METAPHORIC CONTENT IN MARY WROTH’S SONNET
Pamphilia to Amphililanthus was a poem that was inscribed by Lady Mary Wroth (English Renaissance poet). The poem was initially published as part of The Countess of Montgomery’s in 1621 in Urania; however it was later published as a separate copy. Lady Mary acted against the traditional poetic rules by inscribing romantic and secular poetry. Her writing received significant positive reviews from other poets of her time, for instance, Ben Jonson, Josuah Sylvester, and George Chapman. Pamphilia means “all-loving,” while the term Amphilanthus denotes to “Lover of two.” The poem is commonly known as the second poet to be published by a female writer in England. The Fare Well Liberty conjures the persona’s sad love story, which she encountered with her lover as a result of unfaithfulness. The persona directs the poem’s message to herself and not to her lover; she tries to seek poetic measures that could ease her sadness. In the sonnet, Mary Wroth used various metaphoric styles to change the stereotypes held by the modern male poets against the females in the seventeenth-century. Lady Mary Wroth employed the use of effective stylistic devices throughout the poem; the most predominant elements used in the poem were metaphors, personification, and smiles. The essay explores various metaphoric content used by the Lady Mary Wroth in the first quatrain of the poem Pamphilia Amphililanthus.
At the beginning of the poem, Mary Wroth described the impossibilities of the love; she states that “Love first shall leave men’s fancies to them free, / Desire shall quench love’s flames, spring hate sweet showers, / Love shall lose all his darts” (XVI.5-7). This indicates that the author’s love contrary to the most established notions regarding the issue of love, she states that she will not submit to the unachievable “fancies” of the men. Based on Mary Wroth’s idea, love is unstable and complicated, even after two paramours meet. The phrase “hate sweet showers” is used to denote to the aspect of the bittersweet that is caused by love for the two lovers. The whole stanza is based on hyperbole, and it illustrates various impossible situations that Mary Wroth argues need to be available before she could give in her freedom on love. Moreover, Mary Wroth confounds the duty of the women in a love poem by anthropomorphizing romance as man, Cupid, who triggers every desire rather than the poise or woman’s beauty.
Metaphoric content denotes the figure of speech, which involves applying a phrase or term to suggest resemblance with something that is not factually valid. Mary wroth challenges the truthfulness of love; through her sonnet, she claims that love is a concrete institution driven by patriarchy throughout society. She employs the use of rhetoric questions to explore the unpredictability of love. This can be seen in sonnet sixteen (16), it begins with a rhetoric question that was brought forward by the Pamphylia, “Am I thus conquered?” (XVI. 1). In rhetoric question, the persona does not immediately state the person that conquers her; it is not known to the audience what the author is referring to in the rhetoric question. It is not known whether the author is conquered by her lover, men, or even Cupid. Mary wroth begins the sonnet with an unclear question regarding the unknown force, which has no answer. Moreover, the author of the sonnet (Mary Wroth) poses more questions to the audience and herself meant to enhance the dramatic effects. For instance, she states that “Have I lost the powers/ That to withstand…?” (XV1. 1-2). Also, she continues states that “Must I be still while it my strength devours…?” (XVI. 3). Ideally, most of Mary Worth’s sonnet is made up of a combination of the questions that are hard to answer, including the author herself. However, in the sonnet, the presence of the issue of desire and love are not questioned.
As it is evident from the questions posed by Mary Wroth, Mary wroth uses various past, present, and future tense while composing the questions. For instance, she changed the phrase “Am I” to past perfect tense “Have I lost” and then to the future tense “Must I” while reiterating a similar form and tune to help indicate that love a confusing and an ever-present factor throughout her life. As the sonnet continues, the rhetoric questions suggest a dilemma of whether it is probable for Mary Wroth to do without love or not. Also, the rhetoric questions continue to arouse questions on the likely effects love can cause on the personal identity of the author (Mary Wroth) being that she is a woman of forte. The rhetoric questions posed by Mary Wroth on the sonnet highlights her uncertainty regarding everything apart from the presence of love. This, in turn, postulates a significant difference between the Mary wroth tone and the modern male poets regarding the issue of romance. Mary wroth is seen to approach the issue of love and desire with a lot of cautiousness while male poets such as Donne opt to use the principle of “seizing the day” or “carpe diem” in the poem. For instance, John Donne denotes in his poem that “The Flea,” “Wherein could this flea guilty be, / Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?” (Donne 21-22).
Similar to Mary Wroth’s poem, Donne employs the rhetoric questions to highlight her ideas regarding love; however Donne seems to suggest that women are not supposed to question the issue of desire and love. The flea denotes to the metaphor representing the lust, “the blood it sucks to survive” is used to denote urges present whenever the two lovers come together. Donne does not see anything with love; he suggests that the “flea” takes only a small amount of the blood. From her perspective, Wroth does not have faith in the general belief held by society regarding the issue of love. This is evident in her sonnet; she states that “Why should we not Love’s purblind charms resist?” (XVI. 9). Hence from the rhetoric question above, it is logical to conclude that Wroth tries to refer to the love issue as an unpredictable emotion. Also, her nature of questioning matters of love triggers the audience to be vigilant regarding romance matters. Wroth warns the reader not to blindly follow his/her desires or the “purblind” and instead denotes that “we” standing for both women and men should never just follow the believes established in the society because of their “charming” nature. One of the significant reasons why Mary Wroth decided to use unanswerable questions in her sonnet is because the uncertainty, triggered by her reluctance and confusion, exceeds societal commentary regarding the nature of love postulated by the male poet’s. Before Mary Wroth’s sonnet, the romance issues were only discussed by the male poets, and they developed the basis for the societal beliefs regarding nature and matters surrounding romance.
Despite the flaws associated with love, Mary Wroth’s poems denote her negative attitude towards love. She used the same tone throughout the poem, but in the end, she unwillingly succumbs to the oppressive force generated by love. Some of the negative words used to describe love by the author at the end of the sonnet include “devour,” (3) “ruin,” (2) “captive,” (4) “prisoner,” (4) “lost,” (13) “servile,” (10) and “shame.” Such words describe love as a negative phenomenon, something which is elusive and bad. Also, words used by Mary Wroth define love as nonconsensual and willfully cruel, particularly for the women, as opposed to the commonly held notion in the society regarding love as the most source of fulfillment for the individuals in the society. The tone used by Mary Wroth in the poem creates fear amongst the readers, and they continuously make the reader generate a negative idea towards romance, it creates a sense of fear amongst the audience. Mary Wroth shows a negative attitude on the romance and indicates an emphatic resistance when she states that, “No, seek some host to harbor thee: I fly/ Thy babish tricks and freedom do profess” (XVI. 11-12). The quote suggests Mary Worth’s attempt to go against the evil love and free herself from its forces. The quote also indicates Mary Wroth’s effort to go against the commonly held notion regarding the nature of love in society. The term “babish tricks,” instability and insincerity describe love as something artificial and deceitful. Mary wroth was living in a male-dominated society; hence this could be amongst the primary reasons why she decided to compose her sonnet regarding the issues of love.
However, despite her negative attitude towards matters of love, Mary Wroth admitted her feelings at the end of the sonnet. She stated that “I love, and must: So farewell liberty” (XV1. 14). This line indicates that the author was unable to free herself from the forces of love altogether. It is an excellent indication that it is hard to eliminate emotions. Mary Worth admitted her willingness to love despite her negative attitude towards the whole issue of romance. She accepted to love; however, she did it unhappily, thus the unhappiness states indicated a shift of her tone. The shifting of the tone played a significant role in the effectiveness of her sonnet. The strong force of love made Mary Wroth abandon her robust desire for stability via complete independence. The author of the sonnet (Mary Wroth) admits her conflicting willingness to stay with her paramour. She states that “goodbye to liberty,” this denotes that she valued her freedom over the Christian values regarding virginity.
In summary, Mary Worth’s questions, negative diction, and complaints revealed her fear of falling in love and depend on an imperfect and unfaithful lover who would dominate her feelings. Hence, she ends up becoming dominant for such as a lover. Consequently, her primary source of dilemma regarding the matters of love emanates from the forfeiture of the freedom she could experience if she happened to fall in love with unfaithful or imperfect lovers. Thus, it is clear that Wroth could not be afraid to fall in love if her partners (lover) could be dependable. The various questions postulated by Mary Wroth in her sonnet acts as a good indication that she preferred a romance relationship where none of the partners could have more control over the other. Rhetorical questions present in Mary Wroth’s sonnet act as a good indication of her desires towards the romance. According to the author of the sonnet, love should not give one partner more power over the other, love needs to be a fare activity between the lovers. It should fulfill both partners’ and not infringe on the freedom or the independence of one person for the sake of the desires of the other partner. Male and female should engage in free and fair love; none of the partners should dominate the relationships. It should occur as a shared responsibility between both parties in love. Mary Wroth advocate for a form of love that could uphold mutual responsibility between male and female partners.
However, the issue does not exist in contemporary society; there is no perfect world. Thus, strong women such as Mary Wroth needs to fight for their freedom and right to emanate themselves from the male-dominated world. Worth’s poet continues to apply even in the current society; most of the women and men in modern society still strive to attain a perfect relationship to enhance the meaningfulness of their lives. However, most of the poetry has changed their perspective on how to approach the issue of love. Most love poems in the current society are written from various perspectives such as languages, cultures, genders, and voices. It is now free for the female and male poets to share love and feelings in their unique way. Brave women like Mary Wroth paved the way for women to exhibit their feelings and love without men’s restrictions. Before Mary Wroth, women were not permitted to write love poems; the poems regarding the love and feelings of love were only supposed to be delivered by the male. Women were treated as subordinate lobe objects by the male. Mary Wroth’s sonnet played a significant role in acknowledging the female longings as an influential force and permits female characters to become rebellious and critical.
Although Mary Wroth succumbed to love in the end, she is depicted as a self-aware and complex woman who is aware of her surrender. Mary Wroth possessed essential autonomy; she only lost her quest due to her physical desires. Additionally, the author of the poet (Mary Wroth) indicated the importance and significance of women’s freedom. Her mode of communication throughout the poem was considered effective since she used robust poetic writing. She employed the use of various dramatic fictional devices, questioning structure, and a dynamic description tone.
Moreover, the sonnet by Mary Wroth contains a perfect fictional perspective offered by an amenably, passionate womanly narrator; most importantly, Wroth acted as a public voice to a female emotion and desire. To sum up, the metaphoric nature of the poet, written by the poet Mary Wroth offered a significant opportunity towards enlightening the society regarding various issues surrounding love. However, Mary Wroth agreed that despite the negative issues surrounding the issue of love, it is hard to completely free from the emotions. Hence, this made her to finally succumb to love and decided to live with her lover.
Reference
Roberts, J. A. (Ed.). (1992). The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth. LSU Press.
Wroth, L. M., & Waller, G. F. (1977). Pamphilia to Amphilanthus (Vol. 64). Inst. f. Engl. Sprache u. Literatur, Univ. Salzburg.