Lady Mary Wroth as Proto-Feminist

Lady Mary Wroth as Proto-Feminist

Lady Mary Wroth is one of very few canonized woman poets in the 17th century canon (Strickland lect. Oct 11 94.). This fact alone lends a type of importance to Wroth that sets her off from her male contemporaries. Wroth wrote poems at about the same time that Robert Herrick, John Donne, Andrew Marvell, and Sir Philip Sidney (to name a few) wrote their courtly lyrics. Wroth wasn't the only woman writer from the time, instead, she was simply one of very few that were saved from historical anonymity.

Lady Mary Wroth writes using a fairly conventional form of sonnet making, the "Carpe Diem" style. In using this style, she achieves an interesting internal critique of itself as poetic form. Wroth shows how the form is exclusive and at times self-defeating. Wroth exposes these faults by elaborating on images of masochistic love and how this type of love is furthered by the use of military metaphor. Lastly, I will discuss how Wroth's use of double narration and monologue format also serve to problematize the "Carpe Diem" style.

"Carpe Diem" means "seize the day", and this particular translation of the phrase is of particular importance for establishing the validity of Wroth's critique. (Strickland lect. Oct 11 94). These "Carpe Diem" love sonnets usually focused around the narrator trying to seduce a woman into bed or into some type of love relationship. The need to "seize the day was worked in by the narrator in hopes of spurring the woman into action. One good example of this is in Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress". In this poem, Marvell writes: "And the last age should show your heart:/ ... But at my back I always hear/ Time's winged chariot hurrying near" (Marvell n.p.). Marvell...

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... too well placed to be considered accidental. Although I cannot claim to be completely knowledgeable in Feminist writing I can only suppose that I have found what I think is there.

WORKS CITED

Adam, Robert M. & Logan, George M. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Fifth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton Co., 1986.

Greer, Germaine. The Female Eunuch. New York: McGraw--Hill, 1970.

Marvell, Andrew. Andrew Marvell: The Complete Poems. Elizabeth Story Donno ed. New York: Penguin, 1972.

Smith, A.J. ed. John Donne: The Complete English Poems. London: Penguin, 1971.

Strickland, Ronald. 17th Century English 215 (Course Packet). Normal: Pip Printing, 1994.

Strickland, Ronald. Lecture. Literature of the 17th Century. Illinois State University. Normal, 11th Oct. 1994.

Wroth, Lady Mary. The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth. Baton Rogue: Louisiana St. UP, 1983.