Political Agenda

In regards to which poem would have made a more political impact, between Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Southey, my partner and I both came to the agreement they Southey made more of a political statement. The main reason for this is that the Rime of the Ancient Mariner read more like just a story and I would not have seen it as an allegory to abolition unless 1) I was really digging or 2) it was spelled out. Also in Southey's poem the avid use of religion adds to the political aspect because during the time it was written religion and politics were inevitably interwoven. Also that fact that Southey's poem was more compact keeps the reader focused for the entirety of the poem.

Self Loathing in Bristol

In Robert Southey's "The Sailor Who Served in the Slave Trade," he tells the tale of a sailor who was forced by his captain to bound and flog one of the female slaves they had just picked up who ended up dying the following day. The way that he words this poem vividly paints the sailor's anguish as he describes how guilty he feels for what he was forced to do by his captain. The slave woman haunts his dreams and he seeks mercy and forgiveness from God. However, knowing what I do about God, once you ask you are forgiven, so really the issue is forgiving himself. He feels a deep anguish and self loathing for not resisting his captain's orders. If the sailor can't forgive himself then when Southey has the call to action at the end for all us to pray for him as well is all for naught. He must forgive himself if he is to recover from this tragedy.

Author Backgrounds- Hidden Context

As discussed in class, I believe it is important to understand author backgrounds when learning about a text, even in fiction. Understanding John Newton's historical background helps us understand how the man who wrote "A Slave Trader's Journal" in 1751 can write hymnals about salvation just thirty years later.  An author's background can greatly influence his or her credibility, and in this case, I believe that it strengthens it. While it would be easy to brush off "A Slave Trader's Journal" as a piece of 18th century pro-slavery literature, it gains more depth with the knowledge that he will eventually turn against that lifestyle. When reading with this future in mind, one is more likely to read into the syntax and phrases that could potentially allude to his eventual change in mind and search out "humanity" within this man. When readers have the author's background handy, it is important to understand the context in which the writer is actually writing.

Cowper's identity crisis.

In his poem “The Negro’s Complaint” Cowper seems to be having a slight identity crisis. The poem is written by Cowper but it is written from the point of view of an African slave.  I may be alone in this thinking but I feel like once this fact is know it can both emphasize the importance of the poem and belittle it.

On the argument for emphasizing the importance, I think it’s beneficial that Cowper was a white man writing from the point of view of an African slave. It shows a greater understanding of the conditions and horrors that slaves face. It shows sympathy towards them and if more people had Cowper’s way of thinking the abolitionist movement would have been solved in a snap. Plus, people were more willing to listen to a white man over a slave.

I also feel that Cowper being a white man could belittle the meaning of the poem. What does a white man who has always had rights and made a living off of writing poetry know of the suffering of the slaves? It appears that Cowper has taken a stab at understanding and it could’ve gone incredibly wrong. It’s also slightly insulting to assume you know what a group of people are feeling when you will never experience the same pain.

So, as I said, Cowper writing the poem from the view of an African slave appears to have positive and negative effects. Either way, slavery was abolished in England and that is all that matters in the long run. Luckily, Cowper got to play a part in making the dream of abolition a reality, no matter which race he was pretending to be a part of.

An Educational Complaint

   The line between right and wrong is often said to be a matter of perspective, but people often mistake the meanings of these words with "correct" and "incorrect", which blurs the lines even further. In the context of The Negro's Complaint the issue of slavery is laid bare, in a way that appeals primarily to the moral compass. Yet in Pity for Poor Africans, Cowper does something different. He lays out his internal conflict, claiming that he knows that slavery is wrong "I own I am shock'd at the purchase of slaves," then turns to explain that though it would be right to try and end it the correct thing socially is to be silent. The excuses are both ridiculous and desperate, they reek of forced justification. Yet it is the story of the boy in school that really makes the poem.
   The boy in the story is against the idea of stealing the apples from a neighbor, it is initially strictly a moral issue. It is when the other children threaten to keep the apples they steal from him that he buckles. This portion mirrors the first half of the poem in which Cowper argues that though slavery is wrong it would be awful to be the only nation without. By taking the moral conundrum away from the touchy subject of slavery it becomes easier to see how frivolous the actual argument is. The fear isn't really to be without dessert in the first place, just to be the only one without. The whole poem becomes satirical and those who would pose such arguments are exposed as disingenuous. When the argument is considered from this angle it becomes apparent that the argument is strictly a social one.
   Remembering The Negroes Complaint, and how it poses that the issue of slavery goes against nature's claim of equality, an interesting opinion from the poet himself emerges. Cowper's poems are two halves to a whole. Half of his argument claims that slavery is not an issue of inequality, because skin color cannot  "forfeit nature's claim" and god himself would answer with fury upon it's proponents. The other half states that it is instead is a social, issue, thus concretely stating that society is in direct opposition to God in regards to slavery.

Eye is a Window

In the Rime of the Ancient Mariner I loved the symbolism of the eye as a window to the soul. Although it may sound cliché, the Mariner's eye holds the key to his mind; as we have discussed Gothic literature is all about digging inside one’s head, in this case the Mariner's. We see this first with "He holds him with his glittering eye—The Wedding-Guest stood still," at this point the guest of the wedding has begun to delve into the mind of the Mariner. Once he starts telling the story we see a line which repeats, “The bright-eyed Mariner”, this line keeps the reader intrigued because the repetition of it adds a mysticism to the poem before the Mariner really gets into telling his story. In the entirety of the poem the word eye is repeated nineteen times each one referring to a sort of window to the soul. In a way we are the wedding guest running to the wedding, the fun, and yet sometimes we fail to take the time and just look at someone and learn who they really are.

Every rose has its thorn...

Wordsworth's "The Thorn" is quite a dark and shuddersome poem about a woman's hardship dealing with the loss of her baby. The fact that this poem is a retelling makes it more difficult to follow what's going on and what actually happened to the woman's baby because the narrator is just as confused about the situation at hand as we are.

"The Thorn" begins with a description of a grey thorn upon a mountain top, which is where the narrator and villagers believe her baby is buried. The big question that surfaces when reading the poem is: did she kill her baby? No one in the village truly knows what happened to her baby; some say that the baby was drowned in "the pond," others believe the baby was not born alive, which is what I believe after our read.

The thorn could represent the woman's sadness. Before her lover abandoned her and before the loss of her baby, she was happy. The "beauteous hill of moss" could represent her once-happiness and the beauty of her child and her innocence.

"The Thorn" leaves us with many questions, like a J.J. Abrams flick. However, as readers, we can connect with the story because of its use of nature, which is something that encompasses us. This was an interesting read to say the least.

Cowper's Pity.

“Pity for Poor Africans” is Cowper's commentary on the regrettable affair of the slave trade and his country's hand in it and his criticism of it. The poem establishes that he is aware of the inhumanity of the slave trade but, so too is he too well accustomed to the profit of it to deign to stop it,

"For how could we do without sugar and rum?

Especially sugar, so needful we see?

What? give up our desserts, our coffee, and tea!"

He regrets that their delicacies are the spoils of despair but he is too comfortable to change it. He voices his opinion loudly against it, but not loudly enough to actually matter. He speaks his discontent but only so much as to alleviate his guilt, and beyond pity to further relieve that guilt, he attempts to justify why they continue to participate in the slave trade. He has already declared that they cannot do without the goods, but he offers the justification that even if they stood against it, they would stand alone and the trade would continue. The "French, Dutch, and Danes" will continue their quests and captures and trades so if the British were to stand aside, it would have no influence and instead of saving the world, they would just end up with nothing.

The story that Cowper tells in his poem of the man who goes along to steal the apples though he knows it is wrong is the allegory of the poem. The French, Dutch, and Danes are the youngster's mates and the youngster is the British. The boy is almost sympathetic because he can tell right from wrong but ultimately he is the worst of the lot for not being able to stand by what he knows he should do.

A religious Appeal

When reading William Cowper “The Negro’s Complaint” the thing that stood out to me the most is the religious aspect of the message. I know that cowper was a religious man, and I believe the approach he took was wise and understanding. Religion has always been a complex topic to discuss, people will always stand behind their believes when they feel they are threatened. I think he used this knowledge to try and connect to the common people and their feelings towards guilt in the name of god. Most importantly the fourth stanza, beginning with line 25 questions if it is the peoples doing or gods. All men are supposed to be treated equally, so why are men and women of color being treated so differently and used for white mens needs. “What are Englands rights, I ask,” calls to not only to question the laws of government but the laws of religion and moral integrity. Although no actual slaves were asked for their opinion and Cowper did not know what it was like, I feel it was wise of him to write it in a way that shows how slaves are really just the same as everyone else. It is then that the person reading should start asking themselves how they could deny a person their natural given rights.  By doing the opposite of what they say in the name of god, then they are simply hypocrites and denying the fact.

Southey's Abolitionist Poetry

In "The Sailor who had Served in the Slave-Trade" Southey regales his with the tale of an nonconsensual (in terms of the slavery) sailor who had worked the slave trade. The preface to the poem provides grounding in Southey's following stanzas; merely by stating that this poor bloke was found wailing in a cow house when a minister chanced upon him, essentially a very Christian, "Be wary and take heed of this poor sailor's woes, or else it might happen to you as well!" I always find prefaces in poems bewildering... This preface, I find equal parts amusing and perplexing. Amusing, due to its concise nature in its telling and perplexing as to why Southey felt it necessary to include it. The sailor's story was one of agony, but was it presented "without the slightest addition or alteration?" I think not; a sailor (unless inebriated) does not wail in a cow house and then tell a minister the horrors he's seen in a rhyme scheme. Was Southey attempting to give credence to his work because he hadn't experience the slave trade himself, or was he attempting to gain a wider audience with this "factual" account? Probably both.

Cowper's Complaint

Upon reading William Cowper's The Negro's Complaint, what becomes immediately evident is that it is written from the first person point of view. This is indeed interesting, as Cowper has no background in slavery and finds it morally appalling only due to his religious nature. Had this poem been written by John Newton, it would have probably been vastly different, but still more agreeable since Newton was once a slave trader himself. Though the poem itself does seem to capture what would arguably be a well written dissent to the social norms in a time where slavery was a common practice, it seems to stand out in that it's message is that which the slaves at the time were not allowed to say or were unable to so eloquently express: slavery is wrong on every basis. It is morally wrong "Skins may differ, but affection/dwells in black and white the same," it is illogical, "still in thought as free as ever, what are England's rights, i ask," and it there are emotional connotations that ask the reader what kind of person indeed would enslave another, even when the "One who reigns on high" sends nature to undo the such evil. The poems ends in a rallying call to arms that the reader "prove [their] human feelings/ere you proudly questions ours!" This poem is indeed quite a powerful sentiment coming from a white evangelist hymn writer, not necessarily because he believes in the words he's written, but because he has given a voice to a group that had none.

Music for Cowper's poems

Several of Cowper's abolitionist poems were set to music borrowed from other poems and songs.

"The Negro's Complaint" was set to the tune of "Hosier's Ghost," which was a popular 18th century song with very specific historical and political content:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Admiral_Hosier%27s_Ghost

As you can see, "Hosier's Ghost" adopted its music from another song, "Come and Listen to my Ditty, or the Sailor's Complaint":

http://erato.uvt.nl/files/imglnks/usimg/3/3c/IMSLP134000-WIMA.0b2c-sailor-watts.pdf

And the "Sailor's Complaint" which was set to music by George Frideric Handel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j1CUKkSv0M

What do these musical associations add to the poem? How do they help advance the abolitionist agenda of Cowper's poem?

As the chorus suggests, "Sweet Meat has Sour Sauce" was intended to be sung to the tune of "For he's a jolly good fellow." 

This tune became popular in the early 18th century by association with the French song "Marlborough s'en va-t-en guerre" ("Marlborough Has Left for the War"), a burlesque on the false report of the Duke of Marlborough's death at the battle of Malplaquet in 1709. Here's a recording of the tune with the French lyrics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqRpPMOaMIA

This is John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough:

Again, when Cowper sets his poem to this tune, what is the effect of the reader? How does it work with the message of the poem?