Well, I do think Elizabeth Barrett was shrivelling *before her
elopement. Was George Eliot "unsexy"? Lewes seems not to have thought so
and their liaison caused social unease. What David points out can be
interestingly modified, though: Women Poets (sic) were sometimes praised
, as were (I first typed "qwere") male poets , for their masculinity;
thus, Richard Garnett introducing Sara Coleridge in the volume of
A.H.Miles *The poets and the poetry of the century* devoted to Women
Poets wrote "While deficient in no female grace, she is intellectually
distinguished by a quality for which we can find no better name than
manliness" etc, or Mackenzie Bell judiciously remarked that Augusta
Webster (no drooping or spinsterish flower she), while lacking E.B.
Browning's "impulse and fire" or C.Rossetti's "deep and searching
symbolism" surpassed all "other women poets of England" "in that
quality which, as it is generally deemed the specially masculine
quality, is called virility." (One will note the hesitation of both
writers as to the specifically male nature of "virility".) In the
above-mentioned anthology there are many poets, by the way, whose lives
in no way suggest gender-related marginalisation. No less a personage
than W.B.Yeats intro's Ellen O'Leary, whom he admiringly describes as an
active Fenian. Mathilde Blind, though apparently unmarried ("Miss
Blind") is described with unconcealed admiration as a "traveller,
continually on the move from land to land, [who] has accumulated the
impressions derived from many different regions, and many different
societies." Emily Pfeiffer (what? never heard her piping?) seems to fit
in with the drooping stereotype ("from the first weak, and almost
morbidly sensitive"), yet "Her husband believed in her powers, and was
wise in his suggestions and encouragements [....] Mr Pfeiffer
predeceased his wife by exactly a year." Doesn't sound much like
marginalisation in that marriage, does it? "I would be a goddess in/The
light of those dear eyes,/Apt to hold you as to win,/All-beautiful,
all-wise,/Pray you wherefore should you deem/This a vain and idle
dream?/Purblind love that cannot see/That woman still to man may
be/Whatever she can seem!" And she writes a sonnet on Evolution: "Hunger
that strivest in the restless arms/Of the sea-flower [...]/Thou art the
Unknown God on whom we wait. Thy path the course of our unfolding fate",
while she eulogizes George Eliot as "Lost queen and captain, Pallas of
our band" etc. No shrinking violet, she.
I've enjoyed dipping into this dusty tome after its years of
marginalised shelf-life...
mj
Alison Croggon wrote:
>On 7/5/06 2:42 PM, "David Bircumshaw" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
>
>>One of the interesting aspects of this debate has been the amnesia about the
>>marked way in which our culture often has seen poetry as an 'unmanly'
>>occupation: male poets are associated with 'nancy boys', 'stuff for women',
>>with the exhibition of sensitivity and feeling, those 'feminine' qualities,
>>rather than sports-field prowess, as well 'bookishness' which is not again
>>a macho activity.
>>
>>
>
>Good point, David; the Romantic poet personified both masculine (Intellect)
>and feminine (Soul) brought together behind that famous brooding brow; which
>always "conceieved", "gestated" and "gave birth" to Genius. Etc. This by way
>of marginalising actual women, btw, who were doomed to hairy unsexieness a
>la George Eliot, eternal spinsterhood (any number of poets) or facing having
>their mortal frames shrivelling under the flame of Genius a la Elizabeth
>Barrett ...
>
>All best
>
>A
>
>
>Alison Croggon
>
>Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
>Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
>Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
>
>
>
--
The self that shines in the greying sunshine
of the immediate is actual, though it is
not all that is there. - Douglas Oliver
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