李 黎卜小偉（.西安科技大學外國語學院 陜西西安 70600; .西安外事學院外國語學院 陜西西安 70077）

On Objectification of Women in English Poetry

李 黎1卜小偉2（1.西安科技大學外國語學院 陜西西安 710600; 2.西安外事學院外國語學院 陜西西安 710077）

Ever since Edmund Spenser through Robert Burns and Robert Browning to Edgar Allan Poe，the objectification of women is of a long standing in English poetry.A survey of their poems，in parallel to death poetry by Emily Dickinson，shows that the negative poetic portrait of women is on the ebb and the poetess challenges the tradition ingeniously.

objectification of women; English poetry; Dickinson

Introduction

Objectification of women，as an important manifestation of gender inequality，has already drawn the attention of critics of fictional works，but it is frequently overlooked by those of poetic works，the criticism of which often focus on rhetoric devices and textual interpretation.The authors of this paper take notice of the negligence and discern a declining trend of objectification of women in English poetry.

Before going to the point，it is necessary to review some stories from Greek mythology and the Bible.The first one is about Propoetides who were transformed into stone for their lascivious life.Second one is about Pygmalion who fell into passionate love with his own work of an ivory maid.Venus，moved by his perseverance，animated the statue to be his wife.[1]And in the Bible，Eve was created by God with a rib of Adam’s.In all these stories，the one changed into or from inert matter is unanimously a woman.

The Tradition

To see the tendency clear，the poems are arranged roughly chronologically.

The first is an excerpt from Sonnet 54 of Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti.Without a foreknowledge of its origin，one is quite likely to regard it as a heartbroken monologue of Pygmalion in desperate love for the ivory statue:

“But when I laugh she mocks，and when I cry

She laughs and hardens evermore her heart.

What then can move her? If nor mirth nor mone，

She is no woman，but a senseless stone.”[2]

This reminds one of another version of the Pygmalion story.It says that the statue was in the exact image of Venus and，when the artistic masterpiece was enlivened，the godly maid relentlessly denied the artist’s desire.When Zeus courts Europa，she has no choice but to surrender; when Echo has her love for Narcissus frustrated，it is the latter who is punished.This is the difference between the immortal and the mortal: the former are privileged to grant or refuse a proposal，while the latter are only free in choosing between a reluctant acceptance and a severe punishment.Therefore，when Pygmalion is after Venus，she is in the position to give a refusal.As to the relation between the speaker and the beloved lady in this poem，it is evident that the speaker assumes himself the part of Zeus who should not be denied; however，the lady inconveniently refuses to be the helpless Europa.“She is no woman，but a senseless stone.” This may be employed as a simile，but might also be a curse or a spell that aims to transform the woman into stone，even not a statue in the image of a human being.

The next is the beginning lines of Robert Burns’A Red，Red Rose:

“O，my luve is like a red，red rose，

That’s newly sprung in June.

O，my luve is like the melodie，

That’s sweetly play’d in tune.”[2]625

Instead of a blunt Spenserian simile，Burns employs two beautifully wrought metaphors to disguise the objectification，but one can still trace it in the subtly composed lines.In the first metaphor，the maid is compared to a flower.But a flower，lovely as it is，can hardly be differentiated from another of its kind by the human eyes，that is，it is only one of the multitude.In the second metaphor，the maid is compared to a melody.It seems all right at first sight: the melody can be rich in variety.However，if one gives it a second thought，one will realize that music，like sculpture，is a branch of art that needs human efforts and so she is compared to a product of another’s toil.In this manner，her personality is blotted out: she is only a rose，a rose among millions of roses that one can never tell one from another; she is a melody，a melody with no will of its own，merely a finished product of someone else’s inspiration，all in all，a being intrinsically inferior to man both physically and spiritually.

The third poem worth noticing is Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess.

“…Oh sir，she smiled，no doubt，

Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without

Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;

Then all smiles stopped together，There she stands

As if alive…”[3]

This poem is slightly different from what we have seen: it is a dramatic poem，while the preceding two are lyric ones.Here，the brimming vitality of the woman is no longer to be turned a blind eye to: she is neither a hard stone nor a red rose，nor sweet melody; she is what she is---no more no less.But the duke is dissatisfied with such a wife of personality and commands to murder her in the prime.So the duchess，like a pretty butterfly of some rare species in the hands of a fanatic collector，is cruelly deprived of life and preserved in a framed picture at the command of the tyrannical duke.

Now，a problem poses itself to us.Since dramatic monologue is usually defined as“verse composition in which a speaker reveals his or her character …in a monologue addressed to the reader or to a presumed listener”[4]，is it still valid to regard the objectification of women in this poem as an expression of gender inequality in Browning’s time? Here，the authors prefer a positive answer to this question.T.S.Eliot argues in his The Three Voices of Poetry that it is the voice of the poet that predominates the dramatic monologue.[5]That is，in a dramatic poem，the voice that reaches the reader is actually that of the poet in disguise of a persona，and so，in this poem，what we hear is from Browning instead of the duke.

The fourth excerpt is from Edgar Allan Poe’s masterpiece To Helen:

“Lo，in yon brilliant window niche

How statue-like I see thee stand，

The agate lamp within thy hand!”[3]238

Poe has argued in his The Philosophy of Composition that“When it (death) most closely allies itself to Beauty: the death，then，of a beautiful woman is，unquestionably，the most poetic topic in the world---and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover.”[6]And he did put his teachings into practice: almost all of his famous poems，such as The Raven and Annabel Lee，are centered on the topic of a beautiful woman’s death.In his poems of this kind，the woman is always passive and silent，just as the word he uses for Helen，“statue-like”.Now，the woman，breaking loose from Pygmalion’s statue，is thrown into another prison wrought with Poe’s lines.

Emily Dickinson: the Poetess

By now，it is clear that: in Spenser’s lines，the male speaker enhances himself to a godlike position and debases his lover to an unanimated being; in Burns，the woman figure is over-simplified to a series of nonhuman images with no independent mind and thinking; when it comes to Browning，the fact that a woman could have a personality as lively as a man is reluctantly recognized but not to be tolerated; and when it is Poe’s turn，the speaker is incapable of the tyrannical cruelty of the Renaissance duke，and only satisfies his secret desire for objectification of women in his melancholy sorrow for a woman’s death.It is evident that the degree of objectification was on a constant decline and when it came to late 19th century，a poetess rose up to revolt against the poetic trend predominated by male poets.The poetess is nobody other than Emily Dickinson.

“Because I could not stop for Death…He kindly stopped for me…

The Carriage held but just Ourselves…

And Immortality.”[3]254

The fort is always broken through from within.It is well-known that Dickinson has a preference for the topic of death and，among all her 1775 poems，there are five to six hundreds on this subject matter.In some sense，Dickinson issues a challenge to Poe’s poetic principles.Poe’s notion of the most poetic topic is parodied by Dickinson in her poems on death: the woman is already dead，but neither passive nor silent as the poet expects---she speaks from death，she is a Lady Lazarus! As Cynthia Griffin Wolff writes in her Emily Dickinson，“in general Dickinson’s tactic is to transforms Poe’s notion from an extremity of female passivity to an ultimate form of feminine heroism in which the speaker explores the experiential ‘reality’of death itself.”[7]Dickinson，with lines in subtle and exquisite diction，declares to the world that women are not senseless stone; they are experiencing and feeling life in a manner no inferior to men.

Conclusion

In conclusion，the objectification of women in English poetry is on the ebb，which presumably results from the wakening of women’s self-awareness and the burgeoning of feminist movement.Future studies are recommended to explore the problem further.

Works Cited:

[1]The Internet Classics Archive: Metamorphoses By Ovid，F(xiàn)eb.25，2008.http://classics.mit.edu，

[2]王佐良等，主編.英國名篇選注.北京：商務印書館，1989: 25.

[3]辜正坤，主編.英文名篇鑒賞金庫?詩歌卷，天津人民出版社，2000: 182-183.

[4]George McMichael，ed.Anthology of American Literature Volume I Part 2，Macmillan Publishing Company，1985: 1001

[5]艾略特.艾略特詩學文集.王恩衷編譯.北京：國際文化出版公司，1989：255.

I106.2 文獻識別碼 A

本文系西安科技大學培育基金項目“對狄金森超現(xiàn)實死亡詩的夢心理學解讀”的部分研究成果 (項目編號：2010062)。

李黎（1983-），女，河南新鄉(xiāng)人，碩士，西安科技大學外國語學院教師，主要研究方向：英美文學。 卜小偉，男，（1971-），西安外事學院外國語學院專任教師，碩士，副教授，主要研究方向為英語語言學及應用語言學。