I can not emphasize enough how much I appreciate the authors' biographies in our book. It really does help one appreciate their work more (or at least in my case it does). For Felicia Hemans, matching the dates of events and some of her works helped shed some light in how she must have been feeling at the time.
"The Homes of England" was written in 1827. This was also the year in which her mother died. Also, several years back, her husband left her. Let me back up a little bit. When I first read this poem, I was completely unaware of the date in which it was composed. As you may imagine, I wasn't completely moved by her writing. To me, at first blush, it appeared to be a poem about how much she loved England. Whoopee. But once I noticed the date in which the work was completed, it started to make sense to me. I started to ask myself, "Why would she write about England if her world is falling apart?" I soon realized that she was probably trying her hardest to focus on things in her life that she could appreciate. With her mother dead, her husband gone, and a houseful of chores, writing this poem must have been very therapeutic for Hemans. She describes in detail how beautiful the homes are in England. When describing the homes of England, she used the following words: "stately", "merry", "blessed", "Cottage", "free", and "fair". To me, this shows a very strong woman.
Given the circumstances, she had to have been depressed when writing this poem. Normally, when someone is depressed, the depression continues due to a person's involvement in a depressive "schema". Essentially, a depressive schema is where the mind blocks out all positive thoughts and focuses on the negative things, and breaking out of it is difficult to do. In Felicia Hemans' case, poetry was a way of helping her do this. I thought that was pretty cool.
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3 comments:
Daniel,
Good focus on "The Homes of England," and some interesting speculation on the poem. I think there may be a connection between her life and her poetry here and elsewhere. I wish you had quoted more extensively, though, rather than just taking several words out of context.
Maybe Hemans liked England so much because she seemed true. Like your homeland isn't going to abandon you and theoretically it will always welcome you back.
That's interesting to think of this particular poem as a form of "distraction" for Hemans. I think that's a very good assumption. I always wonder if writers brought up in their craft find themselves really seeking an effective therapy in their art form. Maybe they found a way to separate their writing from emotional troubles and picked up a board game or some golf clubs.
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