Elizabeth Barrett Browning

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING (1806-1861)

Many poets and writers believed have labeled Elizabeth Browning as the most significant woman poet to come from the Victorian Era. I found where she was considered the front runner because of her romantic lyrics and her feministic themes that she wrote. Our textbook writes “…Elizabeth Barrett Browning was the first to show English readers the enormous possibilities of a poetic tradition in which women participated on equal terms.” Pg. 529, lines 47 and 48.
Browning was married to Robert Browning who was not as famous as she was. They were secretly married in 1846 in London. Elizabeth and Robert eloped to Italy to marry. Her health was not the best when she married Robert but with the help of the climate in Italy she began recuperating and gaining some of her health back. Ms. Browning began to write even more and began writing the intimate details of her and Robert’s relationship.
Elizabeth Browning wrote Aurora Leigh in 1850, which was the longest poem she had written. This poem is about Aurora Leigh who wanted to work as an artist and had men who was constantly telling her what she was to and not to do. This was a consistent manner in which Britain had been up to this time. Women had previously not been able to be supportive, get a divorce, just to name a couple. This poem was about the social injustice that women were facing. The poem is about a woman who wants to be woman and a poet/artist at the same time. Throughout this poem, Browning portrays Aurora as a very tough and strong willed person.
In Aurora Lee, Browning wrote “…what you love is not a woman, Romney, but a cause: You want a helpmate, not a mistress, sir,” (546). I think Browning drives home her feelings here. I believe that Browning is saying that “Romney”s love is not a normal love; Romney’s love is a necessity. When she writes the next sentence, I believe that she is defining the necessity, a helper, not a lover.
I believe that Browning became so independent because of her father. I believe that Elizabeth lost herself in her education in hopes of being more independent after living with her father and seeing how meagerly they had to live after her father sold The End.

Elizabeth has been the reported to be the most renowned female writer from this era. Elizabeth was also at one time considered to be Poet Laureate, the first female to ever be considered for this position.

Barrett's poetry had a enormous impact on the works of Emily Dickinson who admired her as woman of achievement. Dickinson is one of many who has been impacted by Elizabeth Browning.

Browning and her husband spent most every waking moment together. They promoted each other's works and inspired each other's thoughts. Many believe that each of them complimented the other's writings.

Unfortunately, all perfect story book lives must come to an end. This story book ends with Elizabeth dying in Robert's arms on June 29, 1861.

THE PRINCESS

The Princess

In 1847 Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote The Princess along with several other prolific writings, such as The Brook, The Lady of Shallott, Idylls of the King, and In Memoriam. I believe after reading several of these poems that Tennyson described the gender roles which has been handed down through time.
In The Princess Tennyson wrote
“Man for the field and women for the hearth:
Man for the sword and for the needle she:
Man with the head and woman with the heart:
Man to command and woman to obey:
All else confusion.”
I believe that he makes it clear what the roles of men and women are very clear. Men are to work in the field to provide for the women to cook in the house over the fire. Men are to fight and defend while the women are to mend, both wounds and the clothing. Men are the chief authority figure, and the strong ones of the house, government or the leaders while women are the back bone of the household and show the children the compassion. I believe the final simply says that anything other than what was written is simply wrong and will not work.
I think in The Princess that Tennyson defines the biological differences between men and women. I think that Tennyson believes that the world must have males and females working together to make each part work. While Tennyson believed that one sex could not prosper with out the other sex, he believes that men and women have both the same morals, imagination, spiritual beliefs, and intellect. Without reading the rest of The Princess, one would not think this.
I believe that Tennyson wrote these works to empower women so that they could begin starting to get the education they wanted instead of being the person who just cared for the men and their families. I believe he wanted the women to be empowered to be able to get the education and start becoming an equal with the men. Because without a woman, a man was nothing, and vice versa. Tennyson wrote about how this was a different way of thinking when he wrote in The Princess “Such women, but convention beats them down:” This is saying that the conventional way of thinking about women is keeping them in a position that was inferior instead of allowing them to be empowered to do more that be a maiden.

While this was a different belief than what had been in the past where women were not thought of as a part of the family other than to produce children and do what the man said. I believe that in this writing as well as several of his other writings that he believes that in the biblical sense that men and women are designed to be different and separate, based on God taking the rib of Adam and making his mate Eve. But they are to be together as God’s word assures.
While reading The Princess, I felt that Tennyson wanted to maintain an interest in how the developments of his era were changing while remaining a voice, through his writings, for the society that he was hoping to change. I believe that he wanted women to become empowered and through his writings teach others that this needed to happen also.

Fanny Kemble (1809-1893)

Fanny Kemble

Fanny Kemble was born in 1809 in England to an actor and actress which I believe led to the inevitable, her also being an actress. She lived her life during the Industrial Revolution. One of her first theatrical appearances was in 1829 when she was Juliet in her father’s production of Romeo and Juliet. She was also the first person to ride The Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
After Kemble’s ride on The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, she wrote a letter about her first ride on a steam engine. In this letter she wrote “…I felt as if no fairy tale was ever so wonderful as what I saw.” (page 491, line 16) I believe in this passage that she was referring to her ride on the steam engine being better than any thing she has ever imagined or thought about.
In this letter Kemble talks about how powerful and fast that the steam engine was when she wrote “…swifter than a bird flies…” Even though the textbook makes reference to an experiment with a snipe, with the travel speed of up to 35 miles per hour, the reference that the train traveled very fast.
Kemble traveled to New York with her father’s theater company. She eventually met Pierce Butler who would eventually become her husband. Butler was a southern man who was referred to as a “Southern Planter.” She moved to Georgia with Butler and gave up her acting career with her father’s theater company. While married to Pierce, Kemble kept a journal about her life in Georgia on a plantation.
After a rather short marriage Kemble and Pierce was divorced. Something that was not very common during this time. The era was becoming more progressive allowing for divorces. After the divorce Kemble returned to acting and reading Shakespeare.
The journal that was kept by Kemble during her marriage to Pierce was eventually published. Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation was published over objections and requests by Pierce’s family. It was believed that this journal was a real attempt to try and get England not to support the Confederacy. The journal made a link between the oppression of slave women and her own oppression in the legal and social systems during the 19th century in the United States.
She acted and wrote for several years after her divorce until she retired in Massachusetts. After retiring from the stage Kemble wrote several autobiographies of her life. Kemble eventually traveled back to London where she died in 1893 and was buried in a cemetery just outside of London.
I believe that Kemble’s writing helped enlighten England and others about how women were an important part of the society and how they could write and people read their works and them not be poetic. I personally liked was interested in Kemble because of the Georgia ties to her writings. Even though she was from Britain, she moved to Georgia and wrote with attempts to sway the English not to promote the Confederacy movement

Felicia Browne Hemans (1793-1835)

Felicia Browne Hemans (1793-1835)

Felicia was born in 1793 in Liverpool, the same year The French Revolution began. Hemans died at the young age of 42. But in those 42 years she wrote numerous poems. Many believed that Felicia began writing at a very early age, between the ages of 8 and 13. After publishing her first poems, it was said that “"... our little heroine was exposed to the lash of a public critic - a useful animal enough, but one whom the superstitious infallibility of print exalts to a divinity."
One of my favorite pieces was “The Homes of England”. The first stanza was great and was written clearer that some of the other poets I have read. Hemans wrote “The stately Homes of England, How beautiful they stand! Amidst their tall ancestral trees, O'er all the pleasant land. The deer across their greensward bound Thro’ shade and sunny gleam, and the swan glides past them with the sound Of some rejoicing stream.” I believe that Felicia was talking about women in this poem. She talks about the nice homes and lives that were available in England. Women are more concerned with domestic life than men are.
Around their hearths by night, What gladsome looks of household love Meet in the ruddy light! There woman's voice flows forth in song, Or childhood's tale is told, Or lips move tunefully along Some glorious page of old.” I believe that Hemans talks about a mother who has their children gathered around the fireplace singing or telling a story to teach their children. A woman is the person who usually sings and has a beautiful voice.
The last stanza is a great summation of what women really are. Hemans’ description talks about how powerful women are and how they are the molds that people use in their lives that would be how we want to be. We want to be “Where first the child's glad spirit loves, Its country and its God!” I believe this how our psychology is made up. We always want to please our parents, especially our mothers. We always have a bond with our mother. Our father is not as forgiving as our mothers are. Mothers are the constant in a household. During this period, women stayed at home and taught the children. She was child’s first love, for the child was born to her. She was the person whom the child first bonded with. Her analogy used in the last stanza is a great example of how mothers can make their children strong through her love and nurturing.

William Blake

William Blake (1757-1827) Poet and Artist

William Blake wrote a poetic collection in 1789 called Songs of Innocence. Innocence was such a good word to use in the title of this collection because it was written from a child’s point of view. A child has been viewed throughout time as being the most innocent of innocent because they are seen as the purest.
William Blake wrote a poem labeled as “Little Lamb”. In this poem I believe there is a parallel drawn from the innocence of a lamb to the innocence of a child. The lamb is also symbolic in religion as the forgiveness of sin, to make pure or innocent again. In the first 11 sentences of this poem Blake writes several questions. These questions are “Little lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee? …Making all the vales rejoice? Little lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?” Each of these questions are essentially biblical in nature. I believe that the questions are asked to see if the Lamb, or child, knows who their maker is. In church we are taught at a very young age that God is our maker and he makes all things. I think the parallel is well drawn in this writing.
In a contrasting collection written by Blake in 1794 called “Songs of Experience”, the lamb becomes a Tyger (Tiger). In this writing, innocence is turned to evil. This poem is full of layers of rhetorical questions. The symbols used by Blake in this poem, leaves the reader to draw many conclusions about what is being said. When Blake writes that “…Tyger burning bright…” I believe that evil is not hidden and can sometimes be viewed clearly…”burning bright”ly While Blake talks about evil he also symbolizes God throughout the poem.
In “The Lamb”, Blake writes about the creation of a pure lamb that has the innocence of a child, while in “The Tyger”, Blake talks about the creation of evil. I believe that Blake is using irony between good (innocence) and evil. The poems still shows that the good is created by the same person who creates evil. “The Tyger” shows the rhetorical question by referring to who created the lamb in “The Tyger” showing that good and evil are created together and is in constant turmoil.

Dorothy Wordsworth

Dorothy was born on Christmas Day, 1771 as the only daughter of Ann Cockson and William Wordsworth. She became a poet after a member of her family, William Wordsworth, wrote a poem about her. Unfortunately, after she began writing only five of the poems she wrote was published during her lifetime. I read "To My Niece Dorothy, a Sleepless Baby" and became very intrigued by her use of adjectives and adverbs in this an all of the other writings I read that was written by Dorthy. In this particular writing she wrote " The days are cold; the nights are long..." the usage of the vivid explanation in just this sentence paints a bright picture of the setting in this poem.

In each of the poems I read that was written by Dorothy, the descriptions were vivid from the green grass, blue skies, to the thundering mill, each of her poems were vividly written to paint an extravagant picture of what, when, and where of the poems were being explained.

When Dorothy talked about the setting of where the poem took place at she would describe the things around , the color of flowers, she leaves on trees, snow on the ground, cold winds, etc... she could paint the picture of when the poem was to have occurred. This may be in the blooming of the flowers in the spring or summer, to the cold winds of the winter or early spring.

Her where might be in an a mill, rolling meadow, etc... I believe that she describes this with video particularity as well.

For these reasons I prefer reading her poems, thus far. I believe that her writings have been the easiest to read and opens my mind up to what she is saying. As I previously said my favorite so far is " To My Niece Dorothy;a Sleepless Baby"

We Are Seven-Wordsworth

I had to read this poem several times before I got a grip on it. I believe that the theme to this poem would be the innocence of a small child and her beliefs. The young little girl in this poem is showing her innocence by believing that even though her sister moaned and is now buried in the ground in the church yard, she is still looking for her siblings. I realized that the poem is about a little girl who is searching for her other siblings. She believes that she and her siblings total seven in number. I believe that Wordsworth is being taught by this little girl that he should look around him and see her other siblings. While the two siblings are dead and buried in the church cemetery, she believes that by being in the cemetery at her sister's headstone where she and her brother used to play, she is still there with them.
The poem has a verse which reads "The first that died was sister Jane;In bed she moaning lay,Till God released her of her pain;And then she went away." When I read this I see biblical background, even with replacing the word God with she. This was very powerful and spiritual to me. This verse has several euphemisms when talking about her sister Jane going away after "God released her of her pain"

This writing does not have your typical romance of a boy and a girl who share a love in a story where there is a force who keeps the two of them from sharing their love for one another, it does have some of the same obstacles that two people in love share, just this is a different type of love. The romance int his story is the love that the eight year old little girl has for her two siblings who died and went onto heaven. While the siblings physical body is not with her so that she can touch it and physically play with them each day, their spirits still reside on Earth with her and she spends her time with them. She believes this so much that she tells the passer by (Wordsworth) this.