Moira Richards
A Short Feminist Reading of a Renaissance Poem
O'er those fair Alps, thy breasts (that naked lie....)
by John Davies 1569 - 1626
O'er those fair Alps, thy breasts (that naked lie
Towards the blushing heav'n of thy bright face),
The snows twixt them, and that, do let her pace:
For, passing through the valley of thy neck
Mine eye there sticks, as drowned in those snows,
Yet, thy kind heat the same doth countercheck:
So, to thy chin's fair cliff, on milk, she flows!
Where, being come, she breathes and looketh back,
Dazzled to see those passed-Beauty's deeps!
So, there she rests, as on the rock of wrack:
With sense whereof twixt fear, and hope she weeps:
And, dares no higher look, sith thine eyes' beams
Draws clouds thereto, and turn those clouds to streams.
During the Renaissance, Western patriarchal society continued a discourse in which the European male, as the author thereof, was cast as the 'norm'. This male-centred discourse had been dominant for centuries prior to the Renaissance period and was also not peculiar to the West. Even a cursory examination of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam shows that women had been (out)cast as the Other the world over, and for as long as can be remembered.
Renaissance poetry and art merely perpetuated this ideology, and contributed to the constant reaffirmation of its authority over the centuries. Subsequent literary criticism has also entrenched the marginalisation of women by uncritically attributing great value to art and poetry that disparages women as the Other. Milton's portrayal of Eve, in his Paradise Lost, has rarely been questioned until the 20th century, and even then, the resistant feminist reader has been encouraged to not allow petty objections to detract from her appreciation of the genius of the work as a whole. As if the misrepresentation of women is not all that important an issue, because they are so obviously the Other anyway?
Women too, are conditioned to internalise the notion of themselves as being Other because they are themselves a product of male centred education and religious systems, and it is very difficult to stand aside and observe from another centre.
Even today, it is difficult to resist the fabrication of Womanhood. Women are encouraged to be flattered by such outpourings of love and lofty metaphor as are used by a poet such as John Davies. Little attention is given to how the woman is addressed/undressed by the poet for his (male?) readers - the Renaissance equivalent of boastful lavatory wall graffiti? Less attention is given to how she is diminished by the hyperbolic imagery used to describe her. She is expected to feel complimented by being exhibited as an object of lust, vulnerably naked, absurdly misrepresented, and helplessly silenced.
From time immemorial, Man has represented woman as the Other in every type of discourse - be it poetry or painting or the law. In this process, he has ignored her true nature, preferring his idea of what he would like her to be. This has resulted in her being portrayed in many ways, few of which are accurate, and many of which are rather ridiculous.
One way of subverting an entrenched discourse
is by decentering it,
inVerting it, turn
i
n
g it
inside out upon itsef .......
O'er that tow'ring volcano, thy penis (that naked lies....
(with no apology to John Davies)
O'er that tow'ring volcano, thy penis (that naked lies
'Pon the charcoal wrack of thy steamy groin),
The embers twixt it, and that, do let her stroke:
For, passing o'er the plains of thy chest
Mine hand there smarts, as singed in those flames,
And, thy wild heat the same in vain doth check:
So, to thy chin's fair cliff, on milk, she flows!
Where, being come, she breathes and durst not back,
Enkindled by caress of that passed-Beauty's length!
So, there she rests, as on the rock of wrack:
With sense whereof twixt fear, and hope she waits:
And, dares no lower move, sith thine eye's pore
Draws fire therefrom, and turns too soon, that fire to streams.
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Moira Richards writes poems and accounting textbooks in South Africa. Her tanka and collaborative work appear in journals in a half-dozen different countries across the planet and she is co-editor with Rosemary Starace and Lesley Wheeler of Letters to the World: Poems from the Wom-Po Listserv (Red Hen 2008).