Keanna Allen
Teresa Coronado
English 328
October 27, 2016
Romanticism in 19th
Century America
Phoebe
Cary was born on September 4,
1824, in Mount Healthy, Ohio. She also has a sister named Alice, who is a poet
as well. While they occasionally attended school, the sisters were often needed
to work at home and so were largely self-educated. While they were, ready and
willing to aid to the full extent of their strength in household labor, the
sisters persisted in a determination to study and write when the day's work was
done. More outgoing than her sister, Phoebe was a champion of women's rights
and for a short time edited The Revolution, a newspaper published by Susan B.
Anthony. Being overworked brought Alice’s life to a premature end, while
Phoebe’s grief at her sister’s passing contributed to her own death five months
later.
Poems of Faith, Hope, and Love was a book written by Phoebe Cary in
the prime of her life. The book was published in 1867 in New York City. After
reading her book, her poetry reminds me of Walt Whitman’s poetry. Her poetry shows
many of the emotions of the times, but most of her work focuses on love, life,
and faith. In her book, Cary describes American life
through the structure of romanticism. Just like Walt Whitman, Cary focuses more
on the romantic realism of faith, love, and life. I believe that this text is important in understanding the romantic
realism in America between the 1800 and 1900’s, because it you can still relate
to her poems today.
Some of her poems focus of the faith of the time; the one
poem that shows the strongest sense of faith is Answered. In the poem, Cary talks about a friend of hers, who
becomes sick. Cary mentions in the poem that she wanted to her friend to have a
full life with love. She then goes to talk about how she prayed for her, “My prayer is more than answered; now I have
an angel for my friend” (Cary 22). She
talks of how she wished for her friend to finally be at peace.
“Life was so fair a thing to her,
I wept and pleaded
for its stay:
My wish was granted me, for lo!
She hath eternal life
to-day” (22).
In that
quote she is talking how she begged and prayed for her friend to get better. At
the end of the poem, she says that her prayers have been answered; her friend
now has eternal life. Meaning that her friend is dead, Cary’s friend is no
longer in pain. This poem shows the faith side of romantic realism. At the
time, many people were dying of different diseases. The reason why this poem
has the strongest sense of faith is because of how she prayed to God for her
friend to get better. Cary realizes that her friend is not getting better so
she starts praying that her friend just stops being in pain and to finally be
at peace and to live the rest of her life with the angel. Many people can
relate with his poem today. They are people that get sick and do not get any
better, they just keep getting more sick, and some of their family rather see
they go in peace rather than live a little bit longer and is in constant pain.
Most of her poems focus on love. One of the poems that show
the strongest sense of love is called True
Love. In this poem, Cary talks about true love. She talks about how true
love is never blind; it just adds a different light. She talks about how woman
many see guys as imperfect but she sees men for who they are.
“You see a mortal, weak, misled,
Dwarfed ever by the
earthly clod;
I see how manhood, perfected,
May reach the stature
of a god.
Blinded I stood, as
now you stand,
Till on mine eyes,
with touches sweet,
Love, deliverer, laid
his hand,
And lo! I worship at
his feet” (37)!
I like how Cary phrased how women see men. This quote
speaks to women everywhere and any time period. It shows that even if a woman
complains and sees a man as weak another woman may see him as the perfect
person. Cary goes on in the poem to talk about how she sees this perfect man in
front of her and she just stood worshipping God for sending him her way. This
poem shows not only the romantic realism of the time but of what we still see
and feel today. Cary talks about true love with such passion in this poem, it
makes me think that if I looked up I would find my own true love.
The rest of the poems in Cary’s book talk about life.
Most of her poems are about life, but the one I believe is the most important
for people to read is, Happy Women.
In the poem, she is talking about how women should be happy to hear the
footsteps of her child, even if it is in the middle of the night or even in the
earlier morning.
“Forget yourselves a little while,
And think in pity of the pain
Of the women who will never smile
To hear a coming step again” (100).
In that part of the poem she is telling women to stop just
think about them. They may hate the fact that their child wakes them up and
they may feel tired but there are women in the world who will never have that
happen to them. At the time of this poem many people were dying of diseases and
many children were dying, so Cary was saying that women should take granted of
the fact their child has survived. She
even mentions it in her poem:
“With babes that in their cradle sleep,
Or cling to you in perfect trust;
Think of the mothers left to weep,
Their babies lying in
the dust” (100).
I think that quote shows a powerful picture to women and
even men, and not only at that time but now. There are women and men now, who
cannot have children or have children that die, and many people are more focus
on their own lives to think about people’s lives. Cary’s last line sums up how
I actually feel and what I want to say to every person in their safe.
“And when the step you wait for comes,
And all your world is full of light,
O women, safe in happy homes,
Pray for all lonesome souls to-night” (100)!
Pray for the women who do
not have what you have. Who do not have that light in their life anymore? Pray
for the women in safe homes that is no longer happy.
In her book, Cary describes American
life through the structure of romanticism. Just like Walt Whitman, Cary focuses
more on the romantic realism of faith, love, and life. In Cary’s book, the poem
Answered, focus on the faith part of
the romantic realism. The poem focuses on the death that was happening and it
showed Cary praying for her friend to live an eternal life. The poem, True Love showed that love that even
back then we still focus on finding true love. It also showed that women are
still very picky in finding a guy. The poem, Happy Women, Cary talks about how sad some women’s life maybe in
the 19th century. She wants the women who seem to be living happy
life to think about the women who do not have the same things in their lives,
and to do not take what you have for granted. Cary’s poetry can still be
related to what is happening still today. And for that reasons, I believe that
this text is important in understanding the romantic
realism in America between the 1800 and 1900’s.
Work Cited
Admired, By
What You Once. "Romantic Realism." The Book of Life. N.p., n.d. Web.
31 Oct. 2016. http://www.thebookoflife.org/romantic-realism/
Cary,
Phoebe. New York City: Hurd and Houghton, 1867. Print.
"Phoebe
Cary." - Ohio History Central. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2016. http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Phoebe_Cary
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