Recognition and Ridicule:
Defining the Highs and Lows of Fame in Felicia Herman’s “Woman and Fame”
A little part in all of us wants or dreams to be famous.
We strive and wish to be recognized for all of our hard work and achievements.
Felicia Hemans’s poem “Woman and Fame” shows a woman’s bittersweet battle with
fame and what it entitles to women in her era. Not only does she show her need
and yearning for recognition in her field of writing, but also explains to the
reader the darker truth of fame, of what one, especially women, would have to
endure at the price of achieving a high status as a literary figure. The
question that I have conjured from this poem is if fame with all of its
publicity, riches, and it’s golden access to everything you could ever want worth
the ridicule, and consistent stabbings of critics who wish to see you fail? Is
the stress of being in the eye of the public where every step you make is calculated
and ever so indelicately observed, worth it? Hemans answer is clear, yet her
poem still stands in the middle, for whichever choice you choose, in a way you
still lose.
In the paraphrase before the actual poem, Hemans is
building up what you are about to read. She backs up her first stanza by
explaining how fame brings happiness in full:
Happy—happier far than thou,
With the laurel on thy brow;
She that makes the humblest
hearth,
Lovely but to one on earth.
(1-4, paraphrase)
Here Hemans is paraphrasing one of her poems, “Corinne at
the Capitol”. Perhaps by mixing the lines from this poem with “With the laurel
on they brow” (2), signifies how her poetry has brought her fame. Poets were
originally honored with crowns of laurel after they were recognized for their talents.
Hemans is trying to say how very happy she is to be honored for her poetry, a
happiness that cannot be compared to anyone else’s happiness. Her happiness
that she has received is “lovely but to one”, meaning that it is a rare honor,
that comes to the few who deserve it on earth. From an initial reading and with
the paraphrasing from her other poetry it is initially safe to say she is
speaking about herself and her honor.
Upon reading the first stanza of the poem it looks like
Hemans is speaking directly to fame personifying it. The feeling of this stanza
is mixed, it feels as if Hemans if putting fame on a pedestal, one in which she
cannot reach. This is completely contradictory to the paraphrase before.
Thou hast a charmed cup, O
Fame!
A draught that mantels high
And seems to lift this earthly
frame
Above mortality.
Away! To me—a woman—bring
Sweet waters from affection’s
spring.
(1-6)
Lines 1-4 are evidence that Hemans is in a way praising
fame. It is something godly and above mortality. In the third stanza she states
that fame “seems to lift this earthly frame” which makes me believe that the
fame is hers changing her mortal vulnerable form into something untouchable.
She speaks the truth; fame brings a sense of immortality, even when a figure of
importance dies they have printed themselves in history to forever be
remembered. Perhaps this is what Hemans wishes to obtain from fame. All of the empowerment
in the first four lines leaves the last two lines perplexing.
Away! To me—a woman—bring
Sweet waters from affection’s
spring.
Now it seems like Hemans is trying to say that either she
wishes and yearns for this fame to be away from her, so that she can return to
a mortal, normal state, or that this fame is too godly for her, a woman, to
have. Perhaps it’s a little of both. As evidence from the first few lines goes
it is clear she praises fame, but at the same time her words feel submissive. I
believe she feels that her and her fame are two different beings. She has
almost become a servant of her own fame. She has separated herself from the
thing she has so yearned to have possibly realizing that it’s not as great as
it looks to be. This can be proved from woman in literature from her history.
Yes she was recognized for her talents but also ridiculed for being a woman in
poetry. Fame for women also came with a price one that seems to have taken a
toll on Hemans in this first stanza.
The praise and yearning continues in the second stanza.
She brings back the symbol of the wreath of laurels; the last three lines hold
an abundant proof that Hemans fame is not the kind of fame she was looking for:
Heroes have smiles in death;
Give me from some kind hand a
flower
The record of one happy hour!
(10-12)
When war heroes return home they get the upmost respect
and recognition. No one is putting them down or ridiculing them, all people are
happy and cheer for them, and never think twice about weather what they had
done was wrong. This is the kind of fame that Hemans wants. It seems as if the
wreath of flowers was never something that she had gotten, but one she knows
she deserves.
In the fourth stanza she shows the second half of what
fame brings the ridicule. She uses words such as “mockery”, “sick”, and “sympathy”
to show her heartache. Lastly she says “For tender accents that are gone” (24).
This shows that their once was a time where she didn’t have to deal with people
ridiculing her, but now that’s all but gone.
The last stanza answers my questions above. Hemans thinks
that fame shouldn’t rule us and it shouldn’t be the thing to control our
choices in life, nor rule what we love to do. We shouldn’t turn to fame to fix
out answers or our lives, because no matter how much money or publicity we
gain, there is always a bad side to every situation, and fame brings the worst
out of all people. Fame should not be the cool fountain we need to drink from
or the prop that holds and controls what we write and feel. We must make out
own choices and life our lives how they are meant to be, and if fame comes our
way we shouldn’t drown in it but attempt to benefit from it. Hopefully, we don’t
lose ourselves along the way.
