Wow! This is a seriously long poem! Not to mention how difficult it must have been to make it rhyme all the way through!
The title is very straightfoward, not really pointing to any further meaning or symbolism. Quite simply, the title tells that the poem is about a beautiful young woman going to bed.
The poem is broken into three stanzas.
The first stanza describes this woman, but is mainly about her getting ready for bed, going to sleep and then having a dream. Her name is Corinna, she is a prostitute and she is quite unhappy with her life. Clues like "pride of Drury-Lane" (which is described as a popular park in London, home of many prostitutes) and "drunken Rake to pick her up" and basically all the descriptions found below which describe sexual references and facts and names. She is back home for the night and is slowly undoing her long dressing process by taking off her artificial hair, pulling out her fake teeth, unlacing her bodice and etc. It serves to describe her job as a prostitute as an "out of body" experience, because she is so fake and put together for her job. Perhaps she is so unhappy because she has lost herself beneath the fake nipples, fake eyebrows and fake hair. Finally, she is ready for bed and manages to fall asleep. Her dreams are about her life experiences which just reinforce her unhappiness.
The second and third stanza are about her waking up to her terrible life once more. Seeing her fake hair covered in fleas and rats had eaten away at her stuff. It then shifts tone and creates a nice conclusion, saying that nonetheless everyday she gets up and hide the anguish and pain to put herself and her costume back together.
Admittedly, although I understand the basic storyline of this poem, it is a lot more difficult for me to annotate is and understand broader meaning. Certainly, the piece has many references to other concepts, places or ideas which are explained beneath the poem. The language is older english and much more formal. There is consistent punctuation. The rhyme scheme is AABBCCDD.... etc.
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The meaning behind this poem represents Swift's idea of prostitution in the victorian era and he is harshly criticizing the men that are not only ostracizing these woman but are a main source of the problem. Prostitution was a huge social problem back then. There were about 80,000 prostitutes in London alone.
ReplyDeleteHe's not really commenting on prostitution itself at all. This poem was a response to pastoral poetry and the ridiculousness of the ideals of "Carpe Diem" poems regarding Nymphs and Shepherds running away together in the heat of the moment. This poem represents the nasty underbelly of pastoral poetry, and the "Nymphs" who are disposed of to walk the streets once they have been used by said Shepherds (or young, horny men). This poem cannot be understood fully on its own and can only truly make sense when regarded as a satirical response to contemporary pastoral poems that idealized natural beauty and seizing the moment.
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