In “A Woman to her Lover” the situation is completely different. You can tell from the title the woman still has a lover. In the poem she is setting out very strict guidelines of how her lover should and should not treat her. “To bear your children, wearing out my life… If that be what you ask, O lover I refuse you!”
In ‘Villegiature’ many romantic images are used: “you found this Romeo’s way. And through the blossom climbed and kissed me.” This refers to Romeo and Juliet when Romeo climbed the ‘tackled stair’ up to Juliet’s balcony. The images used in “A Woman to Her Lover” are much more militaristic: “Do you come to me to bend me to your will As conqueror to the vanquished”. Although both ‘Villegiature’ and ‘A Women to her Lover’ are love poems, ‘Villegiature’ is written in a romantic style, whilst ‘A Woman to her Lover’ is much more aggressive.
Both poems start very differently to how the finish. Villegiature’s opening line is: “My window, framed in pear-tree bloom”. Pear tree bloom is white, and suggests innocence and purity. However the poem ends with: “I did not-till your ghost had fled- Remember how you always bore me!” The poem starts on a positive note but ends negatively. “A Women to her Lover’s” first three stanzas outline three things that her lover cannot do if he wants too keep her. These points are: Not to use her as an object; not to marry her to show her off; and not to expect her to fulfil all his desires. The poem ends on a much more positive note: “ our co-equal love will make the stars to laugh with joy” and “we shall have the music of the spheres for bridal march And to its circling fugue pass, hand holding hand.” The ‘music of the spheres’ refers to the old myth that the planets make sweet harmonic music as they circle around each other. This is a metaphor for a possible natural and easygoing relationship. The first words of each of the stanzas are Do…Or…Or…But.
It could be argued that “A Woman to her Lover” was written with much more feeling than “Villegiature”; maybe it was from a personal experience. “Villegiature” seems to have been written purely to make money as it is short sharp and has a humorous ironic twist at the end: “I did not – till your ghost had fled- Remember how you always bore me!” The poem rhymes and has rhythm it is written in a b a b format the whole way through. Finding the words that rhyme and fitting them into the conventional rhythm probably took more time and thought than putting across a message. “A Woman to her Lover” has no rhyme, no rhythm and very little alliteration and assonance. It is written entirely to put across a message and a warning to all men. The poem was written in the ninetieth century; during this time men saw their wives as servants; a machine to make children; and a way of having sex without committing bastardry. And most women saw themselves in the same way. The poet Christina Walsh wrote the poem as a criticism of the stereotypes and as a rallying cry to all women.
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