FEMININE ASSERTION AND DISSONANCE IN FELICIA HEMANS' POETRY

Born in Liverpool on 1793 as the fourth of six Browne children to a wine merchant and an educated mother, Felicia Browne Hemans had an illustrious literary career, any woman who lived in 19th century dreamed of . Education garnered from her mother about Latin, German, French, Italian and Shakespearean works boosted her thoughts and her brother's association and service in the army fuelled her spirit. Repercussions of French Revolution and setbacks in her life made her more zealous to show off to the world the fervent spirit of the feminine. Each crisis shaped an improved version of a woman and a poet out of herself. It was her dispositions that reflected throughout her literary work. The financial crisis that uprooted her from her birthplace Liverpool to Northern Wales, abandonment of family by her father, separation from her husband Captain Alfred Hemans and death of her mother prompted Felicia Hemans to wield the sword against the harshness of life. What did Felicia had to say to her readers? Were her works merely an answer to her critics who reviewed  her poems as the outpour of whimsical thoughts from a domesticated woman  or was she putting her foot down for her fellow female writers  in the male dominated Victorian literary circle?

               Felicia Hemans was initially the poet of hearth and home for her readers. Her incipient stage of a glorious literary career began with poems written about her home and family occasions. She wrote On My Mother's Birthday, which is her  oldest surviving poem, at the age of eight. Her initial poems were filled with happiness and joy of a rich little girl with all the luxuries in her life. Her life took a turn when her father went bankrupt from the Liverpool's Wall St. Crash that was caused by the French Revolution. Her family had to move to the Northern Wales to a smaller house and environment. The little girl's heart which was filled with golden and shimmering lights suddenly plunged into darkness when her father abandoned her family and her mother turned neurotic. Her only console was the rural atmosphere which Wales offered. She tried to escape from her domestic chaos by turning to nature. She used to spend hours composing poetry, sitting on a fallen tree trunk by the river near Pont Dafydd, Escob. Finally her spirit soared high when her mother offered her support for her interest and at the age of fourteen she published her poems dedicated to Prince of Wales and a collection called Poems in 1808. It caught the attention of Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley who later became her admirers. When her brother entered into Army service she focused her attention on Britain and ongoing wars her country was facing. Even at this young age the sacrifice of soldiers and loss of their families affected her deeply. She wrote England and Spain (1808) as the result of this. At this time her heart was stolen by a young soldier named Alfred Hemans. She weaved dreams of domestic bliss and her future life with him. Her optimism and eagerness surely cast its charm on her work Domestic Affections and other poems (1812).  At this time she also tried to learn a lot about worldly affairs and conflicts. She amazed her critics by writing about themes, boundaries and culture beyond Britain. She composed Restoration of Works of Art to Italy that criticised the actions of British enemy, France and celebrated the unity and integrity of Britain as a nation during the Napoleonic Wars. She also composed a poem called  Modern Greece.

               Her marriage to Alfred Hemans was in 1817 which eventually made her a mother to five sons. She accepted her role as a mother happily and tried to keep the flame of her literary interest burning.  Her subject matter shifted to Politics and History and at this stage she composed Tales and Historic Scenes in 1819. At the very same year her husband left her and went to Italy. The role of bread winner for her family was added to her existing roles as a mother and a writer. She now wrote not only for her interest but also to push her family forward through crisis. The verse dramas that she wrote The Vespers of Palermo (1823) and Dartmoor (1821) didn't find much success but her poetry gained a lot of popularity. She abandoned prose and drama and decided to give attention to poetry. Her poetry that projected an ideal home and woman, was a comfort to her readers. What nobody noticed until a re-reading of her works after many decades, were the darker strains of resentment of a woman hidden beneath her flowery verses. Her verses with outwardly warm radiances hid beneath them burning indignation. Her words silently screamed the tortures she faced in her life mixed with the impediments and hurdles an ordinary woman belonging to the nineteenth century Britain faced.  She was able to lead her life forward from the acceptance of her success as a writer and sympathies from the society; but she didn't forget to express the displeasure that a woman from a lower class couldn't even showcase her literary talent with potential and get published. The life which she lived wasn't achievable to women of lower sections. They were neither taught, since education was reserved to only males belonging to the upper class,  nor were they allowed to present their writings to the public. Felicia was lucky enough to be tutored by her mother at home. Instead of escaping without looking back at the wall of discrimination; she turned back and shouted her protest. Her female characters of the play were divine, sacrificing, loving, caring, brave and valiant. She infused her protests with the romantic themes of nature, childhood, different cultural themes and heroism.

"To many readers she offered a woman's voice confiding a woman's trials; to others a lyricism apparently consonant with Victorian chauvinism and sentimentality" (Wikipedia)          

               Her poetry further found success due to the religious themes in it. At a Victorian period where science was gaining a place equal to religion, her verses concreted the beliefs within her readers that the ultimate joy and protection can be found in God.   She also introduced gender politics into her works . The role reversal and heroism of women was her weapons of fighting back. Throughout her life she believed that she wasn't made for happiness and she escaped from everything that caused her pain but this didn't pull her back from raising her voice for the other women. The inner strength of women that hid beneath the outwardly projections she portrayed gave the perfect repartee to her menacing critics. No one could restrain her within four walls of her home. She broke away the chains and found popularity not only in Britain with her works Casabianca and The Homes of England but also in United States with her poem The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers.

" For surviving woman poets, like Britain's Caroline Norton and Letitia Elizabeth Landon, America's Lydia Sigourney and France's Harper, the French Amable Tastu and Germany's Annette von Droste-Hulshoff and others, she was a valued model or for Elizabeth Barrett Browning a troubling predecessor; and for male poets including Tennyson and Longfellow, an influence less acknowledged."

(    Wikipedia)

   Her main works like Domestic Affections and other poems (1812) , Records of Woman (1828), The Forest Sanctuary (1825) and Songs of Affections(1830) are the beacons of light that enlighten us about her mind, thought and undefeatable spirit.

               Her mother passed away in 1827 which left Felicia in a pit of darkness. She felt that her foundation had leached away and her thoughts went out of balance. She found solace that time in her religion and composed poetry that praised god's blessings and forgiveness. When her sons grew up and went various directions, she moved back to Liverpool in 1828. She still stayed away from urban congestions and settled in a village called Wavertree. She could hardly say good bye to her home in Wales and while departing in a coach she even covered her face with her cloak and instructed her sons to tell her to open her eyes, only when her home was out of sight. In 1829 she met Sir Walter Scott and in 1830 she spent her time with Wordsworth in Mount Rydal. These meetings led to the revival of her spirit and she began to find hope in life with their influence and inspiration. Even though her popularity pushed throngs of people to her home in Liverpool she wished for tranquillity. In 1831 at Dublin, her health deteriorated and her heart went weak. In 1835 her heart fluttered due to rheumatic fever and it gave up when she was just forty one years old. Though her poems Casabianca and The Pilgrim Fathers were  famous, her name stopped being familiar to a lot of people. The plaque that commemorated her talents at her birth place in Liverpool vanished in later years. The houses that she lived fell under the foot of urban expansion and even nature washed away her favourite place, the fallen tree trunk near the river in Wales with a flood. It was as if nature took with it the piece of memory it shared with Felicia. Even though modernism tried to conceal her literary genius, she will always live in the hearts of her readers. The present century is now trying to find its way back to her heart and soul.

Feminine Assertion

          As a woman who belonged to the late romantic age, her contemporaries tried to shelf her by pointing out the reason that women writers never focus on social, political and economic issues of the country. A general consensus was made which declared that only male had the capacity to write about serious issues and it was better for female writers to stick to the sensitive issues. Poets like Felicia Hemans and Anna Barbauld thwarted these notions by bringing out strong issues of the society both serious and sensitive; that carved into the society's morality through their poetry. Felicia stood apart from other writers because she was generally loved for her poems that embraced the hearth and the home. She  tactfully brought forth later in her works strong nationalist sentiment, British Republic values and patriotic fervour along with the warm feelings. Throughout her works she tried to idealize and romanticise the role of the women. Her strong familial values created the image of a perfect mother and a daughter in reader's mind and she gained further sympathies when her husband Andrew Hemans abandoned her. This kept her existing readership intact and further increase in number. What was commendable about her literary career was that she was able to support her family on the basis of her income from literary work. Her poems were embedded with moral values and were prescribed in school syllabus. Her poems were a solace for many female readers. Her popularity decreased by the arrival of modernism but underwent a resurrection in the twentieth century. Felicia Hemans as a female writer succeeded in traversing through a variety of themes rather than restricting herself to "sensitive" issues. This was another reason why her works were popular at those times. Her poems that pertained to serious issues and put forward touching verses mostly had titles named after the female protagonist.

      It was when Felicia was six years old The Battle of Nile took place. The news about the Napoleonic wars deeply disturbed her young mind but she couldn't find a way to channel her feelings at that time . A trivial incident where a young French Boy who lost his life by remaining in the ship to be loyal to his father's commands haunted the little girl's mind. It was  only later at the age of thirty she let out her stifled feelings through the poem Casabianca. The poem neither reflects the military power nor the fighter's prowess but the plight of a boy. She knew that war was nothing but futile. The poem showed that the spirit of youth that got crushed by the thirst for blood resulted in the fall of familial bonds and love. Felicia was sending a strong message that intellectual superiority and fame may matter at some point of time but at the very end man gains nothing but only loses his relationships and loved ones. The bloodshed that war left behind was insufferable for her. She wrote Joan of Arc, in Rheims that praised Joan's brave young heart. In some of her poems she tried to bring out the hardships and grief women had to suffer after the loss of their partners to battles. Edith, a Tale of the Woods described the plight of a woman Edith who lost her husband in a battle. She also described the pain of  Costanza who took care of a dying soldier in The Forest Sanctuary. Her poems Gertrude where the titular character grieves due to the awaiting death of her husband, the pain of Imelda who lost Bonifacio in Imelda, Juana who wishes for her husband King Philip of Austria to return to life  in Juana, Arabella Stuart's wish to die if she can't live with William Seymour in Arabella Stuart, the suicide of the peasant girl in The Peasant girl of the Rhone,  and plight of the Greek bride who lost her partner in The Bride of the Greek Isle declares the hardships women has to face when she loses her other half. She also tried to bring out emotions of a mother who lost her child in Pauline and The Indian City. Those poems carried the tears of a woman that lost  priced possessions of her life.

               Though her poems had undercurrents that criticised the aftermaths of war, she admired the loyalty of British soldiers. Her brothers' and husband's service in the army instilled within her a strong sense of patriotism. She composed her war poems from a very young age. The poems like The Statue of Dying Gladiator, The Call of Liberty and The Wreath of Loyalty, written for the Jubilee of the 25th October 1809 and War and Peace were written at the age of fifteen after getting well read about her nation . Her poems The Restoration of the Works of Art to Italy was about the victory of Britain, its emergence as a world power and the fall of Napoleon. She wrote several poems dedicated to soldiers and her brother. Poems like Song of the Spanish Patriots, To my Younger Brother- on his return from Spain, after the fatal retreat under Sir John Moore and the Battle of Corunna,  The Bards, to the soldiers of Caractacus and To my Eldest Brother, with the British Army in Portugal reflected her deep embedded patriotism and love for her brothers and fellow soldiers.   

               Her love for her mother and respect for maternal love and care inspired her to compose a lot of poems. She wrote her poetry collection Records of Woman in 1828 dedicated to her mother. It contained poems that were close to the hearts of all mothers and daughters of the nineteenth century. It brought notice to the thus- far ignored mother daughter bond at that time. It deeply touched her female readers with its deep capturing of emotions of a mother that loses her child, be it a son or a daughter.  The poem Madeline, a domestic tale talks about a young French woman who leaves for America and her mother's laments about their separation. The poem touches reader's mind when the girl loses her husband eventually and at her death bed she yearns for her mother's presence. The poem The Memorial Pillar also talks about the mother who awaits for her daughter's return to her grave. The Queen of Prussia's Tomb talks about the pain of a departed mother. The pain of a mother is also shown in The Bride of the Greek Isle when the Bride commits suicide by jumping into the fire and her mother watches it from the shore, screaming aloud  and helpless to save her child. The broken hearted mother is also depicted in Pauline, where a mother loses her child to fire and The Indian City where a lower caste mother's son is killed by upper caste Brahmins for bathing in their holy water.  Her innate feelings that she felt for her mother and her sons later became a soothing element for her female readers.

   Felicia Hemans' poetry excels when she tried to portray her female characters imbibing the heroic and divine qualities that only male were attributed to in nineteenth century.

" In The Forest Sanctuary  , for instance, two sisters, Teresa and Inez, are to be burned at the stake as heretics. Interestingly, Hemans describes the sisters in terms that have often been used to define male heroism. In a reversal of gender roles, Hemans describes the sisters as possessing 'fire', energy' and abilities to raise a 'storm'- images that Blake uses to describe Urizen and Shelley deploys to mark Prometheus." (Nayar, 219)

Felicia's poems always praised familial love and bond. In Switzer's Wife, it is the wife that puts her man into the right tracks. The poem The American Forest tells about an instance where a girl saves a man's life. Her characters who were mothers always showed qualities that were God- like, may it be love or no fear for death.

               Her female characters were all brave enough to sacrifice their own when they couldn't become one with their partners. This wasn't escapism from the present world but rather, a fight against it. These characters wished to die and resist the laws and regulations that didn't allow those couples to become one. Arabella in Arabella Stuart wishes to die when she lost William Seymour. In The Bride of Greek Isle the Eudora loses her groom Lantis right on the wedding day when sea rovers capture them. She fearlessly embraces her death by committing suicide.

"her arms she wound like tendrils

as if the passion of that fond grip

might chain in life with its ivy clasp" (The Bride of the Greek Isle, 1828)

The titular character in Imelda reminds us the story of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Here Imelda and Bonifacio leaves their physical bodies behind to become one in the spiritual world, when their families refuse their alliance. Felicia must have been influenced by the injustice Juliet faced when her mother narrated the stories of Shakespeare during home tuition sessions. Even lamenting mothers in The Indian City and Pauline also no longer want to live in the world were there children no longer exist. In Properzia Rossi  the character wishes to die to find console in the spiritual world after getting fed up with mere physical existence. The poor girl in The Peasant Girl of the Rhone also commits suicide as she couldn't become one with lover since they belonged to different classes. The plight of the wife who wishes to die when her husband leaves for another woman is portrayed in The Indian Woman's Death Song.

               It was a notable feature of Felicia Hemans' poetry where she introduced elements of nature in poems to add that extra ounce of power. Sometimes these elements destroyed where as others hindered with an action. Wind brought the destruction to Eudora by guiding the ships of sea rovers. Water made it impossible for Eudora's mother to help her and forced her to stay on land and watch her daughter die.  Earth and water separated that mother and daughter. Eudora succumbed to death by jumping into the fire.

"proudly she stands like an Indian bride

on the pyre with the holy dead beside" (The Bride of the Greek Isle, 1828)

Bathing in holy water brought forth the death of the Indian Boy in The Indian City. Pauline loses her child Bertha to a fire in Pauline. The verses of The Indian Woman's Death Song denoting the lament of the wife also describes the weather outside; of  heavy storm and rain. Felicia used water mostly as a symbol of purity and innocence in Joan of Arc, in Rheims when describing about Joan who was killed with fire. Felicia effectively used these elements not to describe victories and male dominance but as channels through which tragedies occurred.

               Religion was something that Felicia Hemans kept close to her heart. It was a place of escape for her from the grotesque realities world offered. Religion was a breath of relief for most of the women that age. They suffered all the pains in their life by keeping in mind that God was watching over them and protecting them. Felicia wanted to provide the same relief which she experienced from religion to her readers too. Eudora of The Bride of the Greek Isle was devout and religious girl. Edith of Edith, a tale of Woods at last decides to leave behind her life in earth to be with god. The Indian Couple who took care of her after converting to Christianity were addressed as father and mother by Edith. Felicia right from a young age wrote poems that recognized the divine power and she found joy in it.

"How bright its glory! there behold

The emerald's verdant rays,

The topaz blends its hue of gold

With the deep ruby's blaze

Yet not alone to charm thy sight

Was given the vision fair;?

Gaze on that arch of colored light,

And read God's mercy there." (The Rainbow, 1819)

"Twas early day- and the sunlight stream'd

Soft through a quite room,

That hush'd, but not forsaken, seem'd-

Still, but with nought but gloom;

For there, secure in happy age,

Whose hope is from above,

A father communed with the page

Of Heaven's recorded love." (A Domestic Scene,1814)

"Father in heaven! oh ! thus when day

With all its cares hath passed away,

And silent hours waft peace on earth,

And hush the louder strains of mirth;

So may thy mercy and thy power

Protect me through the midnight hour;

And balmy sleep and visions blest

Smile on thy servants bed of rest." (The Nightingale 1814)

 "O my God ! I bless

Thy mercy, that with Sabbath peace hath filled

My chastened heart, and all its throbbing stilled

To one deep calm of lowliest thankfulness" (Sabbath Sonnet, 1835)

During years near to her year of death, namely 1830- 1835, she completely turned her attention to religion and spent her time composing religious verses. Her last poem Sabbath Sonnet, dedicated to her brother on 26th April 1835, composed just one month before her death, asked for God's blessings and love.

               Poems of Felicia Hemans handled a wide range of themes. Another variety was in the background she wrote in. Her poems Alaric in Italy, Restoration of Work of Art to Italy, Modern Greece, The Indian City, The Bride of the Greek Isle and The Indian Woman's Death Song all described about various countries and culture. Eudora of The Bride of Greek Isles commits suicide by jumping onto the pyre where her groom was burned. Such an image is very similar to the "sati" that was prevalent in Indian culture long back. The Indian City also captured the class and caste discrimination along with untouchability by Brahmins in India. Felicia took pains to read about a world outside Britain to create a larger canvas for her poems. Rather than just describing about the world within the boundary, she opted to extract ink for her poetry from other continents as well. 

Feminine dissonance

               Poetry for Felicia Hemans was not only a tool to show to the world the glory of womanhood but also to express her protests against a society that limited the freedom of the female. Though she talked about Politics she was more interested in gender politics. She tried to create an image of her female characters possessing God- like qualities. They were divine , loving and sacrificing. Usually men took these qualities for granted.  In Switzer's Wife she tells us that it was possible for a woman to guide a man too. Though men died by fighting battles, their women died by facing life which was an even bigger battle. Role reversal was one of the major characteristics of her poems. She made her heroes express emotions and sentiments before their death. Thus they were portrayed like a weaker sex.

               Her characters didn't have happy endings like the fairy tales. They didn't live happily ever after. It was a break away from all the stories and verses that were rendered to girls promising them of a prince that would come to rescue them from their problems and save them from the harsh world.  All her poems in turn carried a tone of melancholy and lament. All that was left with her women were  the pain that other people inflicted on them. Life was never fair to them. In a world where everybody deserves happiness, their husbands, lovers and children were ripped away from their life, leaving them no choice but death. Loss of fame and finance upsets men but for women; it's family.

               Felicia expressed her resentment as a woman to the injustice by the male dominated society with the death of her heroine or its child. Her women were Byronic heroines. They rebelled against the existing patriarchal society that caused hindrance to their potential by committing suicide. She was indirectly depicting the choice of a woman to either choose her family or her literary career. What is noteworthy is that her heroines committed suicides thus choosing their path to a revolutionary freedom. She expressed solidarity not only to her country but also to her gender. Some of these heroines were also Indian, Muslim, African etc. which was a form of racial inclusion within her poetry. Just like male soldiers they were also martyrs that gave up their lives to thwart the stereotypes, be it Eudora of The Bride of Greek Isle, Maimuna of The Indian City or the mother escaping from Turks in The Suliote Mother. Her own ideologies about a domestic woman itself was the cause of such revolutionary suicides. The inference will be that it was her own way of questioning the limitations set upon a woman's freedom. Her portrayals of perfect married woman was actually an image of a happy and independent woman that have choices before her. Though her failed marriage was the tragedy that shook her young heart, it later became an influence to write her most important  and popular works, which was also for her, a path of self discovery. She narrowly escaped from the criticism she had to face, when she kept her family second to her career, because of her popularity. Such was not the case for all other women. Felicia Hemans also spoke for such unfortunate female writers too. These failed authors especially from lower class had no means to get noticed or published. The world of their poetry was restricted to their notebooks itself. She was the mouth piece for such ignored and suppressed feminine thoughts. Her commercial success even posed a threat to Byron thus confirming her victory in her battle to conquest a place for female writers in English literary circle.

               Her heroines were mostly oppressed as slaves, prisoners and captives. Their death was also a punishment for the injustice their male counterparts did. The wife in The Wife of Asdrubal who commits suicide to punish her husband for treachery was the symbol of an outbreak. Rather than silently enduring all the cruelties of her family, she bravely decides to take her life. The protest of mother hood was portrayed in her poems by the combined suicide of mother and the child like in The Suilote Mother and The Indian Woman's Death Song.

"As poems like The Wife of Asdrubal, The Suliote Mother, Indian Woman’s Death Song, The Indian City, and The Siege of Valencia illustrate, Hemans’s depiction of her Byronic mothers draws attention to how these women are not only fiercely protective, but also actively seek their own deaths and that of their offspring. Mired by the betrayal of the men in their lives, and seeking relief from the sheer oppressiveness of their physical and psychological circumstances, these desperate women regard it as their maternal duty, and in the case of Hemans’s more overtly political poems, a patriotic necessity, to murder their children and to kill themselves, as the thought of raising their young in such a corrupt and unjust world is simply too much to bear. For these “mad” mothers, death becomes a conscious, if inevitable choice, and even a form of physical and emotional salvation, since it is clearly preferable to die than to be conquered in mind, body, and spirit." (Osman)

Conclusion

               The emotional support that the poems of Felicia Hemans gave her female readers were a source of inspiration and determination for them. She lent her voice when her fellow sisters couldn't speak. Through her poems she asserted the prominence of motherhood, sisterhood and role of familial bonds to keep the nation together. Though she doesn't find  much of a place in the canons of Romanticism dominated by Keats, Wordsworth, Byron and Shelley; her unique literary style and themes makes her stand apart from rest of the writers. She chose to adopt orientalism, patriotism and motherhood rather than restricting herself to major romantic themes. Her heroines were brave and courageous. They neither feared the their enemies nor their inabilities. If victory wasn't near ,they confirmed their dominance with their deaths. Getting suppressed was never an option for them.

                 "Even as both Hemans and Landon moved away from such hard minded realism into the realms of piety and sentimentality, their heroines still regularly perished. Contrary to what one might conventionally expect, in poetry at least, the unhappy ending is the norm of women writers of the Romantic Period" ( Mellor, 203)  

   The divine and sacrificing nature of her female characters told the society about things it took for granted. Felicia reminded her critics that a female writer can handle themes of patriotism and war , that can instil sense of nationalism within her readers. She wasn't merely designing but putting the foundation stone for many upcoming female writers to bravely come up with their thoughts and ideas.

"The defiant Byronic Oriental heroines that appear in Hemans’s poetry not only emphasize how domesticity and nationalism are mutually implicated through the role of women as moral authorities within the family, but also challenge stereotypical representations of femininity through their unorthodox acts of self-assertion—often by engaging in violence and even resorting to suicide as a means of avenging the loss of familial ties or emancipating themselves from their oppressive circumstances." (Osman)

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Hemans, Felicia Dorothea, ed. The Domestic Affections and other poems.                   Edinburg, 1812. Google Book Search, Web. 15 September 2014.

Hemans, Felicia Dorothea, ed. The Songs of Affections and other poems.                    Edinburg, 1830. Google Book Search, Web. 19 September 2014.

Hemans, Felicia Dorothea, ed. The Forest Sanctuary and other poems. Edinburg,                  1825. Google Book Search, Web. 15 September 2014.

Hemans, Felicia Dorothea, ed. The Siege of Valencia. Edinburg, 1820. Google                     Book Search, Web. 18 September 2014.

Mellor, Anne K. Romanticism and Feminism. New York: Indiana University               Press.1988.

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