Husband and Wife Duties

Samantha Stefferud

Dr. Cornado

English 328

30 October 2016

Husband and Wife Duties

Poems and Juvenile Sketches was written by Anna Maria wells in 1830. Wells was born in Gloucester Massachusetts. When she was very young, her father died and her mother re-married. The family packed their belongings and soon settled in Boston. In Boston, Wells was fortunate to receive education and pursue her passion in reading, writing, and music. Anna Maria Wells was said that she had “evinced quite a precocity of genius…” (Hale 286). Due to her genius-mind she critiqued her writings until they were perfect making it “not easy, therefore, to induce her to publish her effusions;” (286). She did not publish her works more often until after she married to Thomas Wells, who was also a minor poet, but valued the finer things in life. Wells brought it upon herself to teach her four children to “meet the exigency of the boys’ education” (287).  Since then, she has written some children’s poems as well as poetry that she has done as a hobby.

In her works, Wells shows “characteristics of her poetry are tenderness of feeling, and simplicity and perspicuity of language” (287) like other well-known Romantic Poets of this century. This book of her works consists of many poems that focus on nature and its beauty that capture an emotional intensity. Introducing Anna Maria Wells to the canon of American literature would benefit from this text; it would not only introduce how Wells incorporates Romanticism poetry structure, but by using metaphors to describe a deeper meaning. This meaning is the husband and wife roles that are portrayed during this time period.

One of the poems that shall be focused on closely is “The Owl and the Swallow.” In this poem there are three characters involved: the Shepherd, the Owl, and the Swallow. The Shepherd asks the Owl and Sparrow to state “Fain would I know which greater merit hath” or why is one bird better than the other (Wells 93). Both birds continue on about why they are greater than the other and their reasoning is complete polar opposites of one another. For example, the owl shows that it is better because it lives alone at night “where voices none can interrupt the music of my own...” (94). While the swallow states “With other birds I love to join my flight, and to be seen and heard, is my delight…” (94). In the end of the poem the shepherd comes to the conclusion that both birds are as equally as important as the other one. Wells incorporates the beauty and imagery of nature within her Romanticism poem by giving the moon, trees, and birds, human characteristics as well as hinting at the reader to look more deeply into her poem. Within Well’s poem the poem describes how although men and women are completely different in their roles, they still need one another to function.

The swallow is given some male characteristics or roles, during this time period that a typical man would focus on. According to the article, “The Emergence of “Women’s Sphere,” the men had certain roles to fulfill; it states that a “true man was concerned about success and moving up the social ladder. He was aggressive, competitive, rational, and channeled all of his time and energy into his work” (ushistory.org). Since men were concerned about making the wealth in order to up their economic status, the husband had to “be out in the public creating the wealth” (ushistory.org). Within the poem the swallow takes kindly to branch out to other birds like a man would in order to build up his wealth. “With other birds I love to join my flight…” (Wells 94) or “Man is a friend to me and I to him” (94) would be a couple of metaphors found in the poem to hint at a man opening his “public sphere” (ushistory.org).

Women in Nineteenth-Century America, Dr. Warder makes a statement about how “Men were considered to be superior…even in terms of morality” (Warder). The swallow in this poem gives one line where it seems that it is more superior:

“All welcome my approach- all of me,

The coming of flowery season see;

A charm I bear about me, and my name

Is my protection from the fowler’s aim” (Wells 95).

Here the poem shows that the swallow is gracing its “name” or in comparison to a male, the husband’s last name, and the charm is his protection to his wife. In Warder’s article, men had control of not only wealth, but everything else that went with it: “men controlled not only wealth and political power but also how their children were raised, religious questions, and all matters of right and wrong” (Warder).

            However, the owl signifies women’s roles or the wife in the 19^th century. As mentioned before, the wife’s sphere was private. Their sphere was private because most of their duties took place inside the home. A wife’s role was considered “the great civilizer who created order in the home in return for her husband's protection, financial security and social status” (Warder). In Wells poem the owl discusses how solitude is best fit for the bird. Since men worked all day, the wife would be in the house to operate it, so it is possible that she would be alone, like the owl. Well’s poem also mentions a couple times where the owl “reign the sole monarch of the haunted wood…” and “Mid skulls and sepulchers, I mope and sit, and round desert mansions love to fit” (Wells 94) alone in what is its home. Since the wife ran the household, it can tie with her reign over how the house ran while the husband was gone. The “mope and sit” (Wells 94) could also be a meaning that she would wait for her husband to come home. “she was the great civilizer who created order in the home in return for her husband's protection, financial security and social status” (Warder).

In contrast with the “public sphere” for men, the women had their own sphere, the “private sphere.” The private sphere was mostly focused on family and morality (Warder). Within the poem, the owl maintains a private tone.

“I love the silent shade, where voices none Can interrupt the music of my   own…” (Wells 94).

Night typically means quiet, and that is when the owl is awake and running the night. Like a wife in her husband’s house, the wife prepares the home by herself. “A utopian space that nurtured children and sheltered husbands” (Warder). 

In Warder’s article, he explains that in a woman’s sphere she has her own “special voice” (Warder). This special voice can be discussing amongst close women about civil and political affairs that they can sympathize with. This can relate back to Wells’ poem about the owl in a wife’s role. In silence the owl can express its own feelings about its voice or opinions. In another passage the owl explains that at night it sees things that others do not experience around the owl.

“I see faries and their dapper elves,

When in the moonlight sheen they show themselves;

When far removed from the sound of human feet,

They thread the mazy dance to music sweet” (Wells 95).

From this passage, it can relate back to women talking about political issues with other women when a man was away. The “true woman” characteristics that Warder’s article commented what it meant to be a true woman was. These characteristics were: “on the other hand, was virtuous. Her four chief characteristics were piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity” (Warder). Like the owl, Wells uses the owl as a metaphor for the wife to infer that women do speak about political issues and are intellectual in comparison to be stereotyped as “illogical” such as Kimberly Radek’s article, Women in Literature, noted.

            Together they made the “picture of perfect harmony” (ushistory.org). This is where the shepherd would come into the picture. At the end of the poem the shepherd states:

“Your twitter and your scream I’ve heard full long,

For jealousy seems mingling in the song;

So, owl and Swallow, cease this boasting strain,

Needless with merit, and without vain” (Wells 96)

Here the shepherd is tired of the birds try to battle of which one is better than the other. It can be compared to husband and wife. The shepherd explains that they must stop fighting and admit that both roles of male and females are needed to create a perfect environment. It also ties in how both husband and wife rule their own spheres with superiority and because of this “…a sort of equality was achieved” (Warder).

            Anna Maria Wells would be benefit canon of American literature because of her use of romantic language in her poems. She creates hidden meanings behind her poems such as the “Owl and the Swallow” that can create great topics of discussions within a group of people to get a deeper understanding of how a husband and wife’s roles were portrayed especially within this particular poem. Her poems can be reflected into today by how we now see it as “old-fashioned and even oppressive was then new and potentially liberating” (Warder).

           

Works Cited

"Anna Maria Wells." The Ladies Wreath; a Selection from the Female Poetic Writers or

England and  America. Boston: Marsh, Capen, & Lyon, 1837. 286-89. Google Books. Web. 12 Oct. 2016. <https://books.google.com/books?id=iiFYAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA286&dq=anna+maria+wells&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiAnbrDidjPAhUJ8CYKHfTYBKoQ6AEILzAD#v=onepage&q=anna%20maria%20wells&f=false>.

Radek, Kimberly M. "Women in the Nineteenth Century." 

Women in the Nineteenth Century. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2016. <http://www2.ivcc.edu/gen2002/women_in_the_nineteenth_century.htm>.

"The Emergence of "Women's Sphere"" Ushistory.org. Independence

Hall Association, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.

<http://www.ushistory.org/us/25e.asp>.

Warder, Graham. "Education: Essay." Disability History Museum--:

Disability History Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2016. <http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/edu/essay.html?id=18>.

Wells, Anna Maria. Boston: Waitt and Dow, Printers, 1830. 

           Google Books. Carter, Hendee, & Babcook. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.     <https://books.google.com/booksid=PswgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP8&lpg=PP8&dq=juvenile+sketches+anna+maria+wells&source=bl&ots=sIilV1Sp11&sig=CIB6iWr3Ez6xLiRGFfS7HBqjnfk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjctsWB_vHPAhXJaT4KHZGaBNYQ6AEIPjAK#v=onepage&q=juvenile sketches anna maria wells&f=false>.