During the Romantic Period there were many novelists and writers who stood up for women’s rights. After Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women was published there was a short, but sharp questioning of the social and legal restrictions during the Romantic Era. This era was one of the starting points of feminism; it was a tipping point for literature and for women’s rights. It is thanks to poems like these and novels like A Vindication of the Rights of Women that women are given more of a fair chance. This is reflected through the old language and the social rules and customs displayed in the poems. Women were forced to stay at home and follow orders, behaving with grace and poise whatever they did.
In this poem there are many examples of poetic techniques. Today I will be talking about examples of foreshadowing, personification and metaphors.
In the last stanza, there is an example of foreshadowing. The line ‘That separate rights are lost in mutual love’ is foreshadowing the rights of women becoming equal to men, and that when men and women love each other, they will forget about their differences. This line is foreshadowing the campaign for women’s rights and feminism. When people form a relationship, they support each other and stand up for their rights. In the fourth stanza, there is an example of personification. The phrase ‘stubborn knee’ is personification because it gives an inanimate object, which in this case is the knee, a human description word. This has the effect of their enemy being imaginary, or non-existent. This is the case with the enemy of feminists, because there are so many that it is not feasible that they can beat them by themselves. This also has the effect that anyone who is their enemy is stubborn and won’t budge. In the third stanza, there is an example of a metaphor. Barbauld writes ‘Go, gird thyself with grace; collect thy store Of bright artillery glancing from afar;’. This is a metaphor for the way that women present themselves. Their battle weapons are their looks, their voice and their emotions. They use them to get what they want and to manipulate others. This metaphor is saying that women are valued for their looks and their graceful movement, not there ideas or opinions. This is a protest poem because it is protesting the social rules set on women by society. It first illustrates the various opinions people have about what the role of women is, and then tells women to stand up for themselves, and to fight back against those who oppress them. It then goes on to say that women will one day again come back into power, as they rightfully deserve. Yes, injured Woman! rise, assert thy right!
Woman! too long degraded, scorned, opprest; O born to rule in partial Law's despite, Resume thy native empire o'er the breast! Go forth arrayed in panoply divine; That angel pureness which admits no stain; Go, bid proud Man his boasted rule resign, And kiss the golden sceptre of thy reign. Go, gird thyself with grace; collect thy store Of bright artillery glancing from afar; Soft melting tones thy thundering cannon's roar, Blushes and fears thy magazine of war. Thy rights are empire: urge no meaner claim,-- Felt, not defined, and if debated, lost; Like sacred mysteries, which withheld from fame, Shunning discussion, are revered the most. Try all that wit and art suggest to bend Of thy imperial foe the stubborn knee; Make treacherous Man thy subject, not thy friend; Thou mayst command, but never canst be free. Awe the licentious, and restrain the rude; Soften the sullen, clear the cloudy brow: Be, more than princes' gifts, thy favours sued;-- She hazards all, who will the least allow. But hope not, courted idol of mankind, On this proud eminence secure to stay; Subduing and subdued, thou soon shalt find Thy coldness soften, and thy pride give way. Then, then, abandon each ambitious thought, Conquest or rule thy heart shall feebly move, In Nature's school, by her soft maxims taught, That separate rights are lost in mutual love. Anna Laetitia Barbauld was born on June 20 1743 and died on March 9, 1825. She was an English poet, essayist, literary critique, editor and children’s author. She was a very influential writer during the Romantic and Victorian Periods, which lasted form around 1800 – 1850. She was a noted teacher at Palgrave Academy and wrote many innovative children’s books. The essays that she wrote proved that women could have an educated opinion on politics contrary to popular belief at the time. During her career she wrote 20 pieces (not including two biographies written by her niece after her death) of work ranging from essays to poems and more. One of her most famous was one she published with the help of her brother; it was called Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose. She published her first piece of work in 1771, six poems that were published in her brother’s book, and she published her last piece of work called Eighteen Hundred and Eleven in 1812, ending her literary career.
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