A forsaken love

Matthew Arnold's Forsaken Merman has a lot going on. It reminds me of an ocean itself. On the surface there's a story of a merman falling in love with a human woman and her birthing his children then leaving him on Easter. What?? But if you look deeper you see the confliction between love and religion. The merman becomes increasingly depressing as the poem goes on yet still loves this woman. She, on the other hand, doesn't quite reveal her motives as to why she leaves the land for a merman and then decides to return due to hearing the church bells. Was religion that important to her? Or did she never love him at all? Or maybe the sea was too much of a difference from the civilization on land? All of these questions played in my head. Another thing that struck me was the influence of music in this poem. The children's voices, the Murmansk repetition of down, down, down and dear children and the church bells are all very influential to the melancholy atmosphere the poem draws on.

The comforting lake

In The Lake Isle of Innisfree the author seems to believe his true peace comes from nature. The author seems to believe his happiness will come by living alone and having no worries or responsinilities. He describes his plans, and they sound so blan and boring, but none the less it is what the author desires. By living with the contributions made by mother nature results in a type of relaxation the author deeply desires. By using such imagery the author is able to paint a picture of relaxation also.

Ugly Goblins

Reading the Goblin Market I thought of horribly twisted and deformed creatures with crackling voices. The Oxford English Dictionary describes them as mischievous, ugly, dwarf-like creatures and they are usually portrayed as such in fantasy literature. The poem describes them having animal faces which in my mind only added to the horror. However I was surprised to see the illustration on Monday. They were so adorable, the little cat guy was even wearing a precious tiny suit! It is far off from the Tolkien representation most of us are use to. I took this more in the economic reading of Goblin Market. All the exotic fruits were perhaps a criticism on consumerism. The vast selection of these exotic fruits, who would want to eat ordinary and simple fruits that could be found locally. When presented with novelty it is difficult to settle for what you already have. The reason these goblins are so cute is to glamorize what you wish you had and not what is readily available, it is an easy sell. Someone is not questioning their own motives when the source is rather pleasant.  However cute as they may be the Goblins are still dangerous and will kick your ass if you refuse them. This is an important principle capitalism, to keep you wanting more and never be completely satisfied with what you have. 

                                                      

 

                                               "come buy, come buy!"

The (Temporarily) Forsaken Garden

Swinbourne's "The Forsaken Garden" is wrought with decaying imagery that would lead one to believe the poem is about death, but I think its about time. To me, the poem is about life continuing on and that "death lies dead." The lines that end each stanza speak of the continuance of the sea and the passage of years and days. The end of the first stanza says "Now lie dead," instead of "Now is dead." The weeds that once grew are lying dead, which could still imply some sort of action taking place, even if that action is death.

Imagery of the wind, rain, and sun bearing down on the garden only reinforces that time and life go on, even with decay and death. The second to last stanza states, "Earth, stones, and thorns of the wild ground growing/ While the sun and the rain live, these shall be," indicating the continuity of life. Even through destruction, there are new beginnings. Time has destroyed the garden, but only temporarily because from time's "self-slain" hand, it brings both decay and life.

Yeats

 "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by William Butler Yeats feels like an appreciation for the solitary life style. In a sense, the cabin that he describes could be a literal place he goes to for hibernation, or it could be a figurative place in his mind. He wants to "live alone in the bee-loud glade", to which the "bee-loud glade" might represent his own thoughts. Yeats seems take the sounds and images of this place where ever he goes, saying, "I hear the lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; / While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey". I'm wondering if this version of solitude that Yeats presents contrasts to Mathew Arnold's depiction of being alone in "The Forsaken Merman". Where as Arnold's character ends up engulfed in the sea, Yeats makes it seem peaceful and comforting, like something good can come out of it.

A Forsaken Garden: What Is Left

In reading Algernon (not the mouse) Charles Swinburne's A Forsaken Garden, there are quite a few images with thematic attachments to nature. The metaphor of the rose garden and the ocean wind are constant throughout the poem, working to focus the reader not on what is there, but what is left over. I can sense some sort of allegory in this poem, focusing on social issues of some kind, but the specificity is what eludes me. There are a flood of images that imply that some large event has happened and because of this the poem carries a sense of rebuilding or focusing on the pieces that were not taken. War immediately comes to mind.

In the first stanza, Swinburne write of "the blossomless bed/where the weeds that grew green from the graves of its roses/now lie dead" implying that there used to be flowers in the bed, which then died from the growing of the weeds, which then died and now we are left with nothingness. Death is emphasized strongly but mostly  in that living people are no longer present in the garden. A religious reading of the text might suggest that it is the Garden of Eden, no longer habitable to any human since the days of Adam and Eve. "Here there was laughing of old, there was weeping/haply, of lovers none will ever know/whose eyes went seaward a hundred sleeping/year ago." This stanza focuses mostly on the human emotion that used to enliven the garden and the fact that there is nothing left implies that they either went seaward or just simply died out. The allegory for the sea could be represented by the unknown and that when man "looked forth from the flowers to the sea" he went in search of the unknown and left the sanctuary of the Garden, thus betraying God and leaving the garden empty and barren.

Goblin Empire

One of our readings for Monday was The” Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti. In this reading I saw a number of passages that show a metaphorical relation the British Empire. To be more specific about this the passages describing the different fruits and the fact that they are sold in no town from here. Many of the fruits being described were not fruits that were grown in England and a few were not grown in Europe at all. The passage also says it is not known on what soil the fruit is grown, a metaphor for foreign lands.

                I think Rossetti used the goblins as a metaphor for the agents of the East India Company or other agents of empire who went forth to conquer far off lands and bring back the resources and goods from those places. I think if we look at the poem in relation to or as a commentary on the Empire we can see Rossetti taking a negative view of how things were going. Perhaps this may be a stretch but I could see her making something of a prophecy that would come true later. This prophecy would be the eventual turning on the empire by her colonies. The passage that best describes this is when Lizzie is beaten up by the goblin men for not wanting to partake of their wares but take them back to her sister showing that eventually one must pay for the actions that have been done, regardless of whether or not those in the position of power committed the crimes. The picture below has nothing to do with the story but I thought they were funny.

The Lake Isle of "Ijustwannabefree"

I believe that Yeats's "The lake Isle of Innisfree" condemns the chaos found in industrialized cities and instead advocates a return to nature.  Something has been lost by the culture of humanity due to rapid industrialization, and Yeats clearly believes that the answer can be found away from it all.  He claims to intend to move to a small island, as disconnected from industrialization as a person could likely get at that time.  There is nothing negative to be said about the island he intends to move to, as even the bee-infested glades inspire serenity in Yeats as he longs to be away from the city.

The cities themselves barely receive a mention in the poem.  The roadways of the city are briefly mentioned, and even when they are, they are described as grey and almost boring.  With all of the praise Yeats gives seclusion, it is hard to imagine grey roads leading anywhere but an unhappy place.  Even before this time period, nature had long been in the process of being forgotten.  Then, people were more concerned with material things rather than appreciate what was around them.  Yeats, however, reminds us that humans were intended to live alongside nature, and that we should never allow it to escape our grasp. 

Forbidden Fruits: Just Say No

I must admit that it took several times to read through Rosetti's "Goblin Market" to read into the story beyond a Fairy Tale or Biblical allegory. Let's face it, by now women should learn to NOT accept fruit from strangers. It never goes well. The story draws similarities to Eve, Mary Magdalene, Hansel and Gretel, etc. We covered most of this in Monday's class.

The element of the story that I found difficult to parallel to any other text but the idea of Lizzie making Laura eat the fruit from her flesh. It has been considered feminist and even homoerotic. While Laura is the fallen woman that is easily swayed and becomes the victim of addiction, Lizzie personifies the light, or good, qualities of a person, manifesting the archetypes ranging from the Christlike martyr to the virgin that survives a slasher movie. They seem to be yin and yang, as portrayed by the way they sleep in each others' arms as if in the womb, meshed together as if one person. While I can see how it is a feminist text due to a woman saving another woman rather than a Prince Charming or Jesus Christ coming in to save them from their sins, I think it reflects the battling sides of a person such as the darkness that is susceptible to greed, temptation, and addiction. But on the flip side, that darkness is conquered by resistance and conviction and the light and dark must battle and feed off each other to be a whole person.

Goblin Market and Female Strength

When reading Goblin Market, I felt as if the poem had overtones of female empowerment. The relationship of Lizzie and Laura could be interpreted as erotic due to word choices but the fundamental nature of their relationship is that of sisters who support each other. When the poem describes them sleeping next to one another, they are painted as innocent and at total peace with the world. While they are together, they are untouchable and all is good.
I found it interesting that men do not make an appearance in the poem except when the goblins are being described - Rossetti refers to them as "goblin men" who the girls should stay away from. The fruit that they sell Lizzie is possibly a metaphor for the dominant and often abusive nature of masculine love that was accepted at the time. Lizzie indulges on the fruits and becomes hooked on it even though it is clearly self-destructive. The goblins forcing Laura to consume their fruit against her will could very well be a metaphor for violence against women. By the end of the poem, both women have fallen victim to the evil of "goblin men" which causes them to once again find comfort in one another.

Deeper into the Goblin Market

I enjoyed reading Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, but I felt my first reading was too straightforward. I saw the poem as strictly allegorical with strong Christian themes, as it almost seems a reenactment of the scene with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. With its heavy description and deep narrative, I found it a strong allegory, but I wanted to learn about some other reading perspectives to delve deeper into the richness of the poem. When searching for other interpretations of Goblin Market, I came across a helpful article on Poetry Foundation that provided a few different readings, such as the psychoanalytic interpretations of the poem’s sexual elements and the Marxist criticism of separation of domestic and commercial spheres. If anyone is interested in reading these, you can find them embedded in this biography: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/christina-rossetti