The Poetry of Mary Robinson: Form and Fame

The English Sappho 135

sexual passion—“the treach’rous spells of low desire” and its “vulgar

joys,” which “wound” and “debase” “the sense,” or reason. Formally,

Robinson demonstrates her mastery of the legitimate sonnet by con-

structing a perfectly Petrarchan octave in which to introduce the first

part of the series’ theme: worthy poets maintain control of their pas-

sions just as they do of their forms, and so through formal discipline,

they earn fame.

Turning here at the volta, Robinson explains the second part of

the theme so that the “introductory” sonnet demonstrates the unity

and formal propriety that she associates with emotional continence.

Moreover, the poem concludes according to the criteria for the legiti-

mate sonnet, adhering to the rhyme scheme so difficult to manage

in English, with only four rhymes in a total of fourteen lines. As the

octave asserts the gifts bestowed by the Muse on the poet, the sestet

attests to the benefit the poet’s talent apportions to the rest of generic

humankind:

For thou, blest POESY! with godlike pow’rs

To calm the miseries of man, wert giv’n;

When passion rends, and hopeless love devours,

By mem’ry goaded, and by frenzy driv’n,

’Tis thine to guide him ‘midst Elysian bow’rs,

And show his fainting soul,—a glimpse of Heav’n. (9–14)

But the course of the sequence rarely leads Robinson’s Sappho to such

divine visions, calming the lover’s burning passion; in fact, most of the

sonnets depict rending passion and devouring hopelessness, culmi-

nating f inally in suicide. The imputation as the sequence progresses is

that “blest Poesy” has failed to provide solace for Robinson’s Sappho.

Because this figure is allegorical, the failure ultimately is Sappho’s.

Robinson positions herself as a poet- narrator who is far above the

earth- bound passions of her degenerating subject.

Love in Sappho and Phaon is a terminal but preventable disease.

Sappho’s mistake is allowing herself to become so dependent on a

man’s love that she has lost both her reason as well as her poetical

powers, and the discipline and temperateness necessary for literary

art. Erotic love is the subject of lyric poetry, but it must not over-

whelm the reason and discipline required to produce the art. As the

opening sonnet asserts, lyric prowess consists in the subordination of

passion to poet ica l reason ing. By fra m ing t he sequence w it h a n appa r-

ently androgynous poet- narrator—androgynous in the sense that

the authorial figure of Mrs. Robinson merges with those of Ovid,

9780230100251_05_ch03.indd 1359780230100251_05_ch03.indd 135 12/28/2010 11:08:41 AM12/28/2010 11:08:41 AM

10.1057/9780230118034 - The Poetry of Mary Robinson, Daniel Robinson

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