The Scrutiny Flashcards
What is the Scrutiny about? Why did Lovelace write it?
It is a poem about a male reprobate who is breaking up with his mistress after they have had sex in order to try out other women. He says that if they aren’t as good as her then he will go back to her, but only after he has had sex with every woman.
I think that it is so coarse that there is no way it can be 100% serious and so i believe Lovelace has written this poem to ‘scrutinise’ how women and sex are objectified
What can be said but the structure of the scrutiny?
It is 4 stanzas, 5 lines each with a consistent rhyme scheme of ABABB, it is regular but slightly odd, to show how he is looking for this one perfect woman who is out of the ordinary and above them all.
It starts in media res, so in the middle of their argument
Each stanza is end stopped with ‘.’ Which shows: syllogism, their night ending, and a constant routine for him.
‘Why should you swear I am forsworn,
Since thine I vowed to be?’
-the poem starts in Media res
- arrogant and selfish tone, sets the scene for our reprobate
- the repetition of ‘i’ highlights that sex is only enjoyable and about the man, the women are discarded.
‘Lady it is already morn,
And ‘twas last night I swore to thee
That fond impossibility.’
-‘Lady’ is a trochee, implying that he is mocking her, calling her posh and rich when she has just had sex and is a sinner. Asshole
- ‘already morn,’ is a temporal reference, as if he can excuse his behaviour by time moving on, so he must move on to. There is caesura for her to pause on the fact
-‘ that fond impossibility.’ Mocking and cruel, making her a fool to believe she ever had value. Ends in a full stop to show he has made his decision and their relationship is ending
‘Have I not loved thee much and long,
A tedious twelve hours’ space?’
- in regular love poems, time flies when you’re with the person that you love, but the speaker is saying how it was tedious and slow. Ironic and insulting, scrutinises how men treat women with either a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ label
- ‘tedious twelve’ harsh alliteration and long vowel sounds, slows down the pace and signifies time dragging
‘I must all other Beauties wrong,
And rob thee of a new embrace;
Could i still dote upon thy face.’
- ; shows that he thinks that he is helping her and letting her dwell on this kind thing he is doing for her. The reality is, he can sleep with other women, but there is no way another man would want to sleep with her because her reputation is ruined.
-‘could i still dote upon thy face’. Dote has no admiration or depth. It ultimately means nothing. Childish
‘Not, but all joy in thy brown hair,
By others may be found;
But I must search the black and fair
Like skilful mineralises that sound
For treasure in unplowed up ground’
-He is reducing women to merely hair colour, objectifying. It also implies though that it is not even head hair, he ventures the ‘black and fair’, pubic hair. Women are so meaningless that he distinguishes them by the colour of their pubic hair.
- he describes his sexual nature as an art form and a skill, utter disregard for how these women feel. But he would have been respected by other men, making his actions a skill and hobby he can show off to others.
- ‘un-plowed-up ground’ refers to virgins. Plowed is a physical and graphic word implying sex.
- by describing the women as ‘treasure’ to be dug up by ‘skilful mineralists’ it shows that women are merely powerless objects who need to and are waiting for their capable, ‘skilled’ man to discover them, or own them essentially
‘Then, if when I have loved my round,
Thou protest the pleasant she;
With spoils of meaner Beauties crowned,
I laden will return to thee,
Ev’n sated with variety.’
Last stanza
- ‘Then, if’ is a trochee and is syllogistic, this is the conclusion of his argument and is asserting himself as being in charge of her, she will comply. Arrogant tone.
- ‘;’ temptation, he is making a significant impact on this woman but she is not for him
- His pronoun is always first, hers is second - like women in society
- ‘spoils of meaner Beauties crowned’, ‘spoils’ signifies staining, he is ruining all of these women’s lives. There is language of warfare, elevate what his doing to triumphant and heroic like a warrior
- ‘laden’ implies that it isn’t. Just a one off, and she is more of a burden to him
- ‘sated with variety’ objectifies the women as not people, but only objects to have until he is full to the brim.
