Camille's Class Summary

April 07, 2011 Class Summary Camille Turner

‘Twas a warm and sunny day spent in room 002, in the wooden desks of knowledge. Our collegiate brains were treated to a delightful reward quiz, one of Professor Foss’ favorite gifts to present his students with. The class was feeling rather daring today, asking several times for hints on the quiz; the idea of receiving letter hints, such as in hangman, was proposed, though, for some strange reason, was sadly rejected. After the reward quiz was finished, Professor Foss engaged us in a few stories, most of which seemed to center around dead animals. There was the story of how the Fields’ dog, Chow Chow, ate Robert Browning’s rabbit and the anecdote about Thomas Hardy’s cat being killed after eating his heart. After storytelling, we separated into small groups to begin discussing how a group of assorted poems (by poets, Emily Pfeiffer, Mathilde Blind, Michael Field, May Kendall, Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, Amy Levy, and Alice Meynell). Through their writing, each of these women showed that women shouldn’t be content with their position in society and that they should be considered as man’s equal.

While in small groups, we discussed each of these poems though the BOOM drill (formerly known as the fire-drill). My group began with the two poems by Field— “Irises” and “Tiger-lilies—” and the two poems by Levy— “Sinfonia Eroica” and “The First Extra.” We considered that both of the poems by Field could be read in a sexual way. They each have an erotic feel about them, especially after finding out that Fields is actually a lesbian aunt and niece couple writing under a penname. It is sad to think that women back in the Victorian period had to write under pseudo-names to have their work more widely accepted. Interestingly enough, the poem almost sounds more homosexual when thought of as a man’s poem; flowers are typically considered to be something that women write about. Yet, even with the idea of a more dandified man, the poetry was still accepted; the same would not be said if Fields was open about being two women and writing about masculine topics. My group all agreed that when reading these poems at home, we found no sexual content in them whatsoever, but when searching for it, we found a great deal. Lines such as “I quail before you as your buds upswell” (Fields 225), “fire of midsummer that burns” (Fields 225), and “the way that the petals fold over together/ The way that the buds unfurl” (Fields 224) give off a very erotic feel. We believe that it is possibly due to society today why we did not see these poems as sexual at first. Today, erotic messages are outwardly displayed on every street and every television channel, so we are not used to having to read into things in order to find the naughty messages hiding there. Fields was expressing that women should not be afraid of sexuality, but embrace it, though men found it inappropriate to do so.

We thought that one of the Levy poems, “Sinfonia Eroica” could be read as an orgasmic progression. The poem is very rhythmic, and progresses in the way that Beethoven’s symphonies do; the words of the poem could very easily be read as “Symphony Erotic.” We did not agree with the editor of Victorian Women Poets, Virginia Blain, in thinking that the speaker was a male. We saw her as a powerful woman who could have been a lesbian writing to her lover Sylvia. Levy’s poem expressed the same idea that Fields’ two poems did. With a powerful BOOM, Professor Foss sounded the trading of papers, and essentially the texts we were reading. We moved on to Coleridge’s “The Other Side of a Mirror” and Kendall’s “Woman’s Future.” We found that both of these poems were much more of a call to arms than Fields’ and Levy’s poems were; these poets were obviously feminists. Coleridge’s lines, “of jealousy, and fierce revenge/ And strength that could not change nor tire” (287) could represent how women were jealous of men’s position in society, yet women could never win the power struggle because its principles were too strongly upheld by majority of society. Kendall’s poem harshly stated the idea that men believe women to be inferior to them, and a good number of women accept that without a fight. The focal point of a woman’s life was to put on cosmetics and sew and serve men; this thought disgusts Kendall. We liked the integration of Darwin into the poem because, like evolution, women’s place in society was always evolving until it finally reached equality.

The next BOOM was sounded, and our group was given the task of looking at Meynell’s “Renouncement,” Pfeiffer’s “Any Husband to Many a Wife,” and Blind’s “Noonday Rest.” Menynell’s poem takes on the idea that the speaker is trying to detach herself from love, but in the end she is going to continue to pine after this feeling that she has for some man. Like the feminist movements in the Victorian period, this woman is trying to empower herself, yet it doesn’t end up working in the end. She may appear to be slightly more equal than at first, but in reality, nothing has actually changed. Pfeiffer’s poem is slightly more optimistic— a parody of how man needs a woman’s love to justify faith in himself. Pfeiffer was obviously responding to Robert Browning’s poem, “Any Wife to Any Husband.” Blind’s poem reveals the truth about how women were treated in Victorian society. The men are compared to God, both being mentioned negatively, and Mother Earth— their female counterpart— is seen as a positive existence. Nothing living cares for the ragged woman on the streets— not man, God (for allowing it to happen), the flies, or the sheep have any concern for her predicament. This relates to women’s treatment in society and how not many people thought it was important enough to be considered a problem. The woman in the poem is very unhappy, just as women in society were miserable because of their lowly state. We thought the woman portrayed in the picture having a baby with her was a good addition by Blind— it reiterates that women were supposed to just marry and have children, and how that was their only option.

The final BOOM was declared, and we all reconnected in one large group. We talked about the progression of the works in the class from the beginning of the semester to the current class. It was agreed that the texts on gender equality had become more daring as time in the Victorian period progressed. At the beginning of the semester, we read work by women talking of domestic chores and other nonsense; today we were reading pieces about women’s discontentment in society (as seen in Kendall’s poem) and female sexuality— as in Fields’ two poems.

The class concluded with a preview of the final examination, which Professor Foss seemed so excited about, though the rest of the class didn’t join in sharing his enthusiasm. It was concluded that construction paper is not a good choice for writing a final essay. The class was dismissed with an anecdote of how Professor Foss used to join the cool kids at his school in eating notebook paper. I am sure it was a delish and quite calorie-less snack!