From The Antique Flashcards
General information
Title- refers to art, poem is about women, generational fragility with an extended focus on physicality.
Set depiction of normative expectations (stereotypes of women) morphed.
“ It’s a weary life, it is; she said:-“
Conversational tone/ anecdote with idea of generations implied.
A05- “burden of womanhood”
“ Doubly blank”
Gambling metaphor ( lottery)- sum of life.
Hear a longing.
ABCB rhyme scheme.
The woman as a blank canvas to be moulded.
“ I wish and I wish I were a man”
Motif of the women wanting more.
Simple repetition.
Nihilistic enjambement into the next stanza which adds to the conversation.
2 “Not so much as a grain of dust
Or drop of water from pole to pole”
Imagery of the egg timer in the first line demonstrates the insignificance.
The persona takes a philosophical tone.
Diminutive “water” and “dust” compared with the spacial contrast of the world.
The persona is a fallen woman?
3 “Still the world would wag on the same”
Colloquial language creates a domestic feel.
“ Still the seasons go and come;”
seasonality- passage of time/ marker of time.
Drawn out alliteration.
“Blossoms bloom as in days of old”
Plosive adds to the weariness of tone.
Non- standard conversational form.
Anaphoric repetition.
Nature is supreme, exemplified through the personification of the blossom, history analogy, women’s life is ‘doubly blanked’ and mocked by the world.
A05- “Nature is a tool of oppression”
4 “None would miss me in all the world”
Passive- aggressive.
‘None’ as an intensifier- spacial opposition of ‘I’ vs the world.
“Would wake and weary and fall asleep”
Ends with 24 hour motif.
Persona in stasis.
A05- Rossetti’s “melancholy desire for death”
Context
- Feminine ideal of no body hair.
- Emulate smooth statues.
- Body standards of the era.
- Cleanliness next to godliness.
