Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Duality
After reading "The Garden of Proserpine", I got the sense that the poem focuses on duality. For example, many pairs of opposites appeared throughout the piece, such as Life/Death, Winter/Summer, Awake/Sleep, etc. To add to this, the main character, Proserpine, is herself a dual being. Recalling the tale of her marriage to Hades, she lives on Earth for three-quarters of the year (Spring, Summer, and Fall) and lives in the Underworld (Winter) (Lesson learned here: if a creepy guy wants to feed you a pomegranate, SAY NO!). So, along with many other opposites in nature that work together, Proserpine can represent opposing sides as one entity. However, regardless of her dual character, death seems to be the forefront idea of this piece, and it is centered on Proserpine. Though I think it is unfair to bestow the whole idea of death on this goddess, I believe by using her as the symbol of death, it makes death seem less intimidating and more welcoming than if the poem focused on Hades.
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I believe there is another angle on duality. Specifically, the difference that arises between the fate of man and nature. As I wrote in my blog entry, there seems to be a disconnect in the selected stanza. If that is the case, then are our fates tied together? Perhaps they are in the short but not the long run? The best way I can explain it is through correlations. There seems to be a higher correlation between man and nature in the short term; that is, in the relatively short time frame (250yrs) we can pump enough CO2 into the atmosphere to raise the global temperature. In the long run, however, I believe this correlation breaks down as nature has the ability to recover from the damage man has done. The time needed is in question.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really interesting point Warren. Every stanza Swinburne makes a distinction in accordance to man's dual nature like "tears and laughter." Swinburne only makes a wide all-encompassing distinction between mankind's characteristics; love and hate, sorrow and joy, laughter and weeping. These characteristics are the opposite extremes that man can emotionally encounter yet Swinburne gives them a central focus. He is possibly saying that their is no middle ground with love and hate, or sorrow and joy; you're either fully one or fully the other. In this way, I believe Swinburne is saying you transcend one for the other.
ReplyDeleteThat’s an interesting point you make about using Proserpine and not Hades. A line like “languid lips taste sweeter” certainly wouldn’t fit as well with Hades, a reference to “lips”, particularly tasting sweet, seems quite feminine. She’s partly a figure of attraction, particularly with the narrator’s desire for “sleep”, so it makes sense to make her a welcoming presence. The fact that Proserpine is normally associated with Spring and rebirth as well as Winter and death is also a more welcoming factor for the reader, who would probably not be expecting such a relentless focus on inevitable and welcome death just from the title. Proserpine is not exclusively a representative of death like Hades, so if she is the one gathering all living things, it is not necessarily as dark as it would be if Hades was doing so, even if here she offers no opportunity of rebirth.
ReplyDeletei think the series of opposites early in the poem is crucial, and a very good point to latch onto. it works to display the kind of emotional variation a man can endure in life-- and how stressful such sway can be. but, most importantly, i think it's working towards his final point about the certainty and death that equality can bring. i dont know if hes necessarily implying that only extreme states are possible to express, but I do think he's expressing the great variety and distinctness that exists from one man to another. and this brings up a lot of tension concerning the togetherness/fraternity of mankind-- tension which he resolves with his point about the "weariest river"
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