"To the Fire-Fly of Jamaica" was rather difficult to understand, but I still thought it was beautifully written. It somewhat reminded me of Erasmus Darwin's "The Love of Plants" in the way she used scientific foot notes to describe the indigenous plants in Jamaica. I believe it is about the plight of the slave, but I am unable to draw anymore conclusions than that. I definitely enjoy Charlotte Smith, and maybe this is because I am not gifted in the way of poetry, but I have a hard time figuring out what she is trying to say.
I really loved the comparison to "The Love of the Plants" and how it was difficult to understand. I felt like the plight of the slave was the only part that I think I directly understood. However because of the language and confusing nature it leaves a bad taste in my mouth
ReplyDeleteThe slave is introduced in stanza 3 and discussed again in stanza 4; what happens after that? There are two stanzas that focus on the Naturalist and a plant, the Night Blowing Cereus (see a contemporary representation of it here: http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/DLDecArts/DLDecArts-idx?type=article&did=DLDecArts.ThornTempFlo.i0021&id=DLDecArts.ThornTempFlo&isize=L&pview=hide
ReplyDeleteThe setting is the same (night in Jamaica), but the subject is very different (a political problem has changed into a scientific problem). By implication, Smith has linked the two people who will "no longer see" the firefly, the naturalist and the slave--which should make us think about what scientific collecting has to do with slavery. The next stanzas (lines 49-56) might help us get at an answer to this question: because of the collector, the firefly is dead and pinned behind glass instead of flying around free. So, perhaps the naturalist and collector is complicit in the problem of slavery? He goes to another country and takes what he wants--which is like what the British government did when it set up sugar plantations in Jamaica, imported slaves to work them, and took all the proceeds for themselves. The poem is implicitly criticizing both plantation owners and scientists for exploiting other people and places for their own benefit.
Now the question is: what happens in the final two stanzas?
ps--for an explanation of the title and the opening stanzas, see my response to the thread "What is Charlotte Smith talking about?"
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