The beauty of lyrical poetry is that it usually focuses on themes that everybody ponders about and can relate. It is no surprise then that two of the main themes that carry throughout the centuries of English poetry are of love and religion. However, the language towards these two themes change throughout the poems. In The Wanderer, the “earth walker” laments about all of the people he has lost in a most loving way. “Then the wounds are deeper in his heart, sore for want of his dear one” (112) he says after remembering the warriors and friends he has lost. However, this melancholy about the world around him is quickly contrasted by the faith and hope he has in Christianity. The text ends with the narrator commenting that “It will be well with him who seeks favor, comfort from the Father in heaven, where for us all stability resides” (113). The narrator acts as a more knowledgeable source than the “earth-walker” and his language implies that the wise are those who truly believe in God. The Wanderer is believed to have been made in the late 10th century, which is the time of the Kingdom of England. This Kingdom had an ubiquitously religious tone which could be a reason for the religious connotations.
Chaucer’s Troilus’s Song contradicts the views of religion in The Wanderer in its very first line. Troilus asks “If no love is, O God, what feele i so?” (316, 1). The first thing that interested me is that Troilus believed that God should care about his problems of love. The “earth-walker” in The Wanderer didn’t ask God for help but instead used God as a comfort. Another important issue with this first line is Troilus’s belief that God does not believe in love. This feels like a slight jab at religion or at the very least a confusion about it. This confusion would have never occurred in the earlier poetry. The poem Allison also stresses a greater importance in love as the narrator claims that “Ich am in hire baundoun” (436, 8). As opposed to being in the power of God, the narrator claims that his power is the hands of a women. This poem also begins to stray to having subtle sexual connotations as well. The sexuality is seen in a more profound light in the 16th century writing of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder in the poem They Flee from me. The narrator claims that “When he loose gown from he shoulders did fall, And she me caught in her arms long and small”. This language evokes sexual imagery to the mind, which is of great contrast to the Old English writing of spirituality. The lyrical poetry of the century that we were assigned is a first-hand account of the evolution from spirituality to sexuality that transformed England in many ways, including the migration of Puritans to the New World.
I agree that Sir Thomas Wyatt's poem "They Flee from me" is incredibly sexual in nature. What is strange to me, however, is that during that time period sexuality was usually suggested in poems through small alterations in appearance. Many poems would incorperate the image of a woman letting her hair down to show males around her that she was not only sexually available, but on the prowl. This poem accomplishes the same type of sexual tone without incorperating this. Interesting!
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you. The poem has a very raw nature at its core, when it is stripped down to it's essentials. As Jessica mentioned, it is interesting to see this notion without the typical usage of sexual insinuations. Imagery is so strong in poetry, and that is usually when you can truly see the core of its purpose. Good job!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading "They Flee From Me" i also feel that for this time period this poem was very sexual. As Jessica said, during this time the ways in which most poets spoke about sexuality was much more discrete, Sir Thomas Wyatt went a different way with his approach to discuss sexual nature in poetry and was much more open and out there about it, not holding back like many other poets of this time did and i believe he was successful in doing so. Overall great job!
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