Sarah Deffenbaugh's Canonball

Sarah Deffenbaugh ENGL 335 3-29-2011 Dr. Foss Word Count: 1018 The Righteous Woman

The poem “Evening Prayer at a Girl’s School” by Felicia Hemans is an outline of the life and expectations of a woman in the Romantic Era. The poem centers on young and innocent school girls and the way their future may differ from the future society has caused them to envision. In the Romantic Era society assumed that pious and virtuous women should be satisfied with their God-given role as wife and mother, but Hemans uses her poem to contrast the stark reality of marriage and motherhood against the innocent expectations of the young girls.

Hemans begins her poem with an excerpt from Quaker poet, Bernard Burton, which summarizes society’s faulty view that as long as a woman is pious and virtuous she will have a satisfactory and happy life. Hemans uses the quote to create tension between society’s and her own personal definition of woman’s domestic role. Society expected a woman to receive joy and fulfillment from God for performing her domestic duties however, Hemans’ argues that religion and duty are not substantial enough to create a satisfactory, let alone, enjoyable life for anyone.

In the poem Hemans’ speaker is warning and preparing the young school girls for the harsh life they will lead upon entering womanhood. She uses both language and imagery to paint a brutally honest picture of the unforgiving reality a woman faces as a wife and mother in the Romantic era. Hemans uses the poem to convey her belief that women should perform their duty to society by accepting her role as wife and mother, but she should not be fooled by the illusions society has cast about the roles and should, instead, expect many hardships and heartbreaks. Hemans uses lines such as, “her lot is on you-silent tears to weep, and patient smiles to wear through suffering’s hour” to illustrate the fact that even women are expected to maintain a certain sense of propriety at all times, even if their hearts are devastated during a “suffering’s hour” they are expected to bear it with a “patient smile”   (25-26). Hemans’ speaker also prepares the school girls for the physical pain of being a woman and performing her womanly duties through the line “watching the stars out by the bed of pain” which could be an allusion to either losing one’s virginity to the marriage bed or the act of child birth (32). Throughout the poem the speaker urges the girls to “lift up your hearts!—though yet no sorrow lies dark in the summer-heaven of those clear eyes” so they can experience true happiness while they have the chance (17-18). The speaker also urges the girls to “therefore pray” for their bleak future and hope that God will be merciful enough to ease some of their future pain on behalf of their childhood pleas (30, 36). Hemans’s ultimate goal in writing the poem is to warn young girls that piety, virtuousness, and duty is not necessarily the recipe to a happy existence. Instead she cautions them to ignore the picture of the perfect and proper wife society has created and instead realize their life will never fit into the mold of that false image.

Hemans also uses the poem to contrast the school girls’ current state of joy and innocence against the impending future of grief and pain they will soon experience. For example, when first introduced within the poem, the school girls are described using language such as, “bright and young” with “clust’ring locks” that are “untouched by care” which all gives the connotation of fresh youth and childlike innocence. However, when describing their future, Hemans turns to darker imagery and a type of tongue in cheek language such as, “meekly to bear with wrong, to cheerful decay” (4-6, 35). The contrast between the expectations the girls have for their future and the bitter reality they will most likely face is also seen in the line “and a true heart of hope, though hope be vain” which shows Hemans’ belief that being born female results in a lifetime of “vain” hope and disappointment (34). Hemans ends her poem on the wistful note that the girls cherish this moment their “first fragrance unto Heaven” for it may very well be the only sweetness they will ever experience for the rest of their lives. Hemans’ uses the thematic structure of the poem to chronicle the life of a woman from childhood to maturity. In the first stanza Hemans uses comforting and warm diction such as, “starry radiance” and “sweet stillness” to describe the scene of the fresh youthful girls. The second stanza continues to celebrate the sweet innocence of the girls, but the language gradually evokes images of death and grief through lines such as, “joyous creatures, that will sink to rest” and other morbid metaphors such as, “folded leaves” and the “set of the sun” (13, 16). The fourth stanza briefly reminisces about the innocence of youth, but then returns to focus on the burdens of being a woman and preparing the girls for the woe that is soon going to become their lives (24). The first four stanzas focus on the growth from childhood to womanhood, but the remaining stanzas illustrate the various thankless tasks and burdens a woman must endure and experience despite all the false hopes and dreams she harbored about her life, when she was a young girl.

Hemans personal life is most likely a heavy influence on the bitter opinions and voice evidenced in her writing. After her husband left her for reasons unknown, to fend for her five sons and widowed mother, Hemans was forced to support her family on her own. The hardships she endured because of her familial situation lends an authenticity to the bitter and realistic views expressed in the poem. This poem would be a valuable addition to the class syllabus because it challenges the illusion of the content virtuous woman Romantic society created and offers valuable insight to the reality of the struggles and pain experienced by women during the Romantic Age.

Bibliography Mellor, Anne Kostelanetz., and Richard E. Matlak. British Literature: 1780-1830. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College, 1999. Print.