Song (Love a child is ever crying) Essay Questions

What is Wroth's relationship to the Petrarchan tradition of "love poetry" that was popularized by poets like Sir Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Sir Philip Sidney, and William Shakespeare?

Wroth writes in the Petrarchan style of courtly love poetry at a time when that genre of poetry had all but fallen out of style. This poem is indebted to that tradition in a number of ways, notably in the portrayal of the paradoxical nature of love in which the speaker describes simultaneous pain and pleasure. The image of love as a small child is also part and parcel of that Petrarchan tradition which draws on the classical figure of Cupid and his meddling in human affairs. However, Wroth carves out her own space within the Petrarchan tradition by shaping her poetry from a distinctly feminine and maternal perspective: rather than an innocent victim of Cupid's trickery, Wroth positions her speaker as having an obligation to nourish the child and thus complicates the paradox of pleasure/pain by introducing the concept of parental compulsion and responsibility.

How might the form and meter of the poem speak to, complicate, or challenge its content?

The poem is written in regular trochaic tetrameter quatrains, meaning four-line stanzas of four metrical feet per line composed of a stressed and unstressed syllable. This meter is typically described as the "sing-song" rhythm in its simplicity and regularity, differing from the popular iambic pentameter meter that was said to most closely mirror human speech. The affect of this form in the poem is twofold: first, it produces an ironic tension between the grave complaint of a melancholy woman, suggesting the flippancy with which love can destroy a person. Second, because of the regularity of the meter, the poem lends itself to memorization and reads almost like a mantra by the end, suggesting that this poem is the speaker's way of coping with, making sense of, or imposing order on the chaotic paradox she experiences as someone overcome by erotic love.

Besides the Petrarchan tradition of courtly "love poetry," what other literary precedents are notable in Wroth's poem?

Wroth draws heavily on the classical tradition of Cupid as the god of desire and erotic love, portraying the experience of love as like that of tending to a small child who demands attention but ultimately has a manipulative agenda. Wroth also draws on Christian theological narrative when she describes the child's ability to flatter and cozen a victim. This allusion is less often attached to the classical image of Cupid (typically seen as a mere trickster) and more frequently associated with the figure of Satan from the Book of Genesis in the Christian bible. As such, Wroth creates a unique version of love that is equal parts mischievous, deceptive, and destructive.

This poem appears amidst a lengthy sonnet sequence Pamphilila to Amphilanthus. What is the effect of breaking up groups of sonnets with "songs" like this one?

The organization of a sonnet sequence by groups delineated by occasional songs is not unique to Wroth. In fact, the structure was first pioneered by her uncle, Sir Philip Sidney, and often duplicated by other aspiring sonneteers like Fulke Greville (Sidney's childhood best friend). Thus, on a superficial level, Wroth's inclusion of songs in her sequence puts her in direct conversation with her famous uncle and his work. But more importantly, the presence of songs to break up the groups of sonnets operates as a type of choral return throughout the sequence. Whereas the sonnet form tends to express a variety of complex and often antithetical emotions, as well as sticking to a loose narrative or plot, the songs operate as a means of returning the reader to the psychological state of the speaker. Such a structure suggests that the experience of love and the process of writing are parallel, devolving often into chaotic complexity but always returning to a particular state of mind.

How can the poem be read as a political allegory?

In the 1980's, the critic Arthur Marotti famously declared that "love is not love" in English Renaissance poetry. By this, he meant that the "love poetry" that so dominated the reign of Elizabeth was not about erotic love at all, but instead about political ambition: poets were also courtiers, and they used circulating poems as a means of gaining favor with the queen and those at court. One can apply a similar reading to Wroth's work, despite her publishing Urania during the reign of King James I. A regular at court, Wroth performed in a number of masques and was a notable favorite of James's wife, Queen Anne of Denmark. As such, one could interpret a poem like "Song" as a meditation on political precariousness and the tact with which one must approach courtly procedures lest he/she be dismissed, exiled, or pushed out of political favor.