Mary Wroth
Do you think that Wroth uses language in a way that is significantly different from other lyric poets you've read in this class or not? Give details from the poetry to support your answer.
posted by Natalie Grinnell @ 6:10 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
In class we talked about how Wroth seemed to talk about love in a more negative way. I agree with this, and I was expecting a different style when I learned that she was a woman. However, I thought she would have a more positive outlook on love. My favorite poem is where she personifies love as a spoiled child; "Love a child is ever crying" (L1). She feels that there is no way to satisfy love and it cannt even be trusted. Unlike many of the poems the class read, Wroth does not give a positive image of love.
Yes, I think that wroth's writing style does seem different. What particularly struck me was how she ended sonnet 16 with "So farewell liberty" (l. 14). The contrast between the traditional sonnet form and these lines is very striking, and this gives it power. I do not recall any of our prior poets writing like this. Also, like we mentioned in class her description of love as a prison and something to be avoided is also different.
I think that Mary Wroth's language is simpler and more direct than some of the other sonnet-writers we've read. She does make use of metaphors and imagery, as in sonnet 68 when she compares herself to a ship that is sunken into the sand (l. 5), but it is thinly veiled and easily interpreted.
Mary Wroth uses language in her poetry which paints love as more controlling. Many of the other writers of the time describe the power of love as something they enjoy. Mary Wroth seems to use language that makes love seem like slave-master to her. The beginning of sonnet 68 provides an example of such language: "Love a child is ever crying, / Please him, and he straight is flying; / Give him, he the more is craving, / Never satisfied with having." The language in this passage is clearly that of a woman trapped by love.
I agree with everyone that Wroth’s language is different than the other sonnet writers we have read. It is interesting that the difference is a more negative outlook and that she is also a woman. This is not something that I would have expected while reading the sonnets. If I had not known before that she was a woman I probably would have guessed that she was a male. Sonnet 16 speaks of love as a prison and something that devours personal liberty. Line four states, “And captive leads me prisoner, bound, unfree?”. Most of the other sonnets that deal with freedom speak of love as something this is freeing. It is interesting that she speaks of the man as being free but her as being the prisoner. This could not have been done by a male author.
Mary Worth uses language to make love something that enslaves her. I think that this is far different than anything we read, except for maybe Elizabeth's poetry. The men we have read all seem very eager to show their love. They profess their love with beautiful flowy metaphors. Mary Worth describes the lover as "a child ever crying" in Song 74. "His desires have no measure,/Endless folly in his treasure:/What he promiseth he breaketh" (ll 5-7). She uses language to show not only her helplessness, but also to show how unfair love is.
I think Mary Wroth's writing style is different in her poetry in that she comes across as having a negative attitude towards love. She makes it clear in many of her sonnets that she does not want to be in love. In "74 Song," Wroth even goes so far as to create a cynical image of love. She presents love as an abstract thing.
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