song (absent from thee) Flashcards
essence of the poem
the speaker satirises his unfaithfulness towards a woman, subverting conventions of traditional love poetry
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester
- an English poet and courtier of King Charles II’s restoration court
- reacted against the spiritual authoritarianism of the Puritan era, reflected in his lifestyle of freedom and liveliness
- an archetypal rake: immoral conduct, womanising, ‘party animal’ of the court
- took its toll on him, died at 33 from alcoholism and sexual diseases
- Andrew Marvell: ‘the best English satirist’
-poetry was censored in the Victorian Era due to his libertinism - before dying, he converted to Christianity and demanded that his ‘lewd writings’ be burned
Title
A Song ( Absent from Thee )
- Brackets add to the priority of our attention
- about a straying man unable to control his carnality, far from a song
‘Absent from thee I languish still,
Then ask me not, when I return?’
- ‘languish’ - become weakened or forced to remain in a unpleasant situation
- doesn’t want to be questioned due to his moral conscience
- use of ‘I’ - markedly selfish
‘The straying Fool ‘twill plainly kill,
To wish all Day, all Night to Mourn.’
- play on words - mourning / morning
- suffering of waiting on the speaker
‘Dear, from thine arms then let me flie,
That my Fantastick mind may prove,’
- passionate exclamation, a romantic cliche, superficial and false compared to previous stanza
- ‘let me flie’ - feels held back and constrained by lover, wants freedom and self-indulgence
- capitalisation emphasises the way his dreams are idealised
‘The torments it deserves to try,
That tears my fixt Heart from my Love.’
- philandering causes pain, contrasts to the Scrutiny
- self-punishment is a value upheld by Christian mysticism
- alike stanza 1, repeated use of personal pronoun ‘my’
- the speaker is aware of his inability to resist temptation, so suggests he should indulge in his fantasies, testing the limits and bounds of their relationship
‘When wearied with a world of Woe,
To thy safe Bosom I retire.’
- bombardment of alliteration slows pace of line
- heightens belief he will inevitably lack satisfaction from others and return
-return to woman, and religion
- heightens belief he will inevitably lack satisfaction from others and return
- contrast of the misery of infidelity vs the comfort of faithfulness
‘Where Love and Peace and Truth does flow,
May I contented there expire.’
- triplet of virtues , syndetic rhythm reflect unity
- ‘expire’ = breathe easy, connotations of sexual climax or die in arms fulfilled - a romantic notion/cliche?
- ‘may I’ - actively wishing it, not choosing it, creates hypotheticality
‘Lest once more wandring from that Heav’n
I fall on some base heart unblest;’
- ‘Lest’ = ‘just in case’, alternative life speaker will lead if he fails to return to true love
- glorifies woman as ‘Heav’n’ - pure
- interwines religion and erotic imagey in order to satirise puritanical practice of self-flagellation
- ‘fall’ = accidental?
- accidentally succumbs to temptation
‘Faithless to thee, False, unforgiv’n,
And lose my Everlasting rest.’
- fricatives , curse-like, no escaping self-loathing
- ‘everlasting rest’ = damned, will lose contentment of true love and peaceful afterlife, predicts own death?
- ambiguous in who he is talking to
- speaker never questions that his lover might reject him! their consistent affection for his is expected, portraying his self-indulgence
structure
traditional restoration song
x 4 quatrains, iambic tetrameter
rigid structure, desire for stability?
traditional form used to offend through bawdy comedy
rhyme
initial half-rhymes, become more harmonious as poem goes on =
mirrors the peace the speaker hopes to find in faithfulness
themes
religion, infidelity, satirical
