Christian conscience influenced political debates on the abolition of slavery. Therefore, these political debates surrounding abolitionism are also known as faith-based activism (Page 741; Coffey 1). Christians were motivated to fight for justice as they believed that in God’s eyes every human being is equal. The “Christian belief in the fundamental unity of the human race clashed with fashionable theories of polygenesis and African inferiority, promoted by infidel philosophers” (Coffey 3). It is an even greater paradox that the slave traders and the enslaved actually shared the same religion and beliefs. For instance, Yearsley, who condemns the hypocrisy of Christianity, points out that the slaves were “[e]’en Christian slaves” (1788: 2) and disdains Christian slave traders, their “horrid joy” (80), and their “purchase of human blood” (82).
Separation of Slave Families
One major reason why slavery is often presented as inhumane is that it breaks up whole families and cruelly segregates beloved ones. In Yearsley’s “sentimental vignette” (Coleman 177), the “kidnapping of Luco is presented as a crime against his parents and his […] [loved wife]” (ibid.). The slave is separated from his Incilanda as she got “[b]anish’d from his arms” (Yearsley 1788: 200). Incilanda is emotionally suffering and is described as a “hapless maid” (202) who “pines [i]n anguish deep, and sullen” (197-198). At this point, it has to be mentioned that there were considerable gender differences in the argumentation for the abolition of slavery. On the one hand, male poets, such as William Cowper, excoriated the institution of slavery because holding slaves violates the ‘natural law’, which claims that “all men are born equal and have certain inalienable ‘rights’” (Mellor 2002: 75). On the other hand, female writers attacked the slave trade as it harmed the domestic affections by segregating mothers from their children, husbands from their wives and subjecting black women to sexual abuse from their white masters (ibid.). This can be noted in Yearsley’s anti-slavery publication when the two lovers are torn apart or when Luco is taken away from his family. The poet describes that “his little brothers weep” (Yearsley 1788: 114) and his fond, sorrowful mother “climbs the hoary rock” (115), is terrified and grieves when she realises that her son is not there. Luco mourns as well and thinks of “his too humble home, where he had left / [h]is mourning father, and his Incilanda” (61-62). One can detect the very same scenes in other Romantic anti-slavery poems. In “The Negro Girl”, Robinson describes
46 how Zelma was taken away from her family and how the girl yearns for her lost lover Draco: “She madly call’d, but call’d in vain, / No sound could DRACO hear” (9-10). Especially the tragic segregation of mother and child is a common theme in many Romantic anti-slavery poems. The poets frequently use the mother figure as a symbol and describe her grief and suffering in great detail. Lee (196) offers an explanation for the recurrent representation of the deeply emotional and afflicted mother. The scholar claims that the brutal separation of mother and child is accentuated in many poems, assumingly because “the broken ties of brothers, fathers, and sons were not nearly as graphic, nor as emotionally powerful, as the painful splintering of mothers and their children, especially slave mothers and children” (ibid.). In Yearsley’s poem, Luco is taken away from his mother and also poor Zelma is “[t]orn from [her] mother's aching breast” (Robinson 1800: 67). The mother is depicted as a woman full of love and benevolence. Her kindness but also her fears and sorrows are emphasised in particular: The “poor” (Yearsley 1788: 247), “fond” (247), and “[t]oo hapless” (123) mother, whose “indulgent arms / [s]hall never clasp […] [her] fetter’d Luco more” (123-124), is lamenting the loss of her child. A further illustration in this regard can be detected in Helen Maria Williams’ poem “On the Bill which was passed in England for regulating the Slave- Trade” (1788):
No more, in desperation wild, Shall madly strain her gasping child With all the mother at her soul; With eyes where tears have ceased to roll, Shall catch the livid infant’s breath; Then sink in agonizing death. (25-30)
Williams focuses on the bond between a mother and her child. They are tragically separated by death as the suffering woman is too desperate and kills her infant. The portrayal of the infanticide is extremely powerful due to its sensitive and expressive wording, the masterfully created images, and used contrasts. In the first two lines of the above-mentioned stanza, the poet plays with reader’s expectations as he makes use of stereotypes by using the adjective ‘wild’ in connection with slaves. This evokes the common notion that Africans are savage and need to be civilised. However, the reader gets surprised as this wildness has a totally different meaning in the next line. The mother is not wild, but has intense emotions for her child and becomes insane because of her misery and pain of separation. Every mother will feel pity for and sympathise with this slave mother as the loss of an infant is likely every parent’s greatest fear. Williams uses verbal images to evoke sympathy by illustrating the “gasping child” (26)
47 with its eyes full of tears. Furthermore, the poet uses powerful contrasts as a method to kindle emotions: The “livid infant’s breath” (29) is associated with life and energy. Just in the following line, Williams writes about the opposite – the “agonizing death” (30) – and readers learn that the poor child had to die. With the help of the poem, readers will be able to relate to the slave mother and will relive her desperate, hopeless situation. They will then recognise that the mother knew no other alternative than killing her child in order to free it from all the agonies she already had to endure. According to Lee (197) historians have ascertained that slave mothers were more likely to kill their babies when they were viewed as property instead of being treated like people and that it was, in the majority of cases – either directly or indirectly – the white slave owners’ fault that these children had to die. The scholar further argues that “[t]he grim circumstances surrounding slave infant death were one reason why it became a major trope in anti-slavery poetry and has continued to haunt literary imaginations ever since” (ibid.). Apart from the death of the slave infant, also the enslaved mother, who is distraught and insane from all her suffering, commits suicide (Coleman 176-177). Coleman further observes that the mother’s cry of ‘No more’ gives comfort and suggests that the worst is over now (ibid. 176). This outcry could also imply that she will no longer tolerate suppression. Coleman, too, has noted this and remarks that it is in fact consoling that “this enslaved woman, unlike her more passive sister victims, has displayed agency in the midst of despair” (177). Williams portrays the enslaved mother as a powerful woman who does not passively accept her misery. She will not obey her masters any longer, will resist oppression, and start making her own decisions. Although her actions result in death, they can be viewed as a victory as the slave mother is finally free.
We Are All Equal
While the previously analysed poems followed similar strategies, Hannah More addresses the topic of slavery and its abolition slightly differently. She focuses on religion and mainly “combines appeals to spiritual equality […] with vivid snapshots of enslavement” (Coleman 173-174). Hannah More, a conservative English Evangelical, was chosen as a public propagandist and was inquired by the Abolition Committee to support the movement and write a didactic anti-slavery poem. More published “Slavery: A Poem” (1788), a long verse epistle5,
5 An epistle is “[a] letter in verse, usually addressed to a person close to the writer. Its themes may be moral and philosophical, or intimate and sentimental“ (Poetry Foundation, “Epistle“).
48 to assist William Wilberforce, who was one of the main leaders of the movement to end the slave trade (Ferguson 1992a: 4-6; Coleman 173). The poet was chosen as a political spokeswoman because firstly, her earlier poems showed her strong dedication to charity and her efforts to reform society and secondly, she had good relations to the upper-class Evangelical Anglicans who had substantial influence in the Committee (ibid.).
The burning village, and the blazing town: See the dire victim torn from social life, The shrieking babe, the agonizing wife. (More 98-100)
More worked with lively, emotional snapshots and thereby depicted the atrocity of slavery, its concomitant separation of beloved ones and the total destruction of homes and whole villages. She did so in combination with powerful rhetoric devices such as emotive and expressive wording – “the dire victim” (99), “the shrieking babe, the agonizing wife” (100) – and verbal imagery – the “burning […], blazing town” (98). The poet addresses people’s worst fears, which, in this context, is the loss of a beloved one but also the destruction of one’s lovely, trusted home. With the creation of such mental images, More pursued her aim of enraging people about slavery and its ferociousness so they would initiate a public protest which would guarantee the passage of the Bill (Ferguson 1992a: 4).
If Heaven has into being deign’d to call Thy light, O LIBERTY! to shine on all; (More 1-2)
As indicated, More writes in a very spiritual manner by referring to heaven and its “[b]right intellectual sun” (3). Liberty is visualised in the sun, which should “shine on all” (2), implying that every human being is entitled to be free. This is in accordance with Coleman’s remark that More “appeals to spiritual equality” (173). The line “Thy light, O LIBERTY! to shine on all” (More 2) could also be interpreted in another way. Liberty is an Enlightenment ideal; therefore, “to shine on all” (2) or ‘to bring light to the people’ could be viewed as More’s attempt to enlighten her fellow countrymen. Abolitionists themselves believed “that common humanity entailed equal rights, especially the right to liberty. Because liberty was a gift of the Creator [and] men were not […] [allowed to] lawfully deprive anyone […] of their liberty by force” (Coffey 3).
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Why are thy genial rays to parts confined? While the chill North with thy bright beam is blest, Why should fell darkness half the South invest? Was it decreed, fair Freedom! at thy birth, That thou shouldst ne’er irradiate all the earth? While Britain basks in thy full blaze of light, Why lies sad Afric quench’d in total night? (More 12-18)
Since More is aware that not every human being is granted the same rights, she strengthens her argument by raising the question why the rays of the sun do not “irradiate all the earth” (16) but are to certain “parts confined” (12). The sun illustrates freedom and More is incensed and cannot understand why this essential right is not granted to all human beings on earth. Apart from using such figures of speech, the poet works with comparisons, stark contrasts, and opposites. Brightness stands in contrast to darkness and the “full blaze of light” (17) is contrasted with “total night” (18). More compares the North, or more specifically Britain, with light and brightness, which implies that freedom prevails there. On the other hand, the South is described as dark and “sad Afric [lies] quench’d in total night” (18). The fact that there is only darkness and no light suggests that there is no freedom but inequality, suppression, and dependence. More further uses colour contrasts in her poem and addresses stereotypes by portraying Africa as the dark, black continent and the North as bright, enlightened, educated, and civilised. However, the poet challenges this notion by raising another fundamental question: “Does then th’ immortal principle within / Change with the casual colour of a skin?” (63-64). Here, More indicates how ridiculous it is to treat someone differently only based on one’s skin colour and reinforces her plea for guaranteeing the “immortal principle” (63) of liberty to the whole of humanity. The poet invokes her readership to perceive slaves as equal human beings and accentuates that a different look is no justification to take fundamental human rights from Africans. She further attempts to persuade readers that slaves are equal to Westerners as they also have “heads to think, and hearts to feel, / And souls to act” (More 67-68). This has also been noted by Mellor who claims that More “insisted on the common humanity that Africans shared with Europeans” (2002: 75) and that they are therefore, “entitled to the same ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’”(ibid.). More’s poem is not the only anti-slavery poem advocating equality and laying stress on the fact that all human beings are the same. Mary Robinson, for example, holds the same view and proclaims: “Whate’er their tints may be, their souls are still the same!” (1800: 54) Birkett even addresses her readers directly:
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Examine well each limb, each nerve, each bone, Each artery – and then observe thy own; The beating pulse, the heart that throbs within All, (save the sable tincture of his skin,) Say, Christians, do they not resemble you? (71-75)
While More and Robinson primarily assert that slaves are equal human beings because of their souls, feelings, and thoughts, Birkett goes one step further and requests her readers to examine their bodies and compare them to the bodies of Africans. Both ethnic groups have the same hearts, nerves, limbs, bones, and blood vessels. Accordingly, Coleman claims that Birkett “insists upon physical sameness” (185) and asks her “fellow Christians” (ibid.) to see this resemblance. Birkett has chosen this strategy cleverly because no one is able to speak to the contrary or deny this physical equality. A very ironical instance of the plea that every human being has to be treated equally can be found in Robinsons’ “The Negro Girl”. Coleman has observed that the white tyrant has not only taught Zelma, the slave girl, to read and write but “has even taught her the lesson of racial equality” (190): “He taught me in the Soul to find / No tint, as in the face” (Robinson 1800: 75-76). This would imply that Zelma’s white master was aware of the fact that there is no actual difference between them.
Victory in Sight?
While other poets lend their support to abolitionism, Helen Maria Williams was very optimistic and believed that the worst was already over. In her poem “On the Bill which was passed in England for regulating the Slave-Trade” she revealed her intuition of imminent victory regarding the abolition of the slave trade. According to Coleman (175), the poet refers to the so called Dolben bill, which was constituted to regulate conditions on board of slave ships. The poem gives hope as Williams repeatedly states what cruelties will no longer happen: “No more […] / shall rise / The stifled captive’s latest sighs” (Williams 1788: 9-11); “No more shall suffocating death / Seize the pent victim's sinking breath (13-14). Due to these lines the poem is uplifting and conveys the message that the slave trade will end soon. Similar to other anti-slavery poems the victims’ miseries are depicted sensitively. The major difference here is that Williams believes that these events will in a little while lie in the past and she comforts her readership that such dreadful atrocities will happen “[n]o more” (9). Unfortunately, the expected victory did not occur soon and the optimistic poet triumphed too early. Coleman, too, notes that Williams “bids farewell to various atrocities connected with the trade” (175);
51 however she did so “prematurely” (ibid.). He further observes that the poet also sings “a paean of praise to Britain” (ibid.):
O, first of EUROPE’s polish’d lands To ease the captive’s iron bands; Long, as thy glorious annals shine, This proud distinction shall be thine! (Williams 1788: 37-40)
Lov’d BRITAIN! Whose protecting hand, Stretch’d o’er the glove, on AFRIC’s strand (271-272)
In these two stanzas, Williams shows her patriotic spirit and expresses “national pride and confidence” (Coleman 178) that her home country would be the first of Europe’s countries to abolish the slave trade. Williams greatly praises Britain and her admiration shows how proud she feels of her nation. She depicts Britain as glorious and beloved, as the protector and liberator of Africa. Moreover, Britain is viewed as a highly moral and noble nation and the first country freeing the slaves by easing “the captive’s iron bands” (Williams 1788: 38). This favourable representation of Britain is another major difference to other anti-slavery poems as women writers usually condemned their home country for their involvement in slavery and the slave trade.
Anti-Slavery Poetry and the Suppression of Women
At first glance female poets lent their support to the abolitionist movement and wrote about slavery only. In fact they also indirectly refer to their own experiences of suppression and unequal treatment in patriarchal society. Women were marginalised writers who attempted to give the suppressed a voice while self being confronted with oppression and male dominance. According to Coleman, abolitionism allowed women poets new possibilities for raising their voices and making their opinions heard in public (191). In various instances in the discussed poems, one can detect an additional layer of meaning. Female poets also fought for their own rights and acceptance. Ferguson persuasively claims that women writers advocated the slaves’ freedom and at the same time, “displaced anxieties about their own assumed powerlessness and inferiority onto their representations of slaves” (1992b: 3). Ann Yearsley’s assertion “We feel enslaved” (1788: 19) seems to be simple at first but is exceedingly powerful. She does not state that only the Africans feel enslaved but includes the speaker of the poem by using the first-person plural pronoun ‘We’. Yearsley possibly intends to arouse attention that she and her working-class members feel enslaved by the
52 authoritative ruling class. Alternatively, the poet could refer to women in general and hints at the fact that many women are subordinated and have to obey their ‘masters’. Even Mary Wollstonecraft addresses this issue in her Vindication of the Rights of Woman and demonstrates similarities between women and enslaved Africans by asking: “Is one half of the human species, like the poor African slaves, to be subject to prejudices that brutalise them, when principles would be a surer guard, only to sweeten the cup of man?” (114). Hannah More might also indirectly criticise society by implying that slaves as well as women “have keen affections [and] soft desires” (69) connoting that they are all equal human beings and have to be granted the same natural rights. Another instance can be found in Birkett’s “A Poem on the African Slave Trade”:
OPPRESSION! thou, whose hard and cruel chain, Entails on all thy victims woe and pain; (1-2)
Firstly, oppression is powerfully illustrated with chains. Every reader is familiar with chains and is able to imagine someone oppressed being bound by heavy, cruel chains and suffering from this bondage and captivity. In the second line, Birkett does not state that oppression entails “woe and pain” (2) on African slaves but “on all thy victims” (ibid.). Birkett’s clear accentuation that all victims suffer from suppression is one of the many attempts of women poets to mobilise society. They make readers aware of social imbalances and attempt to evoke change in society, politics, education, and economics.
Did Abolitionists Eventually Succeed?
Unfortunately, Britain’s war with its revolutionary neighbour France disrupted the efforts for the abolition of slavery. People were very conservative and did not want to deal with colonial policy during wartime (Murray 1057). However, women poets did not give up, showed their ongoing commitment and further pursued their goal. New campaigns were conducted and slavery was finally abolished in 1833 (ibid.). Based on this analysis Ann Yearsley, Hannah More, Mary Robinson and Helen Maria Williams can be considered abolitionists. In their poems, they aimed at demonstrating the immorality of slavery. The “defenders of social love” (Coleman 191) were exceedingly courageous in their writing. By writing powerful but also deeply emotional verse and giving personal insights into the lives of enslaved people, these female poets rebelled against authority and tried to persuade their readership of the injustice and wrongdoings of British slave holders and traders. While a slave was simply seen as a commodity by white men, female
53 poets finally represented Africans as equal human beings who love, grieve, and suffer and are capable of powerful emotions. They persuaded their readership that a slave is not just an object which can be imprisoned, forced to work, and used as one pleases. The main concern of women writers was the inhumane and cruel segregation of families. Accordingly, Behrendt argues that these poets “presented the strongly feminist argument that slavery’s greatest evil lay in its inevitable violation of ‘the domestic affections’” (2009: 155). Anti-slavery poets further criticised their nation’s involvement in slavery and condemned the mind-set of British slave traders and masters, who thought they would have the allowance to enforce their power and oppress other equal human beings. Concluding, it can be stated that the abolitionist movement was an opportunity for women to become politically active and enabled female poets to make their voices heard in public. This matter by itself is regarded as revolutionary. Ferguson convincingly argues that “anti-slavery protest in prose and poetry by Anglo-Saxon female authors contributed to the development of feminism over a two-hundred year period” (1992b: 3).
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6 “Woman! rise, assert thy right!“6: Powerful Women and Their Struggle for Equality
This chapter will explore poetry in which women poets criticise eighteenth-century society, resist oppression, and advocate equal rights. The writings which will be referred to subsequently are “The Rights of Woman” (1825; comp. 1793) by Anna Laetitia Barbauld and three poems of Felicia Hemans’ poetry collection Records of Woman (1828). Both writers are highly influential but at the same time profoundly different poets. Anna Laetitia Barbauld was a politically radical and controversial writer, while Felicia Hemans was frequently regarded as a ‘poetess’, appraised for her morally exemplary poetry on domestic affections. According to Linkin & Behrendt, one can experience that, throughout the Romantic era, women’s emphasis shifted from “an often very visible social and political radicalism” (7) – which applies to Barbauld’s poem – to a “heightened domesticity” (ibid.) – which many critics attribute to Hemans’ poems which were written towards the end of the period. I argue that Hemans’ Records of Woman clearly proves that she cannot be described as a mere poetess writing about the hearth and home. Secondly, I am of the opinion that, despite their differences, Barbauld and Hemans are revolutionary women who, fundamentally, pursued the same aims. The two writers attempted to raise societies’ awareness that it is immoral to regard women as inferior and treat them differently. They tried to persuade their female readership to fight back and encouraged them to be strong women and resist oppression and patriarchy. While Barbauld did so by directly by addressing women’s rights and demanding women to champion for their rights, Hemans applied another strategy and made use of female characters who were depicted as powerful heroines. These strong and determined heroines should serve as a role model for female readers.
6 (Barbauld 1) 55
6.1 Anna Laetitia Barbauld’s “The Rights of Woman”
Anna Laetitia Barbauld, who belongs to the first generation of professional female writers in England, was a highly prestigious woman in her time:
“We congratulate the public on so great an accession to the literary world, as the genius and talents of Miss Aikin,” wrote the Monthly Review. […] Elizabeth Montagu, “Queen of the Bluestockings,” sought her acquaintance; […] [t]he young Coleridge walked forty miles in order to meet Barbauld [and] the young Wordsworth imitated her in his early poems (McCarthy & Kraft 11).
Barbauld was a revolutionary poet. In her works, she addressed leading issues of her time and even dared to engage in political debates. Barbauld declared herself against the British government’s entry into the war with France and vehemently opposed slavery and the international slave trade (McCarthy & Kraft 12). Crisafulli describes Barbauld as an “exemplary, cultured, bourgeois, intellectual radical“ (39). One of her early, but well-known poems is “The Mouse’s Petition” (1773), in which a mouse is trapped, due to scientific experiments, and petitions for freedom. This poem, although not further discussed in the frame of this thesis, is in so far interesting as it is written as a reaction to the scientific revolution, more precisely the revolution in chemistry, in late eighteenth century (Saunders 500). With her writing and use of scientific language, Barbauld challenged the perpetual assumption that women were not able to intellectually engage in the male domain of sciences (ibid. 501). Outstanding as well is that Barbauld already took a stand for liberty and disempowered people in 1773, a couple of years before the outbreak of the French Revolution, since the confined mouse in her poem represents subordinate and oppressed people (Neumann 140). According to Ross (1994) the poem could be read as “symbolic critiques of masculine power structures” (qtd. in Neumann 140) or as a plea for animal rights (Saunders 501). This might indirectly express the poet’s request for natural and civil rights for everyone, including the powerless members of society. A few years later, in 1793, Barbauld advocated women’s rights more directly by composing “The Rights of Woman”, which was only published in 1825. Her poem is evidently a reactionary response to the Vindication of the Rights of Woman as one only has to read the poem’s title to associate it with Wollstonecraft’s revolutionary polemic. The poem was not published during Barbauld’s lifetime, but when it finally did after her death, it achieved negative fame and lots of criticism (McCarthy 352). Although Barbauld was usually regarded as a “radical female political voice of the 1790s and as a spokesperson for issues of citizenship,
56 including women’s rights to engage with public debates“ (Bradshaw 23), various scholars argue that “The Rights of Woman” contradicts this conception. Despite its title and the strong, persuasive content, nearly all critics claim that the poem is anti-feminist and an attack on Wollstonecraft’s feminism (McCarthy & Kraft 130; Bradshaw 23). It is even alleged that the work supports a reassertion of traditional roles for women. However, the scholars’ assertions are not entirely convincing and I will provide a different perspective by analysing Barbauld’s poem in greater detail. “The Rights of Woman” starts powerfully and promising, in “cheering insurgency” (McCarthy 353), by calling on women to take a stand and assert their rights as they have been oppressed, humiliated, and regarded as being inferior to men for too long. Yes, injured Woman! rise, assert thy right! Woman! too long degraded, scorned, opprest; O born to rule in partial Law's despite (Barbauld 1-3)
Due to the poem’s beginning “Yes, injured Woman!” (1), one has to assume that Barbauld acknowledges Wollstonecraft’s demand for equal rights and answers in the affirmative. She seems to have the intention to advocate Wollstonecraft’s revolution in female manners and asks women to break out of their private spheres and to no longer follow the traditional conventions of the patriarchal society. Although women are discriminated by law, the poet empowers women by stating that they are actually “born to rule” (3). Bradshaw’s reading of this first stanza likewise stresses that the opening of the poem is rousing due to Barbauld’s “use of concrete political terms of oppression and social injustice” (32). The scholar argues that Barbauld even alludes to “the unfairness of women’s legal position” (ibid.) when depicting the “Law” as “partial” (Barbauld 3). Despite the poem’s positive start, its content changes abruptly. Barbauld does not only ask for women’s rights and equal treatment but is of the opinion that women should reign over men and capture men’s power: “Go bid proud Man his boasted rule resign, / And kiss the golden sceptre of thy reign” (7-8). Barbauld reverses the common notion that men are in a position of clear dominance over women and represents women as the superior sex ruling over men. By outlining the position women are demanded to occupy, Barbauld creates a “sharp contrast to women’s real social and legal position as posited at the poem’s opening” (Bradshaw 32). Go, gird thyself with grace; collect thy store Of bright artillery glancing from afar; Soft melting tones thy thundering cannon’s roar, Blushes and fears thy magazine of war. (Barbauld 9-12)
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Barbauld endorses women to assert themselves, to gain acceptance, and to control men. This fight is depicted as a real battle and the poet clearly demonstrates this by using phrases which the reader immediately brings into connection with war: “bright artillery” (10), “thundering cannon’s roar” (11), “magazine of war” (12). War and warfare are usually associated with men and it is not characteristic for women to use weapons, fight, or become aggressive and violent. On that note it is relevant to take a closer look at the description of women’s ‘weapons of war’. Women should enforce their strength and power not by actually fighting or resorting to violence but with the help of their typical female qualities – their “angel pureness” (6), their “soft melting tones” (11), and their “blushes and fears” (12). This is in keeping with McCarthy’s explanation that “the poem lays much stress on likening woman’s exertions to warfare: her grace is her ‘artillery’, her softness her ‘thundering cannon’s roar’” (353). At this point, the poem seems to reinforce the traditional roles of women and alleges that the most powerful weapons of women are their blushing, their shyness and other female traits such as being sweet, innocent, soft, and pure. However, one can interpret Barbauld’s portrayal of the ideal eighteenth-century woman not as an endorsement but as mockery and ridicule of women’s status and representation. Additionally, it could have been her intention to depict women as the superior sex precisely for the reason that they truly are kinder and softer than men and always follow good intentions, even in war where usually violence and harshness predominate. Bradshaw provides another view and claims that the comparisons of warlike- imagery to female properties can be read ironically due to the “massive and almost comical dichotomy between these images” (33). She further argues that these lines show “how inadequate women’s ‘weapons’ really are” (ibid.). A few lines later, Barbauld repeats, in her radical rhetoric, that women should be superior to men by suggesting: “Make treacherous Man thy subject, not thy friend” (19). The poet disagrees with Wollstonecraft, who stated in her Vindication that not one’s dominance over the other but friendship between men and women based on respect and affection is the basis for a stable marriage (Mellor 2002: 87). The reason for this assertion that husband and wife should not be friends does not stem from Barbauld’s belief that there should be no equality between the sexes but from her perception that a woman cannot trust “stubborn” (18), “treacherous Man” (19). This is in accordance with Bradshaw, who observed that Barbauld indicated that women “face an unyielding and corrupt ‘foe’” (33) in men. Concerning women’s rights, Barbauld suggests that they should not be discussed by women because “if debated [they are] lost” (14). Here some critics might again argue that the poet opposed equal rights. This is not entirely convincing. One could hold against it that
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Barbauld possibly criticised patriarchal society with its dominant men who would immediately suppress rebellious women and prohibit their discussions of and campaigns for rights and equality. Bradshaw also advances the view that the poet rhetorically refuses movements for women’s rights because eventually “women are always already excluded from the Enlightenment category of ‘human’ to which those rights apply” (33). In the final line of this stanza, Barbauld states: “Thou mayst command, but never canst be free” (20). This implies that women may control and dominate men but will whatever happens never be free. All these examples can be seen as a severe critique of society and an attempt to raise the readers’ awareness of how immoral society’s behaviour and attitude towards women is.
Awe the licentious, and restrain the rude, Soften the sullen, clear the cloudy brow (Barbauld 21-22)
Barbauld continues portraying men negatively as “licentious” and “rude” (21), while being kind towards her own sex by praising women “for superior moral character” (McCarthy 353). Women are encouraged to “[s]often the sullen” (22), which might reflect Barbauld’s opinion that a woman is inherently more sensitive than a man. Moreover, the female’s ability to soothe, calm down, and give comfort is appreciated in these lines (McCarthy 353-354). Women should serve as role models in society due to their power to civilise (ibid.). For various critics, the final lines of the poem have been the main proof that the writing is an “anti-feminist message” (Bradshaw 33). It is indeed surprising and unexpected when Barbauld ultimately declares: Then, then, abandon each ambitious thought, Conquest or rule thy heart shall feebly move, In Nature's school, by her soft maxims taught, That separate rights are lost in mutual love. (Barbauld 29-32)
Barbauld appears to convince her readership that women should stop thinking about a rebellion and that equal rights are irrelevant in a loving marriage. It instantly creates the impression that the poet does not take women’s rights seriously and approves women’s traditional roles and their exclusion from politics (Bradshaw 24). This perception can be challenged by stressing the fact that nearly all critics ignore that “Barbauld, in work produced both immediately before and after this poem, repeatedly challenged women’s exclusion from the public sphere by herself producing [radical,] hefty political tracts and verse polemic” (ibid.). Barbauld might have felt powerless to evoke change back then, in 1793, but the last line reveals the poet’s belief that “mutual love” (32) will eliminate “separate rights” (32). This does not mean that women should be subordinated or do not need equal rights. Barbauld only shows that love,
59 empathy, and care between husband and wife will eventually lead to equality and are even more important than a political reform (Bradshaw 33-34). McCarthy offers a different interpretation for these finale lines and indicates that Barbauld simply realised that “neither sex was born to rule the other” (355) but they were born for mutual love.
6.2 Felicia Hemans’ Records of Woman
This subchapter will explore Felicia Hemans’s poetry, which is devoted to women and deals with their stories, lives, and experiences in early nineteenth century. The poet cannot be considered a very radical writer. Nevertheless, Hemans’ poetry gives voice to silenced and neglected women and provides insights into historical events or contemporary life from the viewpoint of various strong and powerful women. Thereby, Hemans subtly offers criticism of society. Felicia Hemans was one of the most influential and most published woman poets in the nineteenth century (Feldman xi). She was among the first women who were able to live from composing poetry and earned a considerable income (Curran 1988: 188). According to Behrendt, she was regarded as “the poetess of hearth [and] home” (2010: 323) and her writing argues “for traditionally feminine values such as domesticity and the separate spheres” (Craciun & Lokke 8). This notion, however, neglects her works on women and women’s experiences in early nineteenth-century Britain (Behrendt 2010: 323). Hemans frequently considered the situation of women who had to deal with conflicting roles: “on the one hand, a private domestic figure – a wife and mother – and, on the other, a public figure – not just a writer but more particularly a woman writer” (ibid.). In order to analyse these opposing roles of women and to demonstrate that Hemans is concerned with far more than only “sweet domesticity” (Behrendt 2010: 323) three poems of her popular volume Records of Woman (1828) will be examined. This volume consists of nineteen poems focusing on a wide range of female characters, drawn from history and contemporary life, and their individual stories and tragedies. Hemans criticises the domestic ideal, and challenges stereotypical views about the character and emotional resources of women (Feldman xi; xvii). The heroines, who are placed in painful, trying situations, “evince uncommon strength of character, courage, and nobility of spirit. They are determined, proud, and gutsy, not servile or helpless” (ibid. xx).
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A first prove that Hemans is a revolutionary woman and cannot be treated as a poetess, is offered by Behrendt, who argues that “[w]hile the poetess may lament the loss of the woman as domestic female, the poet necessarily memorializes the woman as public figure, as activist in the arena of public affairs“ (2010: 323). This is exactly what Hemans does in her poetry as she foregrounds women as politically involved and active participants in public life. Historical events are often the main concern of her verse and she emphasises women’s role in history. This is exemplified in “The Switzer’s Wife” (1828) in which Hemans tells the story of the origin of Switzerland and highlights the pivotal role and point of view of a woman almost erased from the record of history (Feldman xxi). In the poem, the nameless wife encourages her husband, Werner Stauffacher, to act and is the catalyst for crucial events; still, it is the man’s name that patriarchal history chose to remember (ibid.). Therefore, Hemans decided to give Stauffacher’s wife a voice and accentuates her significant role in history. This accentuation of the woman “as activist in the arena of public affairs“ (Behrendt 2010: 323) is even more remarkable in Heman’s poem “Joan of Arc, in Rheims” (1828). Joan of Arc is an influential historical figure and is a national heroine of France (Encyclopædia Britannica, “Saint Joan of Arc”). Joan was a peasant girl who led the French army in a significant victory during the Hundred Years’ War. One year later, she was accused to be a heretic by the English and burned to death (ibid.). In the poem, she is not a typical subordinated or passive woman but is depicted as a heroic woman acting in the public, male-oriented world. “Joan of Arc, in Rheims” is set on “a joyous day in Rheims” (Hemans 1828a: 1), namely the king’s coronation, and tells the story of the French heroine. During the ceremony, Joan stands lonely beside the altar and is wearing a “gold helm” (20), which is usually associated with men, or more specifically soldiers and warriors. When she finally lifts her helmet, one is able to see the woman below it. Hemans presents Joan as soft and innocent, probably as the ideal Romantic woman. She has a clear, fair face, a “slight form” (29), “adoring eye[s] (31) and a “smile of love” (28). Joan’s cheeks and brows are “in deep devotion meek” (25), which corresponds to the image of the indulgent and submissive woman. Additionally, the heroine is described as youthful and as a virgin; both terms are associated with innocence and pureness. Then, an unexpected turn happens and one realises that Joan actually is a warrior and not an innocent girl when the following questions are raised: “Was that the leader thr’o the battle storm? (30) / Guided the warrior where the swords flash’d high?” (32). A battle is usually planned, realised and conducted by men. Therefore, the poet plays with the readers’ expectations and stereotypical views and surprises her readers when presenting a woman as a
61 self-determined leader of men. The kind, soft, and unobtrusive woman is suddenly “mantled with victorious power” (36). She is hailed as a heroine, as the “Daughter of victory!” (47). Hemans turns Joan de Arc into a strong woman and makes her an icon of female power. This image of the powerful woman is further strengthened when the whole nation praises Joan’s bravery and actions in a “stormy cheer” (53) and give “glory on her high career!” (53). Joan is clearly presented as a public figure who is able to engage in and understand politics. The poem conveys the message that also women can be rebellious and successful leaders. Although being superior to men, the cheering masses do not ridicule her but glorify their heroine and her achievements. According to Clarke, Hemans is “a woman of intense musical susceptibility” (77). This can also be seen in this poem as she works a lot with music and certain sounds to create the right atmosphere. When the crowd welcomes Joan it is loud and noisy as the people are shouting and jubilating. To convey this sensation to her readership, Hemans uses expressive phrases and writes about the “proud rich stream of warlike melodies” (1828a: 48), the rising of “a nation’s sound” (50) and the “stormy cheer” (52). Another unanticipated turn is marked by a moment of silence, a pause: The shouts that fill'd The hollow heaven tempestuously, were still'd One moment; […] (56-58)
This brief pause seems to be a moment of clarity for Joan. Somewhere in the crowd she spots her proud father, the shepherd, and her brothers (66-69). At once, conceivably overwhelmed by the love for her family, she changes her mind, weeps for joy and wants to return to her beloved ones (78-88). However, the return is not possible as Joan’s glory and fame end in death. Whereas McGavran argues that Joan’s “desperate cry to her father expresses a hopeless desire to escape the masculine role she is now playing” (544), one could equally hold that Hemans attempted to highlight that one thing does not have to rule out the other: A determined, independent woman does not automatically have to be a bad wife or a dangerous mother who neglects her family but can still be devoted to her beloved family. Moreover, some scholars might claim that Hemans intensified traditional views of women as Joan’s breaking out of the domestic sphere and her unladylike behaviour result in death. I argue, though, that Hemans criticised the frequently viewed incompatibility of women’s roles as domestic figures – caring mothers and wives – and their roles as active members of the public world. The death of the powerful woman is a symbol and shows what
62 will happen to women who raise their voices in the male-dominated public sphere and do not accept oppression any longer. Comparable themes can be found in “Arabella Stuart” (1828), a poem about a historical female figure as well. “Arabella Stuart” opens with an explanation how Lady Arabella was separated from her husband, William Seymour, and taken into prison in order to prevent her from ascending the throne (she was a possible successor to Queen Elizabeth I) and to assure that she does not have a child who would be a rival heir and might ascend the throne (Hemans 1828b). As the frame story is already told before the poem starts, Hemans leaves out the narrative elements and only reflects the thoughts and feelings in Arabella’s mind through monologues (Rudy 552). Typical for the Romantic period, “Arabella Stuart” starts with various images of nature and wildlife: “royal forest” (Hemans 1828b: 5), “young leaves trembled” (9), “early birds were singing” (2). This is only a dream because Arabella is locked away in prison and is not able to enjoy her freedom nor nature’s beauty. In her dream, the noblewoman meets her beloved Seymour, who is parted from her: “I met the smile of one clear eye, / Flashing out joy to mine. – Yes, thou wert there” (14-15). Despite being in this forlorn situation, Hemans depicts Arabella as a strong, courageous woman who is not willing to give up and let someone else take control over her life. She is a “captive and alone” (29), but still feels “hope of happiness to be” (31) and her “woman’s spirit [is] strong” (32). Arabella will not resign herself nor accept her fate as an imprisoned, voiceless woman. As explained in the frame story, both lovers, not willing to acquiesce their destiny, forge out a plan to escape. They both make it separately and steal out of the prison but cannot find each other immediately. Arabella is brought back by a vessel in the King’s service and is taken captive again. After her unsuccessful fight for freedom, Arabella is devastated. She will “[t]rust […] never more!” (97) and all her “hope is crush’d” (97). In this context, Feldman claims that “Arabella Stuart is not mad, as conventional histories assert, but broken by yearning and despair, by the betrayal of her trust, and by the crushing of her hope” (xxiii). In a monologue, Arabella imagines the life outside which has been taken from her. Seymour is able to experience “the green, the free, / The full of all sweet sound, - the shut from me!” (Hemans 1828b: 150-151). One could suggest that this is another instance in which the conflict of the separate spheres can be seen: While her husband, Seymour, is able to escape imprisonment in order to be free and part of the public world, Arabella, as a woman, is confined to the prison, representing the private sphere, because patriarchal society regards her as inferior and wants a woman to be passive and docile. Armstrong is of the opinion that some
63 of Hemans’ verse, allied with different metaphors, such as the prison, can be regarded as “an attempt to transcend restrictions [of society] in fantasy, or an effort to discover a universal womanhood which transcends cultural differences” (325). This movement, or even “flight across the boundary” (ibid.) is frequently linked to the exploration of extreme or desperate situations such as imprisonment, suffering, or captivity (ibid.). In her despair, Arabella continuously wishes to be heard or even rescued by her beloved husband: “My friend, my friend! Where art thou?” (Hemans 1828b: 128) / “Dost thou forget me, Seymour?” (163) / “Aid! – comes there yet no aid?” (175). Arabella’s appeal for help cannot be heard as she is an ‘invisible’ woman locked in a prison cell, which is described as a “voiceless chamber” (255). Feldman observes that Arabella is “a heroine whose frustrated need is to be heard, seen, and recognized by an unresponsive authority” (xxiv). Hemans reflects a woman’s desire that her voice is heard and taken seriously. This was not the case in the late Romantic era as women had no say in public matters or politics and it was not considered appropriate for women to declare their opinions openly. Therefore, Arabella’s outcry for “Aid! – comes there yet no aid?” (Hemans 1828b: 175) can be interpreted as Hemans’ demand for equal human rights, which would finally aid women and free them from their “voiceless chamber[s]” (255). The poem further raises awareness of the prevailing power structure in society as the captive has to die in the end. Wolfson states that woman’s resources ultimately “cannot define an alternative or resistance to the power structures of men’s politics” (1994: 148). Nevertheless, death does not have to be viewed as a defeat. Arabella finally found her freedom and resisted male dominance. By dying, she liberated herself from oppression and no one can control her or has power over her anymore. Behrendt likewise argues that the death of a woman can be seen as heroic and an “act of defiance” (2010: 323), and Feldman argues that death, as Hemans perceives it, might be “a woman’s most forceful adversary but can also be her salvation” (xxi). Death, which is in general a major theme of Hemans’ Records of Woman, is also addressed in “Properzia Rossi” (1828), a poem which exemplifies the troubles of a female artist. Clarke (77) compares the poem to “Joan of Arc, in Rheims” since the female leader as well as the female artist are women in a man’s world and the “self-assertiveness of the woman warrior, like the self-assertiveness of the woman writer, is in direct contradiction to the […] ideal homely happiness” (ibid. 77). Properzia Rossi is also comparable to the aforementioned Arabella Stuart because both women share the desire to be heard and seen (Feldman xxiv).
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With “Properzia Rossi”, a dramatic monologue, Hemans attempted to demonstrate the complex and at times even contradictory attitudes towards the woman writer and her fame (ibid.). For this purpose, Hemans makes use of another historical character, namely Properzia Rossi, a celebrated sculptress of the Italian Renaissance (Clarke 77). In the poem, the artist is in love, but her affection is unrequited and causes her death. Properzia thought that death should finally give her power in that people mourn and cry for her and would, in this way, make her life precious. Before she departs, she sculptures on her last work, her “dream of passion and of beauty” (Hemans 1828c: 1). While working passionately, Properzia recognises her talent and feels powerful:
It comes, - the power Within me born, flows back; my fruitless dower That could not win me love (26-28)
In these lines, Hemans illustrates that it is the fault of Properzia’s passion, her artistic talent, that her love is not returned. Her art, which is “the expression of her deepest self” (Clarke 77) restrains her from gaining a man’s love and attention. Clarke argues that Properzia Rossi’s “failure implies the inescapable conflict in gifted women between their passion for art – their true selves – and their acceptability as women” (77). Hemans might refer to her own situation, since Properzia’s refusal as an artist can be compared to women writers. As outlined in chapter three, it was not considered appropriate for women to engage in literature because it was a traditional male domain. Therefore, women writers were often not respected or taken seriously, were heavily criticised, and confronted with prejudices. Although her art did not reward her with appreciation, Properzia continued creating her work of beauty: The bright work grows Beneath my hand, unfolding as a rose, Leaf after leaf, to beauty; line by line, I fix my thought, heart, soul, to burn, to shine (Hemans 1828c: 33-36)
Art is depicted as something very delicate that demands time and the engagement of the mind, heart, and soul. Art slowly develops – line by line beneath the artist’s hands – into something unique, valuable, and beautiful. Hemans might have attempted to achieve two overall aims with this poem. Firstly, she might have criticised that works of art by women were not praised and did not receive the recognition they would have deserved. Secondly, she might have called on other female artists and writers to not be intimidated by authorities, to pursue their talents and passions, and be confident about their creations. Hemans was a very ambitious poet and
65 read carefully, this poem “reflects and justifies this yearning after fame” (Feldman xxiv). This can be seen towards the end of the poem. Although Properzia – or in general the artist – dies, she leaves behind her name and so, her work of art and her fame will persist and be memorised.
While some scholars and even the bourgeois public of the 1820s regarded Hemans as a poet “celebrating hearth and home, God and country” (Curran 1988: 189), this analysis has proven that Hemans also addressed issues outside her proper sphere. The poet represented strong, determined heroines in her poetry who might have been an inspiring role model for women. Hemans further opposes the male-dominated society and the rigid system of separate spheres and criticises stereotypical representations of women as the weak, submissive, and docile sex. Although Barbauld wrote more radically and directly than Hemans, who was more indirect and cautious, both poets attempted to convey similar messages. They criticised patriarchal structures, challenged traditional gender roles and expectations, and attempted to make women’s voices heard in society. In addition, they demanded women to not let themselves be marginalised, resist suppression, and stand up for their rights.
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7 Conclusion
As stated at the beginning of this thesis, British Romanticism was, for about two centuries, associated with a small group of male poets only. This diploma thesis has proven that British female poets and their achievements deserve to be acknowledged and appreciated. The presented writers showed a great deal of courage by raising their voices in a male-dominated world of literature in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Despite considerable difficulties such as harsh criticism, stereotypes, and various obstacles in terms of publication, these women could not be kept from critically engaging in ongoing political action and addressing social, cultural, educational, and economical issues of their time. Recovering these often neglected and marginalised women writers and bringing them back into discussion has changed literary history, the canon formation, the previous knowledge of the Romantic period, and our fundamental understanding of culture and society. Based on the conducted analysis, the presented female poets can be regarded as revolutionary due to the following reasons. First of all, it was revolutionary for women, who were taught to spend their leisure time with ‘feminine’ activities such as sewing, dancing, and singing, to write professionally. Secondly, women rebelled against society’s norms and conventions as well as male hegemony by composing poetry which consciously broke with traditions. Some poets did not adhere to rhyme schemes or particular structures, while others altered poetic genres or even invented new forms and literary styles (e.g. Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets). Thirdly, this thesis has refuted the assertion that women wrote unambitiously and has proven that female writers did not only compose poetry about domestic issues, such as the family and the home, but addressed highly-relevant, controversial topics of their time. Poets demanded political and social revolutions and used the power of poetry to support changes in Britain’s legal system and cause a fundamental rethinking of gender issues and the doctrine of separate spheres. In their poetry, women accentuated their discontent and their suffering from inequalitiy and oppression, rebelled against patriarchal structures and male dominance, and took a stand for equal rights. Furthermore, poets endorsed the abolitionist movement and gave their voices to other marginalised, suppressed people. The study of poetry on the French Revolution has shown how women, for the first time, engaged in political activity. At the early stages of the political upheaval, writers supported the revolution’s ideals and praised French women’s active involvement. Additionally, they believed that the transformations in France would have impact on Britain as well and would cause the respect and effective exercise of human rights valid for all human
67 beings without consideration of gender, class, ethnic or national origin, or skin colour. However, this favourable attitude changed abruptly as the revolution turned towards terror. The poets sided with the victims of the revolution and all those who have been treated inhumanely and unfairly. They condemned war and violence and hoped for the prevalence of peace and liberty. In antislavery poetry, women clearly showed their empathy and sympathised with the enslaved Africans. They opposed the institution of slavery, despised British slave traders and owners, and collectively agreed that the slave trade has to be abolished. In order to raise awareness of the inhumanity of slavery and to reach their readers, the poets followed similar strategies. They focused on the cruel segregation of families and beloved ones, the death of innocent children, the physical suffering of slaves, and the emotional pain and mourning of mothers and other family members. Poets emphasised that slaves are not commodities, which can be bought and sold, but feeling human beings who are able to love, grieve and suffer. Furthermore, they requested their readers to see the physical equality. They highlighted that Africans as well as white Westerners are the same and that skin colour is the only physical difference between them. Especially towards the end of the Romantic period (initiating the transition to early Victorianism), female poets directly challenged traditional gender roles. Hemans, for example, presented powerful female characters in her writing as a means of criticising society’s treatment of women. Thereby, she demanded women to resist suppression and to fight for education, a political voice, and greater independence. As has been shown, the rebellious voices of the Romantic era addressed different issues of their time; however, they all had similar motifs and intentions. What all these poets have in common is their dedication to the oppressed, voiceless, and invisible groups in society and their ability to show empathy and identify with the destitute and suppressed peasants, the captured slaves, and the emigrants who had to flee their homeland due to the violent turmoil in France. Another common ground of these Romantic poets is their desire for peace and justice and their claim for greater humanity, liberty, and equality. Women poet’s achievements were significant for emancipation and the development of women’s rights but also for the Romantic period itself and British literature and culture in general. The presented writers had impact on society and politics. They have laid the essential foundations for various transformations in the years that followed. Female poets contributed to fundamental changes in society’s behaviour and attitude towards women. In further consequence, their common initiative led to a number of legislative amendments, such as the
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Slavery Abolition Act (1833), Custody of Infants Act (1839), Married Women’s Property Act (1870), and Women’s Suffrage in 1918. Discrimination against women, gender questions, social exclusion, and inequality are still highly relevant issues these days and we do not know where we would be today, without the courage and commitment of these powerful revolutionary women of the Romantic era, who have been made visible in this diploma thesis.
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8 Revolutionary Women and Their Poetry in the EFL Classroom
After dealing with women’s poetry in the Romantic era and elaborating on the various reasons why they can be considered revolutionary, this chapter will focus on the implementation of female revolutionaries and their writings in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom setting. The overall aim of this chapter is to offer suggestions how to give students an understanding of this topic. It will provide a possible approach on how to familiarise students with significant transformations and revolutions in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Furthermore, the oppression of women, and the poetry of revolutionary female writers will be discussed. Additionally, the objectives of the planned lessons, possible outcomes, some teaching materials, as well as teaching strategies will be presented.
8.1 Significance of the Topic
Emancipation, Gender Discrimination, Equal Rights, and Same Opportunities are terms which we frequently come across everywhere in our daily lives – at work, school, university, in social media, on TV, in advertisements, news, political discussions and debates, etc. For over two hundred years, women have been advocating equality and fighting for emancipation. Women certainly have achieved a lot. However, the issue of gender equality is still highly relevant these days and the struggle for same rights is still ongoing. Discrimination against women can, for example, be found at the workplace in terms of wage inequalities, hiring, promotion, and leading positions (PCI, n.p.). Women can also feel discriminated by society in their everyday lives in which they are confronted with prejudices regarding their appearance, weight, height, age, clothing, etc. (ibid.). One only has to take the current worldwide #MeToo campaign as an example for misogynistic behaviour and power imbalances between men and women. Due to these reasons, I consider it important that students conceive the high topicality of the subject and understand that women have begun to strive for human rights and equal treatment in late eighteenth century and that their struggle continues nowadays, over 200 years later. After having outlined why this seemingly out-dated topic of British Romanticism is still highly relevant and worth studying for students, the question why this issue has to be addressed through the medium of poetry needs to be answered.
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The Importance of Teaching Poetry
Generally speaking, working with poetry can be demanding and complex. Baumbach, Nünning & Neumann claim that poetry, “[t]o a greater extent than other literary genres, […] poses a number of challenges to anyone who tries to get to grips with either individual poems or the history of the genre or rather genres, at large” (1). As a result of this, a lot of students have anxieties and fear discussing and interpreting poems, especially in the EFL classroom where learners have to deal with poetry in a foreign language. The Guardian (2013) reported that poetry suffers from an image problem (Regis n.p.). While other texts appear to be straightforward and easily readable, poetry “is the Sphinx, talking in riddles and closely guarding its secrets“ (ibid.). Students often regard poetry as too sophisticated and are afraid of misunderstanding or misinterpreting it. This is in keeping with Freeborn, who states that poetry is “tricky to teach” (36) because most people have prejudices or fixed ideas of what a poem is. Poetry might also be considered as difficult to read due to the emotional, aesthetic, and intellectual demands it makes (ibid. 38). However, it is a teacher’s task to dispel these doubts, teach students how to approach poems, and support learners in understanding them. According to Freeborn, creative and diversified teaching and the use of different poems and genres can help eliminating these notions and prejudices (ibid. 36). Apart from removing students’ worries and prejudices, there is a further argument for teaching poetry in the EFL classroom:
Poetry “responds to demands, desires, but also anxieties of its time; […] it engages in social, political, economic and existential discourses; […] it is adapted and re-adapted to different social and historical contexts and […] is used to both support and subvert trends and conventions dominant at a specific time” (Baumbach, Nünning & Neumann 1).
Students do not only profit from reading and comprehending the poem but are able to learn about social, political, and economic contexts of the time the poem was written in. They will be enabled to understand people’s concerns and anxieties, and society’s norms and conventions. As has been demonstrated, various scholars support the teaching of poetry at school. Furthermore, the Austrian syllabus for teaching foreign languages also recommends the embedding of poetry in the classroom and states that it is a teacher’s task to introduce a variety of topics and literary genres (Bundesministerium für Bildung 2-3). In addition to non-fictional texts, literary works in the foreign language should broaden students’ social, cultural, and
71 political knowledge and support the constant enhancement of the learner’s vocabulary and grammar (ibid. 3-4):
Zur Erlangung eines möglichst umfassenden lexikalischen Repertoires sind verschiedenste Themenbereiche zu bearbeiten (wie zB Sprache und ihre Anwendungsmöglichkeiten; […] Einstellungen und Werte; Zusammenleben; aktuelle soziale, wirtschaftliche und politische Entwicklungen; […] Kunst in ihren Ausdrucksformen Literatur, Musik, bildende Künste). […] Die verschiedenen Themenbereiche sind durch möglichst vielfältige Textsorten zu erschließen (wie zB Sachverhaltsdarstellungen, Analysen, Stellungnahmen, […] Geschichten, Dialoge, Briefe, E-Mails, Märchen, Lieder, Gedichte). Im Sinne einer humanistisch orientierten Allgemeinbildung ist bei der thematischen Auswahl fremdsprachiger Texte auch literarischen Werken ein entsprechender Stellenwert einzuräumen (ibid. 4).
8.2 Target Group
The subsequently presented lessons are designed for advanced learners of English as a foreign language, namely 8th grade AHS students. The reason for approaching this topic in the graduating class is the necessity of a high language level, rich vocabulary, broad linguistic knowledge, and other relevant skills to analyse and evaluate poetry. Students should further have some political, cultural, and historical background knowledge in order to understand the poem, give a reasoned opinion, and draw comparisons between historic events and the poem’s content and characters. Concerning the teaching of poetry to advanced learners one can refer to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), which provides information and guidelines regarding the learning, teaching, and assessment of foreign languages. The CEFR highlights the importance of literature in the language classroom and argues that there are four main types of response to literary works – engagement, interpretation, analysis, and evaluation (Council of Europe 112). The CEFR argues that “[d]escribing a personal reaction […] is cognitively far simpler than giving a more intellectual analysis and/or evaluation” (ibid.). As the target group of the lesson at hand are advanced learners (CEFR-Level B2+), students are asked to give “broader and deeper interpretations, supporting them with details and examples” (ibid.). The scale Analysis and Criticism of Creative Texts (including literature) claims that students at an upper secondary level should be able to “critically appraise a wide variety of texts including literary works of different periods and genres [novels, poems, and plays]” (ibid. 114), compare different works, give a reasoned opinion of a work, and evaluate certain features (of the literary text) (ibid.).
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8.3 Overall Teaching Objectives
One of the very general aims of these lessons is to arouse the learners’ interest and to spark their motivation to read poetry. Simultaneously, the students’ awareness of how influential literature can be should be raised. Learners should understand the power of poetry and the significant social, cultural, and political role of it. Poetry can have a political function, highlight social injustices, give a voice to otherwise voiceless and oppressed people, and is able to evoke change. It can also provide insights to people’s lives in general and give information about grievances, desires and anxieties of society. Since some background knowledge is required, students will be introduced to the contexts of Romanticism and their historical knowledge about the revolutionary time – late eighteenth and early nineteenth century – in Britain will be extended. After the lessons, students will be informed about gender roles, the oppression of women, their social and legal restrictions, and the ensuing struggle for achieving liberty, independence, and equality. In addition to understanding late eighteenth-century mind-set, students will learn about the contributions of Mary Wollstonecraft to the Romantic era and to early feminism. Afterwards they will be able to present reasoned arguments and confidently elucidate why she is a revolutionary women and forward thinker. Moreover, the lessons aim at highlighting the important role women played during the French Revolution and demonstrating the outcomes of this political upheaval regarding women’s status, rights, and education. After dealing with the chosen poems, students will be able to name some major Romantic female poets and will better understand their revolutionary writings. They will get to know that it was not considered appropriate for a woman to engage in writing literature and that it was even less tolerated if a woman addressed traditional male topics, such as politics, history, and economics, in their writing. The poems will enable students to explore that women participated in the abolition of slavery, openly admired or rejected the revolution, and advocated women’s rights with the help of literature. Another objective is the development of skills in order to interpret, analyse, and evaluate poetry. Students should be able to comment on poems with logical, well-conceived arguments. They should further draw connections between actual political events and poetry and detect similarities and differences between two or more poems. Finally, the lessons will strengthen students’ capacity for teamwork and will give them a chance to engage in various class and group discussions, in which they can express and discuss their personal views and interpretations.
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8.4 Content and Structure of Lessons
The focus of the planned lessons will be on revolutionary women and their Romantic poetry. Firstly, in order to comprehend the poems, students need to gain some fundamental knowledge about women’s role and status in late eighteenth century, about the French Revolution, and Mary Wollstonecraft. Secondly, there has to be sufficient time to work with the poems, to analyse them properly, and to lead some interesting class discussions. Due to these reasons, dealing with this topic will take approximately six English lessons. This always depends on students’ motivation and active participation in discussions, group works, and other tasks. The first lesson serves as an introduction to the subject matter and as an attempt to arouse the learners’ interest for the topic. Pre-task activities are relevant, so that students will succeed in fulfilling the following tasks. The lesson starts with a warm-up (see Teaching Material, Task 1). Students will not be told what the lesson is about; instead they will be given a handout with some pictures on it. The pictures illustrate some typical late eighteenth-century scenes (women working in the household, mothers caring for their children, scenes of the French Revolution, and women’s march on Versailles).7 Students are then asked to work with their partner or in small groups in order to describe what the images might represent. In a second step, they will be given some discussion questions (shown on PowerPoint presentation): What do you think is the topic of today’s and the following lessons? What might we be discussing? With which period/era will we be dealing with? Why do you think so? Evaluate the pictures. What thoughts come to your mind? What do you associate with these images? According to the pictures, what do you think was the role and status of women during this time?
After this short group exercise, student’s thoughts, ideas, and associations will be summarised in class. Then, students will be told what the topic of the lessons is. In connection with this task, students will get a short reading (Teaching Material, Task 2) to consolidate their basic knowledge.
7 Most likely, students have already dealt with the French Revolution in their history lessons. Otherwise it would be ideal to talk to the students’ history teacher and suggest to do a small interdisciplinary project, in which the students’ simultaneously approach the topic of the French Revolution in their history lessons and receive necessary background information. 74
Afterwards, learners will be introduced to a revolutionary woman, namely Mary Wollstonecraft, and her Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Since there is not enough time to read her whole polemic, the aim of the following task is to give students an overview on why she can be considered to be one of the first feminists and to show learners what she demanded and advocated. The most important information on Wollstonecraft and her Vindication and the impact of the French Revolution on her writing will be presented on PowerPoint slides. The teacher could, for example, present a few corresponding quotes from secondary sources:
“Mary Wollstonecraft was a Revolutionary feminist – an advocate of the rights or claims of women in a specific revolutionary situation. There were two related aspects of that situation: the French Revolution and the cultural revolution that founded the modern state in Britain. Many cultural revolutionaries in Britain saw the Revolution in France, at least in its early stages, as an example of what they themselves could achieve” (Kelly 1).
“Believing the French Revolution would establish an enlightened, socialist republic that would respect the natural rights of all, Wollstonecraft was appalled to read that the new French minister of education proposed public education for men only. […] She recognized that denying an equal education to women was tantamount to denying their personhood, their full participation in natural and civil rights” (Mellor 2015: 45).
In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, based on “affirming universal human rights endorsed by such Enlightenment thinkers as Voltaire, Rousseau, and John Locke, underpinning both the American Revolution (1776) and the French Revolution (1789), Wollstonecraft argued that females and males are in some important aspects the same, both possessing the same souls and mental capacities and thus human rights” (Mellor 2015: 45).
In addition, short extracts of the Vindication (see Teaching Material, Task 3) will be distributed in the classroom or stuck on the walls. Learners are then asked to slowly walk around the classroom, just like in a museum. Thereby, they read the extracts and exchange their views and opinions with their classmates. Students will get a deeper understanding of what the Vindication is about and why Wollstonecraft was a revolutionary woman of her time. A side benefit of this task is that students are allowed to stand up and walk around. They might be glad about the little exercise because usually they have to sit at their desks all day long. Presumably, there will not be time to discuss the extracts in this lesson. This has to be done at the beginning of the next lesson as it is important to summarise student’s findings in class and clarify uncertainties or open questions. In a further task, students could be asked why they think this writing was revolutionary at the end of the eighteenth century or discuss how contemporary readers might have reacted to the Vindication. After having completed these tasks, students should be well introduced to the subject matter and will be able to apply their gained knowledge in the subsequent analysis of Romantic poetry.
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The first poem, which will be dealt with in the classroom, is Anna Laetitia Barbauld’s “The Rights of Woman” (Teaching Material, Task 4). The reason for choosing this poem is the connection to Wollstonecraft’s Vindication. Students will be able to activate their prior knowledge and connect the poem to what they already know. Learners could be asked to read the poem as a homework.8 They should interpret the title of the poem, read the whole poem, and look up words and phrases they do not understand. Furthermore, they are expected to write a short text in which learners answer the questions on the task sheet, briefly summarise the poem’s content, and discuss their opinions, thoughts, and possibly some first interpretations of “The Rights of Woman”. In the next lesson students’ homework will be collected and redistributed in class so that everyone receives a different text. The reason for this activity is that students will obtain a different point of view and will learn that there is not only one correct way to interpret a poem. Through accepting and appreciating various analyses, the teacher conveys the pivotal message that there is not one correct interpretation of a literary work. Thereby, he or she can allay students’ anxieties regarding poems and encourage learners to be creative and confidently express their opinions (true to the motto ‘there are no wrong answers’). Accordingly, Regis argues that ambiguity is “the beating heart of poetry” (n.p.) implying that there are lots of ambiguities and various interpretations possible when working with poems. After everyone has finished reading their classmates’ text, it would be ideal to change the seating arrangements to a circle of chairs. Barbauld’s poem should then be analysed and evaluated in more detail. In this discussion group, the teacher acts as the moderator raising questions and encouraging students to present their findings. The moderator should further ensure that everyone gets the opportunity to state his or her arguments. The expected outcome of this task is that learners are able to use their prior and newly acquired knowledge and link it to the poem at hand. Students should be able to see the connection to Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman and understand that the speaker of the poem addresses oppressed women and demands them to rise and assert their rights. Through the teacher’s guidance, learners will discern that the poet uses certain words to create vivid images in the readers’ minds. One appropriate example is the depiction of women’s fight for equal rights as a real battle: “bright artillery” (Barbauld 10), “thundering cannon’s roar” (11), “magazine of war” (12). Finally, the last lines of the poem, which are rather contradictory, have to be discussed. After listening to students’ interpretations, the teacher could summarise some
8 This task could also be accomplished in class; however, more time has to be scheduled then. 76 secondary sources and demonstrate that even scholars and literary critics have completely different views and contrary findings. At the start of the next English lesson, the teacher will give a brief lecture on women’s writing in the Romantic era and will inform students that it was not considered appropriate for women to address political, social, and economic issues and that successful female poets have been excluded from the literary canon until late twentieth century. Moreover, female poets’ engagement with the French Revolution and the abolition of slavery will be highlighted. Students need to understand that women played a vital role during the political upheaval in France and highly influenced and contributed to the abolitionist movement. Due to the in-class analysis of Barbauld’s poem, learners have already gained some experience on how to analyse a poem. In this lesson, they deal with two poems – one addressing the French Revolution and one referring to the British slave trade. I have chosen “The Bastille: A Vision” by Helen Maria Williams because the poet is well-known for her political engagement. She was an ardent supporter of the revolution, championed revolutionary ideals, and gave the oppressed a voice. Secondly, I decided to introduce learners to Ann Yearsley, who was attracted to political issues as well. Yearsley, actually an uneducated, working-class poet, is an outstanding writer. She had to endure watching her own family starving and was therefore, able to identify with the cruel conditions slaves had to face and was determined to fight against injustice. This can be seen in her writing “A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-Trade”. Learners will be able to explore the portrayal of slaves and their owners, the cruelties of slavery such as the separation of families or the violent treatment of slaves. Thereby, students will analyse how Yearsley evokes certain emotions and feelings and arouses compassion. Since the poem is quite long and substantial, the group dealing with antislavery poetry will only get some deliberately chosen stanzas which illustrate the just mentioned aspects. Learners are divided into groups and have to work independently. In case the class size is quite small, they could create two groups. Otherwise, it would be advised to make four groups. Students could form groups depending on their interests or the teacher could use a grouping strategy. This could be a quick and simple count off or, to be more creative, students have to go to the four corners of the classroom, e.g. based on their last names (A-F, G-M, N- S, and T-Z) and all students in one corner form one group (Biech n.p.). Another possibility is to hand out puzzle pieces of four different puzzles (which fit the topic). Everyone has to find the rest of the pieces to form small groups (ibid.). Then, each group will get their task sheets including the poem (see Teaching Material 5 & 6). In case there are four or more groups, the
77 teacher could prepare further poems. However, it would also be interesting if two groups deal with the same topic and can compare their findings afterwards. In groups, learners have to accomplish the activities on their task sheet and have to prepare a short presentation (mainly summarising the findings of their analysis) for their classmates. This task should be accomplished in approximately one to two English lessons. To start with, students have to do some research on the poet, find some information on the Bastille and the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, as well as on the British slave-trade and the arising abolitionist campaigns in late eighteenth century. Learners are allowed to use the Internet on their tablets/laptops or go to the computer lab to conduct their research. Furthermore, the teacher should provide some appropriate material, such as articles, books and individual chapters. Regarding the analysis, I consider it relevant that the teacher explains that students do not have to worry in case they do not understand each line or stanza completely. It is more important that they grasp the overall meaning or the main message the poet tries to convey. After reading the poem, the group has to choose some lines or stanzas to interpret and analyse them in detail. Initially, I intended to give students some helpful questions or bullet points in order to make the analysis a bit easier. However, I came to the decision that it is pivotal to let learners work on their own, be creative, and come up with their own ideas and interpretations. Needless to say, the teacher will support students if they ask for help or if the teacher recognises that they have some troubles. The teacher could provide some additional information or specific questions to answer. The following questions could be raised when the groups need some advice: “The Bastille: A Vision”:
The Bastille is a symbol of the French Revolution. What did the Bastille stand for during the revolution? How is the prison described in the poem? Is the poet advocating or opposing the revolution / the revolutionary ideals? How do you feel while reading certain stanzas? How does the poet achieve this? What emotion words are used? (for example, in stanza III.) In stanza IX., Williams uses the personal pronoun ‘her’? What does she refer to? The poet gives her voice to the oppressed. To whom exactly? (e.g. peasants in stanza X.) Williams foresees their future. Is she optimistic? What does she anticipate? Adams describes Williams writing as a “dream-vision poem” (728). What does the speaker dream of towards the end of the poem?
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“A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-Trade”
In her poem, Yearsley writes about slaves and their masters. How are the slaves portrayed? How are slave holders and masters depicted? What nouns and adjectives are used? (positive/negative connotations) According to the poem, what are the main evils and atrocities of slavery? (segregation of families, brutal treatment of slaves, death of a beloved family member, etc.) Male abolitionist poets “tended to attack slavery as a violation of ‘natural law,’ the argument that all men are born equal and have certain inalienable ‘rights.’ As a man, the black African belongs to the same species as the white European, and is entitled to the same ‘liberty, equality, and fraternity.’ Female poets, on the other hand, tended to condemn slavery because it violated the domestic affections. Both the slave trade and the institution of slavery in the West Indies separated mothers from their children, husbands from their wives, and subjected black women to sexual abuse from their white masters” (Mellor 2002: 75). How do you as a reader feel reading about Luco, his beloved Incilanda, and his family? (e.g. stanzas 9, 10, 16) What does the poet do that readers empathise with the slaves and show compassion? What words (emotion words) are used? What feelings and emotions are conveyed? Yearsley writes about ‘social love’ in stanza 28. What could she mean by that? Why is ‘social love’ so important to her?
Students have gained a great deal of knowledge (inferior status of women, separate spheres, oppression of women, fight for rights and equality, Wollstonecraft’s contribution, women’s writing and the concomitant prejudices and obstacles, women poets’ engagement with social and political issues of their time). In the final task, learners should demonstrate their ability to connect this information. In a class discussion, main findings, outcomes, and newly acquired knowledge should be summarised. Students have to state their opinions why these women are worth being dealt with and how they have contributed to English literature and culture. In addition, they are asked to name a few aspects why these poets can be regarded as revolutionary women and should persuasively argue why women endorsed the revolution (and its motto: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity), supported abolitionist campaigns, lend their voice to the oppressed, and fought for their rights and freedom. As has been stated before, it was one of the aims of these lessons that students understand the power of literature, or more specifically poetry, and should realise that writing
79 is a powerful tool to make one’s voice heard and to raise awareness of social and political imbalances. An appropriate example is women’s contribution through writing and supporting various petitions which finally led to the abolishment of slavery in 1833. Furthermore, women highly influenced other transformations in the nineteenth century as women actively started to demand and demonstrate for the right to vote, asked for property rights, and equal employment rights. As a consequence, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the Custody of Infants Act in 1839 and the Married Women’s Property Act in 1870. Finally, the teacher could possibly raise the question why students should care about this topic, since it all happened about 200 years ago. Learners might come up with correct answers by themselves. Otherwise, it is the teacher’s task to demonstrate that women’s struggle for equality is still going on nowadays (An example: women still have to face discrimination at the workplace frequently). This would also be a good transition to deal with women’s rights and unequal treatment in the 21st century.
Suggestions for further Lessons In order to talk about modern oppression of women, students could be asked to discuss and analyse the following satirical illustration from the year 2017 together with a verse of a Romantic poem (“A Poem on the African Slave Trade”) from 1792:
OPPRESSION! thou, whose hard and cruel chain, Entails on all thy victims woe and pain (Birkett 1-2)
https://www.providr.com/illustrations-satirical-look-at-modern-society/3/
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With this picture, illustrator John Holcroft addresses the controversial issue of gender inequality in the workplace by depicting some business women held back by a pink ribbon, while the businessmen soar up (Cyril n.p.). Students should interpret this illustration and should recognise that women are restrained and cannot move up the career ladder like their male counterparts. In the second step, learners have to establish a connection between the given quote/line and the picture. The pink ribbons, for example, could be compared to the “hard and cruel chain” (Birkett 1) of oppression. Furthermore, they could interpret what kind of pain this discrimination entails on the victims – in this context the business women. Subsequently, I recommend to let students read an article and/or listen to part of a BBC podcast to deepen everybody’s knowledge and understanding of this issue:
BBC Radio: “Morality and Gender Equality”: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08yq2bn (The podcast discusses the most dramatic of inequality for women – the gender pay gap – which apparently shows no sign of narrowing)
Article: “Unequal Pay Is a Form Of Gender Discrimination”: https://www.thebalance.com/gender-discrimination-in-the-workplace-3515145
After some discussions in class and more detailed input from the teacher, a writing task could follow in which students are asked to write an essay on gender inequality and discrimination against women.
In summary, it can be stated that the just presented lessons will support students in expanding and deepening their knowledge on women’s oppression and gender issues. These topics are highly relevant in regards to broadening learner’s cultural, political, and historical knowledge. This knowledge is significant in order to become citizens of the world who are able to engage in complex conversations and confidently state their opinions in various discussions by providing convincing, well-founded arguments. In addition, this topic is a suitable preparation for students’ school leaving examination, since subjects such as Gender Issues and The World of Work often address equal rights, equal treatment of men and women, emancipation, gender roles and gender stereotypes.
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9 Teaching Material
Task 1: Warm-up
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
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Task 1: Warm-up
Image 4
Image 5
Image 6
Image 1: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lilly_Martin_Spencer_-_Kiss_Me_and_Youll_Kiss_the_Lasses_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg Image 2: https://study.com/academy/lesson/cult-of-domesticity-definition-significance.html Image 3: http://opening.download/view.php?pic=https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/25/ea/47/25ea47f2bee99af8762421d8df03140f.jpg Image 4: https://www.pinterest.at/pin/430797520577856074/ Image 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution#/media/File:Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Le _28_Juillet._La_Libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple.jpg Image 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_March_on_Versailles#/media/File:Women%27s_March_on_Versailles01.jpg
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Task 2: Reading
Read the following excerpt about gender roles and separate spheres. For centuries, the roles of men and women have been changing, but not until recently have women demanded such equal treatment in the form of the right to choose abortion, the right to vote, and the ability to work in the business world. With these demands, women are reaching outside their traditional domains of home and family life, a shift that disrupts traditional patterns of gender distinction in the Western world. The correlation between the men's and women's spheres of influence and the spheres of the public and private is strikingly apparent in European history. It is the blurring of these spheres that sparks the controversy evident in present-day Europe. The traditional image of the Western European bourgeois male was that of a public figure. In the Christian world, the head of each family was the father, who enforced the practice of Christianity in his home and ensured his family's church attendance. The churches themselves were primarily a man's world, with all leadership positions occupied by males. In business, men conducted financial transactions, handled the family's money, and entered into the job market either by opening his own business or by working as a labourer or tradesman. Additionally, men in the family were often formally educated, gaining access to resources that women were denied. A woman's sphere, in contrast, was far more limited in the traditional bourgeois society. She was instructed to remain home so she could raise her children and provide their education. Her involvement in politics was nearly non-existent, as she was forced to identify herself with her husband's political stance. In business, her presence was felt very slightly, if at all; perhaps she helped her husband by handling the money that circulated around the house for the purchasing of food or furniture. Beyond the reach of the home, however, a woman was rarely seen, save in a marketplace or walking with her children. Her education focused around the maintenance of the home, rarely extending beyond her mother's knowledge, who educated her daughter in domestic tasks from a young age.
These spheres were well defined: the stereotypically stronger figure handled the potentially harmful outside world, while the milder, gentler figure maintained the home.
Source: Smyth, Jacquie. “Trandscending Traditional Gender Boundaries: Defining Gender Roles through Public and Private Spheres”. Elements 4.1 (2008): 27-34. (slightly adapted)
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Task 3: ‘Tour of the Museum’
The following quotes, taken from Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, will be stuck on classroom walls. Students are asked to walk around like in a museum, read the short extracts and exchange their opinions/discuss them with a partner.
If marriage be the cement of society, mankind should all be educated after the same model, or the intercourse of the sexes will never deserve the name of fellowship, nor will women ever fulfil the peculiar duties of their sex, till they become enlightened citizens, till they become free, by being enabled to earn their own subsistence, independent of men. (Wollstonecraft 130)
(It was a mother’s duty to raise and educate her children.) If children are to be educated to understand the true principle of patriotism, their mother must be a patriot; and the love of mankind, from which an orderly train of virtues spring, can only be produced by considering the moral and civil interest of mankind; but the education and situation of woman, at present, shuts her out from such investigations. (Wollstonecraft 2)
It is time to effect a revolution in female manners - time to restore to them their lost dignity - and make them, as a part of the human species, labour by reforming themselves to reform the world. It is time to separate unchangeable morals from local manners. (Wollstonecraft 34)
Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience. (Wollstonecraft 18)
I do not wish [women] to have power over men; but over themselves. (Wollstonecraft 49)
Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in. In every age there has been a stream of popular opinion that has carried all before it, and given a family character, as it were, to the century. It may then fairly be inferred, that, till society be differently constituted, much cannot be expected from education. (Wollstonecraft 15)
Make them free, and they will quickly become wise and virtuous, as men become more so; for the improvement must be mutual, or the injustice which one half of the human race are obliged to submit to, retorting on their oppressors, the virtue of men will be worm-eaten by the insect whom he keeps under his feet. (Wollstonecraft 139)
Make women rational creatures, and free citizens, and they will quickly become good wives; — that is, if men do not neglect the duties of husbands and fathers. (Wollstonecraft 141)
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Task 4: “The Rights of Woman“
“The Rights of Woman”9 (1825; comp. 1793) is a poem written by Anna Laetitia Barbauld. The poet belongs to the first generation of professional female writers in England. In her works, Barbauld addressed leading social and political issues of her time. She advocated freedom and equal rights, opposed slavery and criticised her government for declaring war on France.
Assignment:
Before reading: Take a closer look at the title of the poem. What could the poem be about? What do you expect? Write down a few sentences. Now read the poem. Look up words you do not understand. What is the poem about? Summarise it briefly. Explore the poem’s language and tone. What images does the poet create with her writing? What comparisons are drawn? What words (e.g. certain adjectives, some striking nouns) does the poet use? What thoughts and emotions do they evoke in the reader? What feelings are illustrated? What message might the poet try to convey?
Yes, injured Woman! rise, assert thy right! Try all that wit and art suggest to bend Woman! too long degraded, scorned, opprest; Of thy imperial foe the stubborn knee; O born to rule in partial Law's despite, Make treacherous Man thy subject, not thy Resume thy native empire o'er the breast! friend; Thou mayst command, but never canst be free. Go forth arrayed in panoply divine; That angel pureness which admits no stain; Awe the licentious, and restrain the rude; Go, bid proud Man his boasted rule resign, Soften the sullen, clear the cloudy brow: And kiss the golden sceptre of thy reign. Be, more than princes' gifts, thy favours sued;— Go, gird thyself with grace; collect thy store She hazards all, who will the least allow. Of bright artillery glancing from afar; Soft melting tones thy thundering cannon's But hope not, courted idol of mankind, roar, On this proud eminence secure to stay; Blushes and fears thy magazine of war. Subduing and subdued, thou soon shalt find Thy coldness soften, and thy pride give way. Thy rights are empire: urge no meaner claim,— Felt, not defined, and if debated, lost; Then, then, abandon each ambitious thought, Like sacred mysteries, which withheld from Conquest or rule thy heart shall feebly move, fame, In Nature's school, by her soft maxims taught, Shunning discussion, are revered the most. That separate rights are lost in mutual love.
9 Barbauld, Anna Laetitia. “The Rights of Woman.” British Literature 1780-1830. Ed. Anne K. Mellor & Richard E. Matlak. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996: 186-187. 86
Task 5: “The Bastille: A Vision”
The poem was composed by Helen Maria Williams in 1790.
In your group, you should: do some research on the poet (Why can she be regarded as a revolutionary woman?) find information on the Bastille and on the ‘Storming of the Bastille’ on 14 July 1789 read and interpret the poem (discuss it in your group) choose some striking lines or stanzas & analyse and evaluate them in greater detail prepare a short presentation for your classmates (include findings from all bullet points above, but the main focus should be on your poem analysis)
For your research you can use your laptops/tablets, go to the library or the computer lab. Furthermore, there is additional material (articles, books, etc.) available on the teacher’s desk. In case you need help or if there are any open questions, do not hesitate to ask your teacher for support.
The Bastille: A Vision10
I. III. "Drear cell! along whose lonely bounds, BASTILLE ! within thy hideous pile, Unvisited by light, Which stains of blood defile, Chill silence dwells with night, Thus rose the captive's sighs, Save where the clanging fetter sounds! Till slumber seal'd his weeping eyes. Abyss, where mercy never came, Terrific visions hover near! Nor hope the wretch can find; He sees an awful form appear! Where long inaction wastes the frame, Who drags his step to deeper cells, And half annihilates the mind! Where stranger, wilder horror dwells!
II. IV. "Stretch'd helpless in this living tomb, "O! tear me from these haunted walls, O haste, congenial death! Or these fierce shapes controul! Seize, seize this ling'ring breath, Lest madness seize my soul! And shroud me in unconscious gloom. That pond'rous mask of iron* falls, BRITAIN ! thy exil'd son no more I see--" "Rash mortal, ha! beware, Thy blissful vales shall see-- Nor breathe that hidden name! Why did I leave thy hallow'd shore, Should those dire accents wound the air, Ah, land ador'd, where all are free?" Know death shall lock thy stiff'ning frame.
10 Williams, Helen Maria. “The Bastille: A Vision.”
V. "Hark! that loud bell which sullen tolls! IX. It wakes a shriek of woe " 'Tis her awak'ning voice commands From yawning depths below; Those firm, those patriot bands; Shrill through this hollow vault it rolls! Arm'd to avenge her cause, A deed was done in this black cell And guard her violated laws!-- Unfit for mortal ear-- Did ever earth a scene display A deed was done when toll'd that knell, More glorious to the eye of day, No human heart could live and hear! Than millions with according mind, Who claim the rights of human kind? VI. "Arouse thee from thy numbing glance, IX. Near yon thick gloom, advance; "Does the fam'd Roman page sublime The solid cloud has shook; An hour more bright unroll, Arm all thy soul with strength to look-- To animate the soul, Enough!--thy starting locks have rose-- Than this lov'd theme of future time?-- Thy limbs have fail'd--thy blood has froze!- Posterity, with rapture meet, On scenes so foul, with mad affright, The consecrated act shall hear; I fix no more thy fasten'd sight. Age shall the glowing tale repeat, And youth shall drop the burning tear! VII. "Those troubled phantoms melt away! X. I lose the sense of care-- "The peasant, while he fondly sees I feel the vital air-- His infants round the hearth I see--I see the light of day! Pursue their simple mirth, Visions of bliss!--eternal powers! Or emulously climb his knees, What force has shook those hated walls? No more bewails their future lot, What arm has rent those threat'ning towers? By tyranny's stern rod opprest; It falls--the guilty fabric falls!" While freedom cheers his straw-roof'd cot, And tells him all his toils are blest! VIII. "Now, favour'd mortal, now behold! XI. To soothe thy captive state "Philosophy! O, share the meed I ope the book of fate; Of freedom's noblest deed! Mark what its registers unfold: 'Tis thine each truth to scan, Where this dark pile in chaos lies, And dignify the rank of man! With nature's execrations hurl'd, 'Tis thine all human wrongs to heal, Shall Freedom's sacred temple rise, 'Tis thine to love all nature's weal; And charm an emulating world! To give our frail existence worth, And shed a ray from heaven on earth."
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Task 6: “A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-Trade”11
The poem was composed by Ann Yearsley in 1788. It tells the story of the African slave Luco, who has been taken away from his family and beloved Incilanda and has to work for his white master on a plantation. The poem is rather long; therefore you will only have to read the extracts below.
In your group, you should: do some research on the poet (Why could she be regarded as a revolutionary woman?) find information on slavery, the British slave-trade in the eighteenth century and the abolitionist movement read and interpret the poem (discuss it in your group) choose some lines or stanzas & analyse and evaluate them in greater detail prepare a short presentation for your classmates (include findings from all bullet points above, but the main focus should be on your poem analysis)
For your research you can use your laptops/tablets, go to the library or the computer lab. Furthermore, there is additional material (articles, books, etc.) available on the teacher’s desk. In case you need help or if there are any open questions, do not hesitate to ask your teacher for support. A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-Trade12
BRISTOL, thine heart hath throbb'd to [ 3 ] glory.—Slaves, Wilt preach up filial piety; thy sons E'en Christian slaves, have shook their chains, Will groan, and stare with impudence at and gaz'd Heav'n, With wonder and amazement on thee. Hence As if they did abjure the act, where Sin Ye grov'ling souls, who think the term I give, Sits full on Inhumanity; the church Of Christian slave, a paradox! to you They fill with mouthing, vap'rous sighs and I do not turn, but leave you to conception tears, Which, like the guileful crocodile's, oft fall, [ 2 ] Narrow; [ 5 ] What evils do ye cause? We feel enslaved, Of Indian Luco rises to his eyes, Yet move in your direction. Custom, thou Silent, not inexpressive: the strong beams With eager wildness yet drink in the view Of his too humble home, where he had left His mourning father, and his Incilanda.
12 Yearsley, Ann. “A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-Trade.”
Curse on the toils spread by a Christian hand And resignation, or a calm despair, To rob the Indian of his freedom! Curse (Most useful either) lulls him to repose. On him who from a bending parent steals New torment with the pangs of death, and hold His dear support of age, his darling child; Their victims high in dreadful view, to fright The wretched number left. Luco is chain'd [ 9 ] To a huge tree, his fellow-slaves are ranged Luco is gone; his little brothers weep, To share the horrid sight; fuel is plac'd While his fond mother climbs the hoary rock Whose point o'er-hangs the main. No Luco [ 20 ] there, In an increasing train, some paces back, No sound, save the hoarse billows. On she To kindle slowly, and approach the youth, roves, With more than native terror. See, it burns! With love, fear, hope, holding alternate rage He gazes on the growing flame, and calls In her too anxious bosom. Dreary main! For "water, water!" The small boon's deny'd. Thy murmurs now are riot, while she stands E'en Christians throng each other, to behold List'ning to ev'ry breeze, waiting the step The different alterations of his face, Of gentle Luco. Ah, return! return! As the hot death approaches. (Oh, shame, Too hapless mother, thy indulgent arms shame Shall never clasp thy fetter'd Luco more. Upon the followers of Jesus! shame See Incilanda! artless maid, my soul On him that dares avow a God!) He writhes, Keeps pace with thee, and mourns. Now o'er While down his breast glide the unpity'd tears, the hill And in their sockets strain their scorched balls. "Burn, burn me quick! I cannot die!" he cries: [ 10 ] "Bring fire more close!" The planters heed him She creeps, with timid foot, while Sol not, embrowns But still prolonging Luco's torture, threat The bosom of the isle, to where she left Their trembling slaves around. Her faithful lover But where is Luco? [ 28 ] He comes not down the steep, tho' he had Hail, social love! true soul of order, hail! vow'd, Thy softest emanations, pity, grief, To bless his Incilanda. Ten pale moons Lively emotion, sudden joy, and pangs, Had glided by, since to his generous breast Too. deep for language, are thy own: then rise, He clasp'd the tender maid, and whisper'd love. Thou gentle angel! spread thy silken wings O'er drowsy man, breathe in his soul, and give [ 16 ] Her God-like pow'rs thy animating force, Luco is borne around the neighb'ring isles, To banish Inhumanity. Losing the knowledge of his native shore Amid the pathless wave; destin'd to plant The sweet luxuriant cane. He strives to please, Nor once complains, but greatly smothers grief. His hands are blister'd, and his feet are worn, Till ev'ry stroke dealt by his mattock gives Keen agony to life; while from his breast The sigh arises, burthen'd with the name Of Incilanda. Time inures the youth, His limbs grow nervous, strain'd by willing toil;
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10 Bibliography
Primary Sources
Barbauld, Anna Laetitia. “The Rights of Woman (1825).” British Literature 1780-1830. Ed. Anne K. Mellor & Richard E. Matlak. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996: 186-187. Birkett, Mary. “A Poem on the African Slave Trade, Addressed to her own Sex (1792).” Brycchan Carey. Web. 22 November 2017.
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Secondary Sources
Adams, Halina. “Imagining the Nation: Transforming the Bastille in Williams's Letters Written in France (1790).” European Romantic Review 25.6 (2014): 723-741. Armstrong, Isobel. Victorian Poetry – Poetry, Poetics, and Politics. London: Routledge, 1993. Backscheider, Paula R. Eighteenth-Century Women Poets and Their Poetry: Inventing Agency, Inventing Genre Detail. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2005. Baumbach, Sibylle, Ansgar Nünning & Birgit Neumann. “An Outline of the Challenges, Features and Objectives of A History of British Poetry.” A History of British Poetry. Genres – Developments – Interpretations. Ed. Sibylle Baumbach, Ansgar Nünning & Birgit Neumann. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2015: 1-16. Behrendt, Stephen C. British Women Poets and the Romantic Writing Community. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2009. Behrendt, Stephen C. “Influence, Anxiety, and Erasure in Women’s Writing: Romantic becomes Victorian.” The History of British Women’s Writing, 1750-1830. Ed. Jacqueline M. Labbe. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. 321-340. Biech, Elaine. “6 Ways to Form Small Groups For Training Sessions.” Dummies. n.d. Web. 10 December 2017.
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Cyril, Eden. “24 Illustrations That Portray Modern Society Satirically.” Providr. 15 September 2017. Web. 01 February 2018. < https://www.providr.com/illustrations-satirical-look-at-modern- society/3/>. Eger, Elizabeth. Bluestockings: Women of Reason from Enlightenment to Romanticism. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica. “Charlotte Corday.” n.d. Web. 16 November 2017.
Kipp, Julie. Romanticism, Maternity, and the Body Politic. Cambridge UP, 2003. Landry, Donna. The Muses of Resistance: Laboring-Class Women’s Poetry in Britain, 1739-1796. Cambridge UP, 1990. Lee, Debbie. Slavery and the Romantic Imagination. Pennsylvania UP, 2002. Lenhart, Gary. The Stamp of Class – Reflections on Poetry and Social Class. University of Michigan Press, 2006. Linkin, Harriet Kramer & Stephen C. Behrendt. “Introduction: Recovering Romanticism and Women Poets.” Romanticism and Women Poets – Opening the Doors of Reception. Ed. Harriet Kramer Linkin & Stephen C. Behrendt. UP Kentucky, 1999. 1-14. Lokke, Kari E. “The Mild Dominion of the Moon.” Rebellious Hearts: British Women Writers and the French Revolution. Ed. Adriana Craciun & Kari E. Lokke. State University of New York Press, 2001. 85-108. Looser, Devoney. “Preface.” The Cambridge Companion to Women’s Writing in the Romantic Period. Ed. Devoney Looser. Cambridge UP 2015: xiii-xviii. McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld – Voice of the Enlightenment. Baltimore: The John Hopkins UP, 2008. McCarthy, William & Elizabeth Kraft. Anna Letitia Barbauld – Selected Poetry & Prose. Toronto: Broadview Literary Texts, 2002. McGavran, James Holt (Jr.). “Felicia Hemans's Feminist Poetry Of The Mid 1820s.” Women’s Writing 21.4 (2014): 540-558. McKusick, James C. “’Wisely forgetful’: Coleridge and the Politics of Pantisocracy.” Romanticism and Colonialism – Writing and Empire, 1780-1830. Ed. Timothy Fulford & Peter J. Kitson. Cambridge UP, 1998. 107-128. McLeod, Julia. „Mothers in the Romantic Period: Delight, Duty, and Danger.“ Romantic Politics. n.d. Web. 27 January 2018.
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