Follow up on Robert and Elizabeth Browning

This Major Authors class has been a really interesting class, and I have learned so much about poetry. I really enjoyed looking at only two authors and comparing those two because adding more authors into the picture would’ve made me feel confused.  I’m not the kind of person to understand how poetry works because of how much digging you have to do just to figure out what one poem is trying to say. There are tons of similes and metaphors that I just don’t understand, and that is why Robert Browning was my favorite of the two poets. I still really enjoyed looking at Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poetry, but her poetry didn’t seem to intrigue me.

Robert used direct monologues to write his poetry. And coming into this class I had no idea what that even meant. I’ve learned that a dramatic monologue poem is a poem in the form of a speech or narrative (still in poem format), but this is by an imagined person, in which the speaker reveals the different aspects of their character while describing a particular situation or series of events. With this being said, this is why I connected more to Robert’s poetry. There wasn’t a poem I didn’t like from him. My favorite poem we read from Robert Browning’s Poetry was “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”. I really liked this poem because as I was reading it I was constantly connecting it back to the hero’s journey. I studied what that was in my Mythology class, and that’s something that really intrigued me. Just the way Robert went about the poem was awesome! He used great imagery, word choice, and even though it was one of the more lengthy poems I still really enjoyed it!

Now Elizabeth’s poetry like I mentioned above wasn’t “bad poetry”, but I just felt myself having to dig a little bit deeper into what she was trying to get at. She is just as strong of a poet as Robert, if not better. The one poem that I REALLY enjoyed from her was “The Cry of the Children”. Yes I did have to dig deep into this poem to correctly understand what Elizabeth was saying, but there was so much emotion put into this piece that that’s what made me enjoy it so much. I feel as a writer/poet grabbing the audience’s attention is the most important, and let me tell you, she had my full attention while reading that poem. This was also my favorite poem that we discussed in class because hearing others opinions on it was good and of course we dug a little more in depth on it.

This class was different than any other class I’ve ever taken, and I really actually enjoyed it. I not only enjoyed reading the different works, but having you as our teacher made it better. The way we talked and analyzed the poems made me really understand each and every poem from start to end, and I do feel like I can understand and analyze poetry a little better.

Robert Browning Appendix B: The Ring and the Book

In this blog, I will be summarizing and analyzing three different texts from the “Appendix B: “Initial Responses to the Poem” section of Robert Browning’s “The Ring and the Book”. These texts include: “Carlyle in Old Age” by Thomas Carlyle, “Quarterly Reviews 126” by John Rickards Mozley, and “Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review 91” by John R. deC. Wise. All three of these reviews talk about Robert Browning and how much they dislike his poetry. I chose to go with three critiques that didn’t like his poetry because all of the other reviews I’ve done so far have mostly been positive reviews and this give it a little switch.

Summary:

Like I stated above, all three of these texts are going to be about Browning’s poem, but instead of agreeing with Browning and liking his poetry we have three critiques who have opposite views of his poem. We first start off with Carlyle… and Carlyle doesn’t like Browning’s poem. He states: “It is full of talent, energy, and effort: but actually without Backbone or Basis of Common-Sense. I think it among the absurdest books ever written by a gifted man” (788). Here we can see how much he doesn’t like this poem of Browning’s, but then when he talks to Browning in person he tells him that it’s a wonderful book, and one of the most wonderful poems ever written (789). He does tell Browning that it was one of the strangest and most preposterous in its construction, but after he said that to him, Carlyle states: “He did not seem to be pleased with my speech, and he bade me good morning” (789). Then we shift gears over to Mozlely who also disagrees with Browning’s poem. In his review, he states: “nothing in it is put forward to take the popular ear, nothing without the manifest search after truth, and the conviction that the sentiments put forward are needful to be known and weighed” (790). Mozley keeps talking and talking about Browning in a negative setting and doesn’t even mention one nice thing about Browning’s poem. The last review was from Wise’s view. He too doesn’t like Browning’s poem and he clearly states that in the very first sentence: “The expectations which were raised by the first volume have not been fulfilled” (790). I didn’t think that was a great way to start off the review, because there was just nothing positive about it. His review was a lot like Mozley’s in the way that there was just nothing nice mentioned about Browning’s poem.

Analysis:

I mentioned above that I chose three negative reviews because most of my other reviews have been positive. I thought it was very interesting to write about ALL negative reviews just because I feel like it’s a different way of writing. Here I don’t really agree with what these critics have to say and I don’t really think it was fair to critique him that much in a negative way. Robert Browning is a great poet, and I really enjoy reading his poems especially part of this one. I do sometimes think that Browning’s poems are “unorganized”, but that doesn’t make him a “bad” author/poet. And I really disliked how Carlyle didn’t like his poem, but when talking to him in person he basically lied and told him he loved it. I mean I understand he probably didn’t want to hurt is feelings about the poem, but if this review is already out there then why would he lie to Robert?

The Politics of Dramatic Form

The Politics of Dramatic Form written by Isobel Armstrong in the back of Robert Browning’s Poetry was a little hard for me to read. The language was easy to follow, but overall I felt like I was just reading something that was just being stated. I guess it just seemed unorganized. It was hard to relate to because Isobel wasn’t always talking about Browning’s poetry, but instead kept talking about Mill, Fox, and Horne who are artists I don’t know of. I felt like Armstrong mentioned very good points, but it was just overall hard to compare each artist to Browning.

Summary:

Like I stated above The Politics of Dramatic Form was hard for me to follow, so I’m going to try my best to relay the information that I just read in my own words. The two poems that are being critiqued are ‘Porphyria’ and ‘Jojannes Agricola’. Within these poems, Armstrong says “the two kinds of poetry, make a fundamental distinction between two kinds of knowledge” (557). One of the types is granted by expressive feeling and psychological feeling while the other type is the knowledge granted by the scientist. Mills and Fox shared the same thought; believed that the poet educates feelings, but Mill also believed that “poetry educates by belongings to the domain of private feeling and not by negotiating the public world of power” (558).  A little farther down, it also says something that I think is very important to understand. It says, “the true poet is unself-concious and alone with his affective, emotional condition which never goes beyond itself” (558). If the poem is going to have passion, emotion, tension, or whatever it may be, then you can’t focus to hard or your just not going to get there. This brings up my next point. A little later in the essay, Armstrong talks about how both of the poems (Porphyria and Jojannes Agricola) have a lot of silencing of the voice. We see in Robert’s poetry how he uses the silence of the speakers as a way for the characters to be seen/heard. An example would be “Porphyria called me, but no voice replied (15); and then the poem just ends. Here is more an example of the characters speech that is redundant. And then the last thing I wanted to focus on was how Armstrong said that Fox and Horne were seen as new kind of Victorian poetry. He says that Fox “believed ideological necessity of drama and programme for drama as externalized conflict objectified as the materials for democratic participation” (575). And then that Horne believed in the central structure importance of dialogue.

Analysis:

Overall, I think that Armstrong had some very good facts about the politics of dramatic form, but I felt like as I was reading everything was just being stated to me. I felt like I was rushed reading it, and I don’t think I liked this “entry” as I have liked the other ones. It was also so long that by the time I got to the end of it I was ready to be done and I also felt like I had to go back and re-read some parts that I didn’t quite understand the first time around. I still thought it was interesting and it still talked about Robert’s poetry a little, so that’s good!

A Woman's Last Word-Robert Browning

Women, Women, Women…

 

A Woman’s Last Word

I

Let’s contend no more, Love,

Strive nor weep;

All be as before, Love,

-Only Sleep!

 

II

What so wild as words are?

I and thou

In debate, as birds are,

Hawk on bough!

 

III

See the creature stalking

While we speak!

Hush and hide the talking,

Cheek on cheek!

 

IV

What so false as truth is,

False to thee?

Where the serpent’s tooth is

Shun the tree—

 

V

Where the apple reddens

Never pry—

Lest we lose our Edens,

Eve and I.

 

VI

Be a god and hold me

With a charm!

Be a man and fold me

With thine arm!

 

VII

Teach me, only teach, Love!

As I ought

I will speak thy speech, Love

Think thy thought—

 

VIII

Meet, if thou require it,

Both demands,

Laying flesh and spirit

In thy hands.

 

IX

That shall be to-morrow

Not to night:

I must bury sorrow

Out of sight:

 

X

-Must a little weep, Love,

(Foolish me!)

And so fall asleep, Love,

Love by thee.

I chose Robert Browning’s Piece “A Woman’s Last Word” because this poem may seem short, but there is a lot of meaning and emotion that shines through in this poem. This poem also relates to a real life situation that any reader could see happening in their everyday life. A woman and a man are arguing over something that had previously happened, and the woman is trying to challenge him. The poem takes place at the woman’s and man’s house and it seems like there is a lot of tension throughout the poem. The speaker in this poem is very clear; it’s the woman in this poem or also known as the wife. Just by the first stanza you can tell that this is a woman speaking “Let’s contend no more, Love,/Strive nor weep:/All be as before, Love,/-Only Sleep!) (1-4). The problem that is stated in this poem is the conflict about what we sacrifice or give up in ourselves in order to have love. Each stanza(s) has a different meaning, and I will explain to you what Browning was trying to make the reader see throughout his poem.

            When the poem beings, the wife is speaking, and the wife states in the first three stanzas of the poem that she is mad at her husband for something that happened previously. Throughout the poem the reader doesn’t know what caused this argument to happen or even why the couple is arguing. It seems like the couple bickers quite often because later in the poem, the wife seems to be really frustrated with how much they fight/argue and how it’s “ruining” their relationship. In stanza II Browning writes “In debate, as birds are,/ Hawk on bough!” (7-8). Here, the reader sees the imagery of the hawk and probably thinks about what they know about a hawk. A simple definition of a hawk is a “bird of prey” (Miller). With the imagery of the hawk, the reader sees that this is a threatening type of imagery. I saw it in a hunting/fighting kind of way because this is where the tension of the argument arises. We still don’t know what the couple is arguing about, but we can get a sense that she just wants it to stop.

            The next two stanzas (IV and V) talk about truth and knowledge. “What so false as truth is,/False to thee?” (13-14). Then “Where the apple reddens/Never pry-/Lest we lose our Edens,/Eve and I.” (17-20). Again, the reader can see that the speaker is just getting frustrated with the situation. The woman is trying to figure out what’s true and what’s not because all she wants is to hear from him is the truth. The reader can also tell in these stanzas that if the husband and wife don’t fix/solve their problems then their relationship will decline. The woman would lose the sense of who she was and their relationship won’t be the same as it used to be when they didn’t argue. We see this in a lot of relationships today…Men and women have had a great few months together, but after bickering and fighting about little stupid things makes their feelings towards each other decrease including their marriage to decrease as well.

            “Be a god and hold me/With a charm!/Be a man and fold me/With thine arm!” (21-24). When reading stanzas VI, VII, and VII the reader can see that the speaker is just trying to forget about their argument and move on. It’s not worth fighting if it’s going to ruin the relationship. The woman is saying “well, fine then, don’t tell me the truth. Instead, man up and be my husband. If I’m doing something that annoys you then please tell me and teach me so that I can change, and so that we can get along.” We see the speaker mention in stanza VII about how the husband should teach her to be better “Teach me, only teach, Love!/As I ought/I will speak thy speech, Love,/Think thy thought—“ (25-28). Again, this relates to real-life relationships because everyone wants to know what they are doing wrong, because if you don’t know nothing will ever get better. Relationships fall apart if there is no connection and if the other person isn’t willing to change. This could be a symbol of not caring about the relationship they are in…if they aren’t going to change then why fight for the woman?

            The last two stanzas of the poem (IX and X) are a little different. As I was reading through the poem I didn’t see it ending the way it does. “That shall be to-morrow/Not to night:/I must bury sorrow/Out of sight:” (33-36). Here, the speaker makes the listener wait till morning. I definitely thought the poem was going to end on a happy note with everything being resolved, but no she wants to wait till morning because that’s when they’ll start fresh. Arguing and bickering is tiring and if that’s happening a lot then I can only imagine how tired the speaker is. As women, we get frustrated really easily and just want to sleep on it and figure it out in the morning, but the speaker also states that “but for now I’m going to have myself a good cry, goodnight.” The last two lines in the poem “And so fall asleep, Love/Loved by thee.” (39-40). Here we see that the speaker gets the last word hence the title “A Woman’s Last Word”.

            Even though the reader never finds out why the couple is arguing the poem is still very powerful and very emotional. And like I stated above a lot of things in this poem compare to real-life relationships today. There is no such thing as a “perfect” relationship, just like there is no such thing as a “perfect” person. It’s ok for couples to argue and bicker because it’s a learning experience for both, and this only makes the heart stronger, but if this is happening all the time then someone’s going to be questioning the relationship. It’s just like the saying “each day is a new day.” Each day is a new day, and that’s why the speaker just wants to sleep on it and get back to it in the morning because you never know, but everything could be all better without even talking about the argument.

            As the role of a listener, I enjoyed the poem. I had to re-read the poem about three times to finally understand what was going on, but I chose this poem because of the powerful emotion in it, along with comparing the poem to real-life relationships. The speaker tricked at least me in this poem with the ending. I really thought that I was going to find out why the couple was arguing, but I never did. I also saw this poem as a lesson too because if you are in a relationship where fighting is a big thing then something isn’t right…either one of you isn’t happy, or one of you needs to change. Communication with one another is key in any relationship and this poem clearly states that. I think that’s what Browning’s main point in writing this poem was. He wants the reader to understand that this is going to happen in every relationship, but if it gets to a certain point then what are we willing to sacrifice? Looks like you have to do it for the love of your relationship.

 

Sources Cited:

Browning, Robert. “A Woman’s Last Word.” Poetry X. Ed. Jough Dempsey. 16 Jun 2003. 29

Oct. 2013.  

Miller, Gil. "All About Birds." Red-tailed Hawk, Identification,. N.p., Fall 2009. Web. 29 Oct.  

2013.  

Revies on EBB in Appendix D6-D9

In this blog, I will be summarizing and analyzing three different texts from the “Appendix D 6-9: “The Italian Question, Reviews of Poems before Congress” section of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Selected Poems. These texts include “Poems before Congress” by Henry Forhergill Chorley, “Mrs. Browning’s New Poems, The Atlas”, and “Poetic Aberrations by William Edmondstoune Aytoun. These three blogs talk about women and some talk about EBB and others talk about women of the time.

Summary

The three of these articles were kind of confusing to follow along, but each article I read seemed to be a little different. In the first review I read, “Poems before Congress” Chorley talks about EBB and her writing. “She is more political than poetical, expressing her blind faith in Napoleon the Third as the hope of Italy, and flinging out a malediction against England” (351). I do agree that EBB is more of a political writer, but I don’t see anything wrong with that because women at this time didn’t like to know about politics let alone create poems about political issues. This review also says “…One who has written, in her time, better than the best of English poetesses” (352). I don’t think that EBB is one of the best English poetesses and I think that because I like Robert Browning’s poetry better. Elizabeth is still a very great poet, I just don’t “click” with her poems. In the next review, Mrs. Browning’s new poems, they also talk about how great of a poet EBB is! “a writer who unites the strength of a man’s intellect to the largeness of a woman’s heart” (353). He also talks about one of her other poems “A Curse for a Nation” and in this poem, Elizabeth talks about cursing her own country. At the time, this wasn’t right for people to do, not even a little bit. “A curse from the depths of womanhood, its very salt, and bitter, and good” (353). Then, in the last review that I read by William Aytoun he talks about women in general, not so much about EBB. He states that women shouldn’t interfere with politics. He says that “we love the fair sex too well, to desire that they should be withdrawn from their own sphere, which is that of adorning the domestic circle, and tempering by their gentleness the asperities of our ruder nature…” (354). I don’t think it’s “bad” that women can be involved in politics, I mean maybe it was like this at the time, but anyone who wanted to be involved could be. Like I mentioned above, these reviews were pretty hard to understand, so hopefully I got the basic information out.

Analysis

Even though I was a little confused on the reviews, I still liked reading them. I just find it very interesting that women were looked down if they were into politics, or even if they wrote about politics in their poems. Women are strong and independent and now that women have a say it shouldn’t matter if they want to talk about politics in their poetry or not. And I do agree that EBB is a great poet, but I don’t think she is the best female poet of this time.

EBB's Appendix C in "Selected Poems"

In this blog, I will be summarizing and analyzing three different texts from the “Appendix C: Trans-Atlantic Abolitionism and Responses to EBB’s Anti-Slavery Poems” section of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Selected Poems. These texts include “The Slave-mother” by Maria Lowell, “The Original Opening of The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point” and The literary World on Hiram Powers Greek Slave and The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point” All of these short passages are different because they don’t all have reviews specifically on EBB, but they do talk about her anti-slavery poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point.

Summary:

Like I just mentioned above, these passages aren’t all critiquing EBB’s poetry, theses passages more describe her poetry and the emotions throughout her poems especially in her poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point. The first passage I chose, Lowell writes a passage in the form of a poem. In this poem, there are six stanzas and each stanza has four lines. The poem’s poetry form has rhyme to it. The last word in each line rhymes with the last word in the next line, so the first two end words rhyme and the next two lines rhyme. For example on page 337:

“Then on her face she looketh, but not as mother proud,

And seeth how her features, as from out a dusky cloud,

Are tenderly unfolding, far softer than her own,

And how, upon the rounded cheek, a fairer light is thrown;”

The next passage I chose wasn’t written by someone, it’s just an added in passage.  And in this passage, it talks about EBB’s opening of the poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point. I liked this little passage because it gives a great explanation on the beginning of her poem. I would encourage anyone who wanted to read this poem to read this short little passage first. It states how in the beginning of the poem, the dramatic speaker is a black slave and how later in the poem (stanza 16) the speaker changes to a female slave “I am black. I am black/ I wear a child upon my breasts”. Then in the passage it states how the beginning of this poem talks about a child being abandoned and gives different titles to others poem about children being abandoned. Then the last passage I looked at talked about how EBB’s poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point had erred (made a mistake). “With slavery, whether it be regarded with loathing, liking, or indifference, the Union has nothing to do; the American is not responsible for it; it is purely a local institution…” (342). As I read EBB’s poem, I didn’t notice that she made a mistake. I enjoyed this poem because there was so much emotion in it and even though it was sad it was still a very well written poem.

Analysis:

So the three texts that I choose were all different in some sort of way, but that’s why I chose those three..I wanted there to be a variety of EBB’s poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point. As I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed her poem because it made me understand the whole slavery point of view and how children are put into slavery whether the male of the master was a slave and definitely if the mother/female was a slave bore child. The emotion was also outstanding and I would recommend this poem to anyone because I really did think it was interesting!

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

In this blog, I will be summarizing and analyzing three different texts from the “Appendix B: Religion and Factory Reform” section of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Selected Poems. These texts include “Reviews” “The Guardian (22 January 1851), “Death of Mrs. Browning” by Samuel B. Holcombe, and “Mrs. Browning’s Poetry” by Hannah Lawrance. Not all of the reviews talked about EBB’s poetry, but all described a little how she wrote or who her influences were, and this is what I found to be interesting within the three separate reviews.

Summary:

Like I stated above, not all of these reviews critiqued her poetry, but all of the reviews did mention her influences or compared her poetry to other poets. We haven’t read much of EBB yet, but Lawrance states that EBB is “highly favored among women” (322). EBB talks about The Virgin Mary and how a mother should give so much love to her child, so this part of her poetry obviously pulls young women and grown women to read her poetry. Holcombe then compares EBB to the girl version of Shakespeare. “She is truly the Shakespeare among her sex; and yet, no women has written in a spirit of such genuine, intense, and pathetic womanliness…” (321). Going along with what Lawrence said about her talking about The Virgin Mary, Holcombe describes how she is a Christian poet. Not all of her pieces have Christianity in them, and she doesn’t use it too often, but Christianity is hidden secretly in her pieces. Then we have the Reviews who tell us that Mr. Carlyle, Mr. Tennyson, and her husband Mr. Browning are EBB’s idols. Even though I don’t know who two of these men are, I do believe that Mr. Browning had a big effect on EBB’s poetry. So yes, all of these texts are different, but they all describe EBB in a different way, and that what I found interesting about these different texts.

Analysis:

Like I stated above, we haven’t really read much of EBB’s poems, but from what the texts have said, I can see how each one connects. For example, when the “reviews” talk about her idols, I do agree that Mr. Browning was one of her idols because he was also a very well-known poet and I do believe that he influenced EBB to write poetry. This is why half of her poems in this book are about Mr. Browning and how she fell in love with him. Her poetry is different than Roberts and that’s a good thing because they aren’t writing about the same things, but if they are then they are written in a different way. And when Holcombe says that she’s like the women Shakespeare I can already start to see it. Maybe once we read a few more of her pieces it will be clear who she writes like, but I agree with Holcombe.