Feminine_Heart_in_‘the_Heart_of_a_Woman_and_Other_Poems’

Feminine Heart in ‘The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems’ ANFAL. M Department of American and Caribbean Literature, School of English Literature, EFL University, Hyderabad The poetical world in the African American Women’s literature is connected in any of the ways with the nature of African woman, their race, characters as well as spiritual passion inhibited in their hearts. Here, the close analyze of a volume of poetry “The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems” written by George Douglas Johnson, the most influential African American woman in Harlem Renaissance and highly respected black woman poet after Frances E.W Harper, bring the mind of reader to realize that the volume clearly states the various feelings of a woman’s heart in its ache and agony. Published in 1918, the volume is the first work of the author. Mrs. Johnson’s acclaim in the literature extends not only to poetry, but also to numerous plays, short stories and newspaper articles. Also, she achieved a high respect due to her socially involved practices especially her commitment to Harlem Renaissance. However, the human touched themes as well as the lyrical styles of rhymed lines that Mrs. Johnson had drawn in the “ The heart of a Women and Other Poems” made up mind of her readers to call her as ‘Lady Poet’. General Themes in the Heart Intensely feminine and deeply human touched themes are simply but interestingly presented in the volume. The mind of reader gets stricken by realizing the deeply hidden thoughts and feelings in the heart of a woman ( probably the poet herself ), the domestic love and joy and passion of her heart as well as her romantic visions and ambitions. The most respectful values which are hidden in the nature ranging from a scene of infinite sympathy, a spirit to the marvelous patience to the heart of a woman, thus making her a more respected and dignified character, are clearly depicted in all poems of the book. The structure and style of the poems in the volume is a pleasurable experience to the reader besides its enduring content of lines. Out of sixty-two poems compiled in the book, almost every poems tend to end with a very few lines resembling to the closed couplet styles of Elizabethan and Augustan age, but the themes and contexts bring the feelings of a romantic spirit. The simplicity garnered with different feelings of a woman’s heart is clearly depicted in the all sixty two poems. William Stanly Braithwaite asserts in his introduction to the book that “Mrs. Johnson creates just that reality of woman’s heart and experience with astonishing raptures. It is a privilege to know so much about the secret of woman’s nature, a privilege all the more to be cherished when given, as in these poems, with such exquisite utterance, with such lyric sensibility”. From ‘The Heart of a Woman’ to ‘My Little Dreams’ The first poem of the volume “ The Heart of a Woman”, which is also selected as title name for its higher significance in theme and content, compare the woman’s heart to a lone caged bird, soft winging, so restlessly on. Though it dreams of the stars, it cannot free from sheltering bars. Here, the poet tries to reveal the patriarchal constraints on women and their talent. The following poems in the volume create some voices and tensions as the first poem. Though a detail commentary on the all poems in the volume is not preferable in this short write up, a short overview on some of the poems can lead to understand the general taste of all poems in the volume. The poem ‘The Dreams of the Dreamer’ sketches the dreams take a person inward, to the ‘soul’s hourglass’ as in the poem. ‘Gossamer’ tells the purity and innocence of the hearts by symbolizing it to the frail of cobwebs. A very interesting fact that the poet explore in the poem ‘Peace’ is that peace lies in forgetting and forgot and by the resting of the body in the deep of wood. The poem ‘Sympathy’ gives the notion of sympathy that heart feels with the pain of another human. The poem ‘Contemplation’ is about the muteness of the soul, whereas the poem ‘Down’ compares morning to the bath of humanity. The height that the soul attains is the very theme of the poem ‘Elevation’. A Woman seeks happiness in the poem ‘Quest’, but the day ends by not getting the happiness and she still thirsting for it. The fifteenth poem of the volume ‘Repulse’ is a complaint of the poet that though she urges others to join in her gladness, she fails. The poem ‘Query’ comprises the questioning of a woman’s feeling she bears and the poem is confined to four lines, where as the poem ‘Pent’ describes the agony of a woman’s heart flooded by her tears while at same time rain falls outside steadily on thirsty earth. In the ‘Pages from the Life’, a man tells to a woman that she loves her divine soul not her beauty; but when she losses her beauty, he leaves her as a woman in solitude. The poet tells her dear one in the poem ‘Youth’ that the enjoying moments may be back to the life of a person again, but the same moments will never return. The ‘Isolation’ reveals the pain of a woman by her destiny to live in solitude. The poet in ‘When’ calls with her heart voicelessly her beloved one who is dead and she hopes that voiceless call from her heart will turn her dear’s dead soul alive. Showing the tiredness of the poet’s heart by the suffering of monotony with no one to cheer her, is the very theme of the poem ‘Tired’. The poet assures in ‘Inevitably’ that there is nothing in the world like a long termed memory. She sorrows in the poem ‘Foredoom’ that her soul was never bloomed. The absolute condition of the poet does not allow her to be happy whenever she tries to get it, as it is her subject ‘Whenever I Lift My Eyes to Bliss’. She tells in ‘Supreme’ that the love which remains after the passionate youth of life is the greatest love. She further says in ‘Recompense’ that the love stoops to the deep of heart after its pain by the love, whereas the poem ‘Illusions’ drags the theme of human’s destiny with their dreams shattered. The poem ‘Devastation’ unveils the sad condition of the poet’s heart which is torn down by the failure of her love. The book is brought to the end with the poem ‘My Little Dreams’, which relegates a woman’s dreams insisted with her imagination, creativity and ambition of the heart. There could be seen some radical critical evaluations that some of critics take on the Heart. William Stanly Braithwaite considers Heart as intensively feminine by using words such as ‘romantic, poignant, marvelous, patience and wonderful endurance. Tate declared the Heart as the association with the poetic imagination. It will be a strange experience for one if he/she expects from the Heart a kind of black or slave themes which are commonly visible in the works of other American black writers, instead he/she would surely dwell upon the feelings and inner talks on the painful as well as the inexpressible conditions of a woman’s heart irrespective of her class or race. It should be rather noticed that the simplicity of choosing words and lines for the various powerful themes of the Heart, makes it one of the classics of African American women’s literature and the volume accredits for the author a well respect in the world of African American literature. The first book of Douglas Johnson is thus a voice of women’s heart combined with her poetic imagination composed in inspiring lyrical style. It is a manifestation of acknowledgment to the inner-burden and agony of the female condition. References 1. THE HEART of a WOMAN AND OTHER POEMS. GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON. (WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE) BOSTON, THECORNHILL COMPANYs, 1918. 2. The Oxford Companion to Women’s Writing in the United States. Ed. Cathy N. Davidson, et al. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Copyright © 1995 by Oxford University Press. 3. The Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 51: Afro-American Writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Trudier Harris. Copyright © 1987 by the Gale Group.