Through the Looking Glass,
a reading of a collection of poems
Universally perceived as the writer of works to whom women swoon over, Shakespeare is a household name in literature. Scholars have estimated that his lifetime was between 1564-1616 (biography.com), and although his plays are what come to mind so readily when one thinks of Shakespeare, it is a staggering fact that in 1609 one hundred and fifty-four sonnets were officially printed (Gwynn 479). Who better to discuss when love is on the table? Yet, here too, the prevailing views of the time showcase how idolization of beauty imparts the endearment of love. In William Shakespeare’s sonnet eighteen “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Shakespeare illustrates to the reader this concept of an ideal love, or lover. Yet, it is the woman’s beauty which lends credence to the narrator’s affection as the subject is compared to an “eternal summer” (Shakespeare l.9). Now, when discussing the concept of ideal love, one must take into account that Shakespeare’s work was written in the sixteenth century. Whereas the lines have blurred a bit in our current society, one must understand that racial awareness and terms such as one’s breeding were paramount to those in our past. So, then, the text comes to life for the critical reader as the idolization of this woman reveals to us the speaker’s idealism of her. From the adulation we gather that she is “compare[d]… to a summer’s day” (Shakespeare l.1). Summer: sun, golden, bountiful… the portrait begins to take shape. “But thy eternal summer shall not fade, / Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st” (Shakespeare l.l. 9&10). Again we can take the text, and find the descriptive use of fair: pretty, pale, pleasant.
In comparison, William Shakespeare’s sonnet one hundred and thirty, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” takes us down another path. Instead of the idolization of the speaker’s mistress, she is alternatively compared to the concept of ideal beauty, and the prevailing views of the time are the sounding board to which the speaker compares her. “If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun / If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head” (Shakespeare l.l. 3&4). Herein, the color of the woman’s skin and hair are alluded to; whereas snow: pale, white, soft is compared with dun: dark, dull, brown, and her hair is likened to wire which can be thought of in imagery such as coarse and dark. Moreover, the previous poem’s subject finds her polar opposite in this woman. No summer’s day is found within this descriptive poem of a love based more in reality. In fact, the first line of the sonnet makes this apparent to the reader as it begins with “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (Shakespeare l.1). The speaker’s mistress seems more real to us than the woman of “eternal summer,” yet it is to the latter that these men idolize. For, if my statement were untrue, where then does the comparison materialize? Why then is dun not the description of beauty, and snow not the frowned upon feature?
Shakespeare is not alone in this comparison. William Wordsworth, a renowned English poet, and leading member of The Romantics, lived from 1770-1850 (victorianweb.org). Within the poem “She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways,” Wordsworth shares with us one of his noteworthy Lucy poems which were written in 1798-1800 while residing in Germany (online-literature.com); a story of a lonely, country girl who dies in obscurity. With the lines, “But she is in her grave, and oh, / The difference to me!” (Wordsworth l.l. 11&12) we are made fully aware of the speaker’s affection for Lucy. Yet, in attempting to express the virtues of Lucy, we are again provided with descriptions of her beauty. Like Shakespeare, Wordsworth writes with the perceptions of an English society, and we again come across the descriptor of fair; which brings to mind the aforementioned pretty, pale, pleasant (l.7). When paired further with the comparison of Lucy to that of a violet we are given the inclination to think of her as being beautiful, feminine, and yet fragile as well (Wordsworth 1.5). Moreover, the vivid imagery of Lucy being “Fair as a star, when only one / Is shining in the sky” brings forth another sense of idolization of her for when the lone star dies, there is only darkness (Wordsworth l.l. 7&8); so in essence, Lucy becomes the ideal love to which the speaker laments the loss of, and her unspoiled innocence of being a “maid[en]” allows for her to be placed upon the pedestal of the idolized beauty(Wordsworth 1.3).
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Yet, it cannot be denied that social acceptance, and even prejudice can blind the eye to beauty, and although the passage of time allows us to form new opinions and perceptions, the changes are slow to form even as the caste systems of the past blur; taking on new forms. One of the most notable turns in view in American history, from the 1920’s-1935, was the Harlem Renaissance (biography.com). Several years before the Civil Rights movement in the 1950’s, the Harlem Renaissance brought the black community to the center stage as a “cultural revolution” took place in what was dubbed the “capital of black America” in the twentieth century (biography.com). One of the prominent figures in this decade was Claude McKay, a poet and novelist who lived from 1890-1948. In his sonnet “The Harlem Dancer,” McKay illustrates to us a new take on the idea of ideal beauty for even though we are presented with the unmistakably description of a beautiful woman, it is the social ideal of beauty which has been the storm from which she has “Grown lovelier for [having] pass[ed] through” (l.8). As the readers, we can infer from the poem that the idolization of the socially acceptable “fair” beauty is what has placed the subject of “The Harlem Dancer” into the position of prostituting herself. “But looking at her falsely-smiling face, / I knew her self was not in that strange place” (McKay l.13&14).... the word which seems so paramount to me within these lines is “strange” as we are made aware that this beautiful woman is in a place the speaker believes she should not be. Her perfection fills the lines which precede the couplet: “And watched her perfect, half-clothed body sway; / Her voice was like the sound of blended flutes / Upon her swarthy neck black shiny curls / Luxuriant fell” (McKay l.l. 2,3,9&10), but perhaps, in light of the social ideal of beauty, the descriptors cast her in the same light as Shakespeare’s “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.” Without the comparisons that the aforementioned idols pocessed such as fair, golden, or pure, then McKay’s dancer is instead damned for her “swarthy” skin, and “black” hair (l.9).
Furthermore, what could be more damning than the death of ideal love when your lover’s eyes no longer look upon you and see the beauty they once recognized? Such a moment is captured within Thomas Hardy’s poem “Neutral Tones,” written in 1989. Hardy lived from 1840-1928, and he is most known for “his ironic, disillusioned point of view,” and he is considered “one of the chief predecessors of modernism” (Gwynn 573). Hardy’s tone conveys to the reader not only a disillusioned view-point, but also conveys a sense of vulnerability as the speaker of “Neutral Tones” faces the end to a relationship with his lover. Instead of faced with the aforementioned idolization of the ideal lover, the speaker tells the story of the death of ideal love itself. The imagery lent by the author by placing the subjects in a dismal, winter scene introduces the idea of the woman being cold, barren, or even brittle (Hardy l.1). Moreover, Hardy’s poem reintroduces the imagery of the sun which has factored into a few of the aforementioned works, yet in comparison, this is no golden globe. Instead, “…the sun is white, as though chidden of God,” and later it is remembered by the speaker as being “…the God-curst sun” (Hardy l.l 2&15). Whatever beauty was once admired is instead mired in bitterness, and no longer apparent as the speaker’s memory categorizes his lover’s face with that sun, and also with “…a pond edged with grayish leaves” (Hardy l.16). Ash and gray hues again bring to mind death, and an end to things.
So, too, do I come to an end as each work has had its moment in the spot-light. The male perspectives on love that William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Claude McKay, and Thomas Hardy provide in their works resounds with the concept of an idolization of beauty, and the evolving perceptions of ideal love from not only the passage of time, but we also see the idealism from varying degrees of affection toward the women they describe. The question of what love is cannot easily be defined, nor can it be easily categorized. Yet, without a spark of attraction between two lovers, love would have no beginning. Therefore, the concept of one’s need to find beauty, even when their search for such attraction is often influenced by societal norms and/or acceptance, is not something in which to be ashamed of necessarily for romantic love cannot exist without attraction. What is most striking when we get past that simple truth is the power of this theme to have inspired various writers throughout our history. With this collection of poems: Shakespeare’s “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day,” “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” Wordsworth’s “She Dwelt Amongst the Untrodden Ways,” McKay’s “The Harlem Dancer,” and Hardy’s “Neutral Tones,” we travel from the sixteenth century to the twentieth, and we continue to find relevance in each of these works as a sense of timelessness is lent to them through the discussion of that thing we can't seem to do without: love.
“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee”
(Shakespeare 1.13&14).
Work Cited
http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323?page=2
Biography.com. Harlem Renaissance. N.p., A+E Networks, 2012. Web. 25 July 2012.
http://www.biography.com/tv/classroom/harlem-renaissance
Biography.com. Claude McKay. N.p., A+E Networks, 2012. Web. 25 July 2012.
http://www.biography.com/people/claude-mckay-9392654
Brainyquotes.com. Socrates. N.p., 2012. Web. 25 July 2012.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/socrates125872.html
Online-literature.com. William Wordsworth. The Literature Network, n.p. Web.
25 July 2012.
http://www.online-literature.com/wordsworth/
Everette, Glenn. “William Wordsworth- Biography.” Victorian-web.org. N.p. July 2000.
Web. 25 July 2012.
http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/ww/bio.html
Gwynn, R.S., ed. Literature: A Pocket Anthology. 5th ed. New York: Pearson, 2009.
Print. 25 July 2012.
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