A Woman to Her Lover - poetry review

A Woman to Her Lover Final Navdeep Alg

Christina Walsh

‘A Woman to Her Lover’ is a poem that voices out the change in attitude of many women in the 19th century. It is about a woman stating conditions for marriage to her husband. The use of the conditional tense throughout the poem makes the poem appear like a marriage contract. This is striking because it contains the conditions of a marriage contract but from a woman. This would seem extremely odd at that period of as women were treated as subservient and marriage contracts would be made with men’s interests at heart.

The idea of men treating women as inferior is opposed in the first stanza. This stanza details the rejection of male dominance by a woman. Men are described as, ‘conqueror,’ to women who are, ‘bond slaves.’ The vocabulary in this stanza highlights the strong feelings of the women and of her hate for her role in society. The writer uses words such as, ‘bond slave, bear, bend,’ the repetition of the plosive constantans in these words shows the resentment of the women to being men’s slave as these words are harsh sounding and produce scorn. The word, ‘bond slave,’ depicts women as servants who having done their purpose, ‘bear children,’ are useless. In the beginning of the stanza the woman asks, ‘Do you come to me to bend me,’ and the reply is, ‘no servant will I be,’ this statement is emphatic as the word order is muddled up. I find this clever as it requires the reader to re read the line and puts attention onto the defiant nature of the woman’s feelings.

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In stanza 2 the writer scorns the treatment of women as objects of perfection and shows disgust at the idea of a woman being a, ‘doll to dress,’ and she wishes not to be a, ‘wingless angel,’ who can’t do wrong. The phrase, ‘wingless angel,’ relates to the entrapment of woman by men. The word, ‘wingless,’ depicts the woman as unable to be free. This relates to the situation of many married women of this period as all they could do was to stay at home. The phrase, ‘doll to dress,’ refers to women as an amusing pass time for men who had complete control over them. We see another example of an emphatic statement in the last line, ‘If that be what you ask fool I refuse you,’ I find this line effective as it puts emphasis on the woman refusing the man and this would appear strange in patriarchal society. Especially as she calls him, ‘fool.’

This stanza is very significant to the time the poem was published, 1900, as this was when women made their views heard and relates to the publication of the book, ‘Jane Eyre,’ by Charlotte Bronte in 1847. ‘Jane Eyre,’ is about the life of women in 19th century patriarchal society. Jane Eyre, the narrator, is found stipulating marriage terms with her future husband; Mr Rochester. She explicitly says that she doesn’t want to be treated as perfect, and warns Mr Rochester that he must not expect anything, ‘celestial,’ of her. This corresponds to the poem where the woman wishes not to be treated as a, ‘wingless angel who can do no wrong.’

In the third stanza the woman protests to being treated as an object of lust. She states that she will not be a, ‘creature,’ to, ‘gratify your clamorous desire.’ In this stanza the writer uses words such as , ‘skin, soft, supple,’ the repetition of the sibilance sound conveys the attitude of the poet as it shows disgust and repulsion towards men who treat women as objects of lust. The writer says, ‘shame and pity and abasement,’ as this shows men as subservient and this is striking as women were the ones who were treated as inferior at that period of time which emphasizes the changes of women’s roles in society.

The last stanza details the ideal marriage for the woman. We can see a development of the poet’s thoughts and ideas by the words used. The pronoun, ‘we,’ is used instead of, ‘I, you,’ before and this relates to the ideas posed in the last stanza, equality. The husband is called, ‘comrade, friend and mate,’ whereas before the word, ‘fool,’ was used.

One strikingly odd thing about this poems layout is the exclusion of punctuation. It seems as though the woman has forgotten the rules of poetry and written freely. This is symbolic for the disregard of the rules of patriarchal society and it seems as though women want to break free from, ‘conventions,’ of society and this is a metaphor for the poem in general. I feel that Walsh succeeded in her aim of bringing women’s views across and this led the way to further equality, i.e. women given right to vote.

Navdeep Alg

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