I need help understanding these poem. Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Did I, my lines intend for public view,
How many censures, would their faults pursue,
Some would, because such words they do affect,
Cry they're insipid, empty, uncorrect.
And many, have attained, dull and untaught
The name of wit, only by finding fault.
True judges, might condemn their want of wit,
And all might say, they're by a woman writ.
Alas! a woman that attempts the pen,
Such an intruder on the rights of men,
Such a presumptuous creature, is esteemed,
The fault, can by no virtue be redeemed.
They tell us, we mistake our sex and way;
Good breeding, fashion, dancing, dressing, play
Are the accomplishments we should desire;
To write, or read, or think, or to enquire
Would cloud our beauty, and exhaust our time;
And interrupt the conquests of our prime;
Whilst the dull manage, of a servile house
Is held by some, our outmost art, and use.

Sure 'twas not ever thus, nor are we told
Fables, of women that excelled of old;
To whom, by the diffusive hand of Heaven
Some share of wit, and poetry was given.
On that glad day, on which the ark returned,
The holy pledge, for which the land had mourned,
The joyful tribes, attend it on the way,
The Levites do the sacred charge convey,
Whilst various instruments, before it play;
Here, holy virgins in the concert join,
The louder notes, to soften, and refine,
And with alternate verse, complete the hymn divine.
Lo! the young Poet, after God's own heart,
By Him inspired, and taught the Muses Art,
Returned from conquest, a bright chorus meets,
That sing his slain ten thousand in the streets.
In such loud numbers they his acts declare,
Proclaim the wonders, of his early war,
That Saul upon the vast applause does frown,
And feels, its mighty thunder shake the crown.
What, can the threatened judgment now prolong?
Half of the kingdom is already gone;
The fairest half, whose influence guides the rest,
Have David's empire, o're their hearts confessed.
A woman here, leads fainting Israel on,
She fights, she wins, she triumphs with a song,
Devout, majestic, for the subject fit,
And far above her arms, exalts her wit,
Then, to the peaceful, shady palm withdraws,
And rules the rescued nation with her laws.
How are we fall'n, fall'n by mistaken rules?
And Education's, more than Nature's fools,
Debarred from all improvements of the mind,
And to be dull, expected and designed;
And if some one, would Soar above the rest,
With warmer fancy, and ambition pressed,
So strong, th' opposing faction still appears,
The hopes to thrive, can ne're outweigh the fears,
Be cautioned then my Muse, and still retired;
Nor be despised, aiming to be admired;
Conscious of wants, still with contracted wing,
To some few friends, and to thy sorrows sing;
For groves of laurel, thou wert never meant;
Be dark enough thy shades, and be thou there content

There is some information here: [www.thepaperexperts.com]

and here: [faculty.goucher.edu]

This poem by Anne Finch is often studied and included in Literature texts as an example of one of the first English writers to present a "feminist" point of view.

Les



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2006 01:02AM by lg.

Lots of interesting tidbits here:

<[digital.library.upenn.edu]>

The spellings of what appears to be the original manuscript is of value:

[digital.library.upenn.edu]

The couplets become overpowering nowadays, at least to me, but were popular at that time. Note also the frequent inversions in pursuit of rhyme words and the repeated use of the apostrophe (cou'd, wou'd, attain'd). The added 'do' words and other apostrophes to make the meter come out in iambic pentameter (th', ne'er) would again be faults today. The occasional anapests instead of iambs read just fine, that is. I wonder why dessigned and inspired were spelled differently (no apostrophe, I mean).

Some inversions appear to be done without even the need, apparently merely to be a hifalutin construction?

Did I, my lines intend for publick view,
How many censures, wou'd their faults persue,

She could easily have written, for example,

Did I intend my lines for publick view ...

Are such techniques any different (read, worse) than men poets of that era? Nope.

How timely are these lines:

A woman here, leads fainting Israel on,
She fights, she wins, she triumphs with a song,
Devout, majestic, for the subject fit,
And far above her arms, exalts her wit,
Then, to the peaceful, shady palm withdraws,
And rules the rescued nation with her laws.

Les