Erotic literature -- History and criticism; Psychoanalysis and literature; Sex in literature
There is the song in Tennyson's "The Miller's Daughter," beginning "It
is the miller's daughter." The poet says naïvely enough that he would
like to be the jewel in her ear in order to touch her neck, the girdle
about her waist ("I'd clasp it round so close and tight"), and the
necklace upon her balmy bosom to fall and rise; "I would lie so light,
so light." The unconscious sexual feelings here are only too apparent.
The symbols of the earring, girdle and necklace are unmistakable.
The poet is saying in a symbolical manner that he would possess the
miller's daughter.
Moreover one may see the sex motive in poems where it does not seem to
appear. If certain facts in an author's life are known, we may discern
the unconscious love sentiments in poems where no mention seems to be
made of them. Let me illustrate with a fine poem by Longfellow, the
familiar "The Bridge." Take the lines
"How often, O how often,
I had wished that the ebbing tide
Would bear me away in its bosom
O'er the ocean wild and wide!
"For my heart was hot and restless,
And my life was full of care,
And the burden laid upon me
Seemed greater than I could bear.
"But now it has fallen from me, etc."
To the student of Longfellow, this poem speaks of the time he found it
difficult to win the love of his second wife, Frances Appleton, love
for whom he confessed in his novel _Hyperion_, where he drew her and
himself. This story was published before she had as yet reciprocated
his love. He married her July 13, 1843. He finished the poem October
9, 1845. At the end of this year he wrote in his diary that now he
had love fulfilled and his soul was enriched with affection. He is
therefore thinking of the time when he had no love and longed for it,
and now that he has it, he is thinking of the love troubles of others.
In the olden days he wanted to be carried away by the river Charles,
for his long courtship, seemingly hopeless, made his heart hot and
restless and his life full of care. So we see that in this poem the
poet was thinking of something definite, relating to love (and hence
also sex), though there is no mention of either in the poem.
It is well known that all love complaints are the cries of the Jack who
cannot get his Jill; or who has lost the possibility of love happiness
by desertion, deception or death.
Read that fine and pathetic Scotch ballad, beginning "O waly, waly
up the bank." The girl (or woman) has been forsaken by her lover
and expects to become a mother. She longs for death. She complains
about the cruelty of love grown cold; she recalls the happy days. Her
unconscious sentiment is that her lover will never give her spiritual
happiness or satisfy her craving. Her life is empty. The poem was based
on an actual occurrence. It contains all the despair of love that was
once given and then withdrawn.
"O wherefore should I busk my head,
Or wherefore should I kame my hair?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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