Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Gender significance in Clare
I think someone else mentioned some confusion as to the gender of the nightingale but for me, it seemed to extend beyond that one poem. Several of the birds appeared to be portrayed as feminine and their eggs were specifically mentioned but other animals, such as the badger, were masculine. I may be reading too much into it, but the badger was linked to a much more violent existence than the other animals described and their almost...relaxing poems. Reading through, I wondered if Clare had a reason for doing this beyond the simple mother aspect of the birds or coincidence of factual representation.
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A lot of birds have relatively different markings between male and female. For instance, bright red cardinals are all male and the females and mostly a tawny brown color except for the bright orange beak and some muted red tones (the only time males have that coloring is when they're juvenile, but the juvenile beak is dark brown-gray). ANYWAY, I don't know about snipes, nightingales, and firetails but that could be a factor in his describing them in a feminine way. I don't know if male and female badgers look different though.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I don't think there's such a thing as reading TOO much into poetry. :P