The Supplement of the Self and Domestic Affections in Felicia Browne Hemans

--The Domestic Affections and Other Poems (1812) --

© Byeonghoon Hwang. 2002

The most controversial issue in England, during the early period of 19th century, was as to how to solve the conflict between the progressive and the conservative, change and tradition. Those days, new ideas and sensibilities, known as Romanticism grew across Europe. In the turmoil of the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, this new ideas came to flourish. With this changing mood, some ideas such as romantic ideas supported revolution. Others, such as the emphasis on history and religion, opposed the values of the revolution.

By the late 1790s, however, there existed a general wish for stability in France. Napoleon Bonaparte was the most politically astute, who had been a radical during the early revolution, and a victorious general in Italy, and a supporter of the attempt to suppress revolutionary disturbances. He consolidated many of the achievements of the revolution, establishing an empire. His ambitions drew France into wars of conquest and liberation throughout the continent. He provoked popular nationalism in opposition to his conquest. So the great diplomatic alliances eventually arose against France (Donald Kagan , 683).

During the swift changing period and war, Felicia Browne was born in Liverpool in 1793. The same year, France declared war on Great Britain on February 1, launching nearly a quarter of a century of war. Felicia Browne lived there, but her father's financial straits caused her family to move to a coastal village in North Wales. Even by age fourteen, she published a quarto Poem (1808). On the subscription of this poem, there appeared Captain Alfred Hemans, with whom she fell in love when they met in 1809. Captain Hemans was an army friend of her brothers, who were in Spain fighting against Napoleon (Susan Wolfson, Felicia Hemans, 476) In 1811, he came back to England, weakened and scarred from war. The couple married in 1812. When she was turning eighteen, her third volume, The Domestic Affections and Other Poems (1812) appeared. She lived in the period of Peninsular War against Napoleon (1807-14), which is the historical background for her poetry. Napoleon invaded Spain 1807, forbidding trade Britain. Britain immediately allied with Portugal and Spanish resisters. (476)

Moreover, Felicia Browne's two brothers, Thomas and George, as well as Captain Hemans served in the war in Spain (1804-14). She says, "those events are so associated in my[Felicia Hemans] mind with the most vivid recollections of early youth that I could almost fancy I had passed that period of my life in the days of chivalry, so high and ardent were the feelings they exited."(177) Spain is the subject of her thoughts and words - "my dream by night, my vision of the day. ("The letter To her aunt in Liverpool, 19 December 1808).

"The Domestic Affections", among the poems of The Domestic Affections and Other Poems, is as to the celebration of home and its feminine value - the ideals for which the nineteenth century would esteem "Mrs. Hemans: full of calm sweet pictures of most gentle and refining tendency (Susan J. Wolfson :Felicia Hemans, 4) In her poems of this volume, her feminine values are found and auditory images are more prevalent than visual ones in order to reinforce the aspect of auditory imagination. The poet's duty is to 'hark and hark'. It is the expression of the poet's will to make her fancy free, without her direct actual experience; She seems to close her eye to calm down herself and to ponder upon her poetic subjects and to describe these in her mind. In spite of the emphasis of the auditory images, she mentions 'eye' a lot - 67 times - in this volume. That means to expand her poetic realm through the sense of the 'eye.' She is eager to possess it. Her securing the 'eye' has her domestic affections more strengthened. Her domestic affections are expressed in her feminine values, her heroic patriotism and religion. She aspires the freedom, loyalty and universal benevolence and peace, harmonizing her visual sense with the auditory onefor her self. Looking into the delicacy of her poems, I'll elaborate upon the discovery of Felicia Browne Hemans 's empirical self and ideal self: The one experiences its limitation for the details of her poetic subject matters. With the supplement of 'eye or "mental eye"'( "The Domestic Affections", p.170), the ideal self expands the view for its description. As a result, her fancy gets strengthened to "fly to realms beyond the ideal world"("To the Head-ache").

I. Limitation of the Empirical self

The Domestic Affections and Other Poems is her early work, published in 1812 when she was at 18. She describes the natural landscapes, listening to the physical voices. For her auditory imagination, she relies upon the emphasis of her auditory images rather than the visual ones. The auditory imagination is used to depict the simple and conventional voices; "soft melodies resound, the warbled songs, soft dulcet notes, enchanted melodies, mellow sound, and sweet balmy fragrance" are frequently used in her poems. Her hearing, moreover, goes with the sense of the touch. The words, "sweet, balmy" are frequently used as well for her sense of smell. She says, "I'll rove, or I rove," but she turns to the sense of hearing and smell rather than her circumspect observing eye.

Her auditory imagination is used to describe the actual situation of Britain at her time. She lived during the Peninsular War against France. As shown in her poems, the war-field is filled with "those cries," which "rend the air of death, of torture and or despair". To crush the pride of hostile France, she, as a bard, expresses her aspiration to encourage the warriors with the praise songs of "every chord to rapture and to soul." The time is when "the sounds of martial wrath assail." She wants to "swell the harp, the lyre, the voice to bless, to triumph and to rejoice."

Far from being present at the War-field, she stays away from the miserable "bleeding wave" of War. In that place where she stands, every sound is hushed. "The winds and waves are lulled to rest. The breeze forgets to play. For her actual experience, the visual images and sensibility should play a crucial role. But she keeps a long distance, emphasizing the auditory images. She depends upon "harking." From the distant dell, she "hears angelic numbers swell…. And soft dulcet notes float on the breeze and melt away." All these things could be possible, because she relies upon the fancy. The scene to meet her view should be marked as "a scene of death, red combat raging on the plain." But she is envious of "the lone recluse in hermit-cell." To forsake the noisy world and to rest in calm shades, she should turn to the silence and the auditory imagination, instead of visual images. The time for her fancy in her poetry is 'night', which is illumed with moonlight and 'evening', ready for pensive hour. The 'twilight' steals along the silent dell, when all is silence and repose. Along with the changes of time into the night, the auditory operation dominates the visual.

II. Securing 'the eye' of the ideal self

Felicia Browne Hemans appears restricted in the auditory sense-obsessed. She, however, mentions 'an eye' a lot - 67 times - in her poems. She invokes the muse in order to possess a penetrating eye. This must be a process to expand her poetic realms, which have been limited by only turning to the auditory operation. The 'eye' helps her introspection to be deepened and profound. She gets power for her poetry.

She invokes the nymph with serene eye to "guide her to the flowery bower", where "peace and virtue love to dwell." She sees everything around her has its own eye and can have an eye-contact: She has a chance to see the "bright, Elysian worlds shown." With the supplement of 'an eye', the duty of the poet is 'to gaze and gaze'. When "winds and the mountain-waves subside and "the halcyon broods upon the tides", her troubled soul with the help of "maid of placid smile" wants to own the mild control of the angels. The visual images have been changed into the psychological images, all of which are added upon the auditory imagination. When she roves with "airy step and spirit free," she sees the sun-beam smile in gold" and "teaches love echoes to prolong." With the 'eye,' the mind of the poet comes to full pleasure: She enjoys the freedom to the full. In "Mountaineer - Song", when she stands in solitude of silence, the organs indispensable to the sensibility of the poet are both 'ear' and 'eye' for poetic pleasure. However, the visual operation is limited. Only through the physical visual organ, naked eyes of the poet, who didn't experience the war in person, she couldn't describe the War. The gazing attitude with "a mental eye" or "an inward eye" comes to show the will of the poet for the participation in her writing.

She, implicitly, mentions the limitation of the physical eyes in "To experience." She wants to avert "the frown austere of a sage of experience, whose eye is "aged and dim with ages." However, she asks the sage to teach "saddening tale and Precept stern." She depends upon the auditory operation, because "the lustre' from the sage's eye is "fled." Moreover, she observes the feeble eye and languid eye "forget to close" and keeps vigils during the night. Slumber also fled. ("To the Head-ache") Rather, those physical old eyes only present the poetic anxiety. As an example of the aged eye of "Experience", she recognizes that the search for the rest and peaceful pleasure through her physical eyes is limited.

She eagerly requires "the maid of the placid smile with beaming eye "to teach her to bless devotion's all-consoling power and guide her, "when the storms around her rise." The visual images get symbolized and settled into the "silence." She is led by the nature into the peace. So even though a thought and headache, "as "appalling guest and unwelcome guest," approach her, she can control her heart even in "sorrow's reign"("Address to Music"). The significant is that the inward eye obtained by invoking muse could be represented as the silent symbol for procuring the power of the control.

The empirical self in strife couldn't maintain the halcyon state only through the auditory operation. The harmony of the auditory and visual imagination is a prerequisite to complete the ideal self of Hemans with an inward eye. The ideal self plays a significant role for the unfolding of her poetry. Because the Peninsular War is irrelevant to her actual experience, she intends to interrelate her visionary sense and auditory one. At this point, she is immersed in the state of "placid mien and mild resignation's smile, 'mid the anguish." In "Lines To the Memory of a very Amicable Young Lady," she raises a question, "what pow'r can sooth a tender parent's grief or bring the friend's, the sister's woes relief?" She works out an answer for that: affection.

Tho' dark are the prospects and heavy the hours,
Tho' life is a desert, and cheerless the way;
Yet still shall affection adorn it with flow'rs,
Whose fragrance shall never decay!
……………….. she flies,
With artless delight, that no words can bespeak;
With a sun-beam of transport illuming her eyes,
With a smile and a glow on her cheek!
("To My Younger Brother, p.50: emphasis mine)

The gender of "affection" is presented as female. In the heart of the ideal self, affection forms.

III. Domestic affections

In an age of recoil from polemics for women's rights, Felicia Browne Hemans was summoned to idealize the "essentially feminine" as essentially "domestic."(Susan J. Wolfson, Re-visioning Romanticism, 131) In addition, she "refines and develops the feminine themes and subject matter"(Stephen C. Behrendt, 97). The domestic life and affections are referred to as the chief resource of woman's influence and writing sphere only for women in those days.

There is no enjoyment to compare with the happiness of gladdening hearth and home for others. It is woman's own true sphere.(Memorials I: 224)

These values are repeated and significant in The Domestic Affections and Other Poems. Hemans is a writer who focuses upon the mainly female region of home, religion, patriotism, and the affections. Henry Chorley, one of her memoirists, emphasizes, in his Memorials, her cultural work in defining the feminine locus for ideals for gender, and nation. He gives his praise to the "essentially womanly character." In spite of the trials of "woman", he presents a positive view to Hemans that it is more advantageous because the writer is a woman.

The love is without selfishness - the passion pure form sensual coarseness - high heroism … unsullied by any base alloy of ambition. In religious, too, she is essentially womanly - fervent, trustful, unquestioning, 'hoping on, hoping ever' - in spite of a painfully acute consciousness of the peculiar trials of her sex. (Memorials I:138)

1.Virtues in the family

First of all, her affection features itself as the setting-up of womanhood: motherhood, sisterhood, widowhood and daughterhood relationship. In the aspect of the characteristics of her poems, her poems have a 'mothering' voice. It seems to offer a comfortable domestic palliative to the troubles of life. Her poetry is a poetry that consoles, assuages, almost 'mothers' its reader: nothing is left over from its beneficently fortifying purpose. (Angela Leighton, 16) In her poems, the image of a mother of a valor who bears her sorrow and cannot weep in spite of her anguish, standing near the cold bier, is depicted to "let her hopes only sleep with virtue." While Hemans deals with the domestic affections, the portrait of a mother represents an afflicted figure. "The Domestic Affections" accounts for a mother's position.

Where youth is taught, by stealing, slow decay,
Life's closing lesson - in its dawning day;
Where beauty's rose is with'ring ere its prime,
Unchang'd by sorrow - and unsoil'd by time;
There, bending still, with fix'd and sleepless eye,
There, from her child, the mother learns - to die!
("The Domestic Affections," p.165)

Looking down the dying youth, the imploring mother stands and beguiles her woe with maternal love. In "To My Mother", she explains 'motherhood', the role of mother, is to "feel the sympathetic glow for human bliss or woe." She lays stress upon "mother's fostering care, grace and charms" No raptures could bestow but 'mother.' For Hemans, the 'mother' seems to be a being that provides bliss of life and warm care in spite of any conflict and strife. The image of mother is presented to put up with her sorrow and anguish. When Hemans mentions "parent", she ponders upon the only maternal relation. In "War and Peace," the parent (a mother) thinks about her son who fell upon the battlefield and will never return. But she conceals her "deep sorrows in her inmost heart." ("The Domestic Affections", p. 164)

Along with motherhood, Hemans's sisterhood is sincere and profound for her two brothers, Thomas and George. She thinks about them in "To My Eldest Brother," and "To My Younger Brother." In 1803, when Hemans was at 10, her elder sister, Eliza, died. She confronted the death when she was very young. As the eldest in her family, she also played a role of 'mother.' Her father left home never to return. She also had to perform the role of her father. In the financial straits of her family, she was placed in the Peninsular War. When Napoleon invaded Spain in 1807, her bothers, Thomas and George, served in that War, especially George under the hero-martyr Sir John Moore.(Susan J. Wolfson, Felicia Hemans, 475-6) In her poems, "To My Younger Brother," she rejoices to see and hear the personified affection. She is inspired by the muse to meet the "affection." "Her heart comes to be light and her spirits rejoice to meet her brother. She is confident that "the angels of mercy would shield her brother with care in the heat of the combat's alarm." In spite of the scenes of destruction of war, she confides herself with her "unfading affection" that the dangers endear'd her brother the more and her bosom glows with tenderness. While she thinks about her eldest brother, she expresses her cordial feeling for him and "the tear trembles in her affection's eye."

To faith still true, affection still sincere!
Then the past woes, the future's dubious lot,
In that blest meeting shall be all forgot!
……………..
Still shall it live, with pure, unclouded flame,
In storms, in sun-shine, far and near - the same.
("To My Eldest Brother", p.146-7; emphasis mine)

Her heart is depicted to be enthroned "within th' unvarying, firm and vital heart." She shows and emphasizes the constancy. Her affection is as much ardent as her fancy that "paints the greeting that awaits at home." Her affection's role is to console and assuage her anxiety and anguish.

Her mother had a special affection and confidence for her; "though she (Felicia Browne) is a child in years, yet her mind is so mature, that I think her quite competent to decide for herself, on a subject wherein she alone is most deeply concerned."(Susan J. Wolfson, Felicia Hemans, 478) The relation between mother and daughter was so intimate and affectionate. But her father made an indelible blunder for her affectionate mother and her family. He left home for Quebec in 1810, from where he never returned, leaving his wife and six children in considerable financial straits. This is the first male defection for Hemans , which had a direct bearing on her early poetic ambition (Angela Leighton, 9) Her young heart was broken and this event had a profound affect on her imagination. In "War and Peace," she mentions the widow's heart.

The lonely Day - star of her widow'd heart
He fell! - her woe, her soul-consuming grief,
Mourns in no language, seeks for no relief;
Forbids the mind in sympathy to grow, ("War and Peace", p.104)

Even though the death and absence of husband is unbearable agony, the widow doesn't show any resistance against her anguish. She calms down herself in silence and just withers her life away, enduring the pain.

Hemans's feeling and mental dependence for her real mother was greater than others. When her mother died in 1827, the loss was profound to 34-year-old Hemans.

………the death bed scene of my beloved and excellent mother is still as mournfully distinct as the week when that bereavement occurred, which threw me to struggle upon a harsh and bitter world. The loss of her mother was like a loss of Eden and a first encounter with the 'world.' The poems written soon after her mother's death possess a new, toughened sadness which, though it still seeks relief in lyrical platitudes and other worldly consolations, occasionally, also, betrays an edge of skepticism. (Angela Leighton, p.17)

Her mother's being must quite crucial for Hemans. She frequently mentions "filial love" in her poems. She seems to keep that word in mind for her mother. Exclaiming the fond and filial love, she expresses "filial devotion."

Oh, lovely May! Thou goddess of the grove!
With thee returns the smiling natal day,
Of her, who claims my fond, my filial love!
Bright as thy sun-beams may it still appear,
Calm as thy skies, unclouded with a tear! (Sonnet, p.16; emphasis mine)

On her mother's birthday in May, she feels responsible for her mother. Like the sun-ray, which "still" appears bright and calm, her filial love is constantly around her and unclouded with a tear. She also attempts to celebrate the domestic affections as a foundation of bliss. In "The Silver Locks," she praises highly the silvery shining. In this poem, she says there is nothing to be much more "blest and immortal theme for a poet than the shiny silver locks. This kind of extolment prevails over her heart, which prays for filial care for him. She says the filial love will make John Foulkes share his joys with "tender bliss" and console his pains. Her domestic affections are shown within a family as shown above.

2. Heroic Patriotism for Britain

Her domestic affections are expanded to the extent of the love of her country. This means her affections should be found within a home as well as outside of a home - her country. Her historic background is the Peninsular War (1807-14). Her poems were occasioned by adventures and misadventures during the War with France and its Napoleonic extensions. Hemans's awareness of the Napoleonic War and its aftermath access through family members posted to Canada, the West Indies, Flanders, Iberia, Paris, Vienna and Milan (Nanora Sweet and Julie Melnyk. 5) At her time, history itself is at stake. So she deals with the subjects like freedom or liberty in her poetry. During the War against Napoleon, she felt the loyalty to her motherland, Britain, which was at the state of War. The poem, "The Wreath of Loyalty" sounds like a song of Nationalism, which seems to pledge allegiance to her country.

In those days, females are forbidden to interfere in politics. But in the letter of December 19, 1808 to her aunt (the Misses Wagner), she expressed her interest in patriotism.

……my whole heart and soul are interested for the gallant patriots….. "valor and patriotism"… Excuse me for dwelling so much on this subject; for Spain is the subject of my thoughts and words.

The exalted heroism of a woman's soul may be excited by love, religion, patriotism, parental affection, gratitude and pity, as already mentioned above. Moreover, Hemans's noble and virtuous nature demands these qualities for her extraordinary occasion, which is only in situation requiring the exercise of the most powerful exertions. In her poems, she asserts the freedom of Britain and the loyalty to her motherland. Through the aspect of heroic patriotism, she refers to Britain as Albion, which is more frequently used in her poems than the word, Britain. In "Sonnet to Italy," Italy seems to enjoy the exuberance and the freedom on the surface. But Hemans extols Britain, saying "the inspiring freedom flies to Albion's coast." She aspires freedom for her country. She encourages the Spanish patriots (Spanish resisters to France) to unite in the freedom's cause. In "The Call of Liberty," She says, "nations of Europe need to imitate Albion and disdains the sword of oppression and tyranny's chain." Especially, the gallant Spaniards should fight ferociously for freedom, "or they should die."(p.142) She praises highly their noble spirits. Her and their watchword is "to crush" the pride of hostile France. She eagerly requires them to teach Britain the invincible spirit for the freedom. As the poet, she proclaims the end of a tyrant (Napoleon)'s reign in Marengo (where Napoleon defeated the troops of Austria). In "The Bards," she orders the valiant sons to rise. In patriot-flame, she confides them that the ancestors will sponsor their descendants for the British freedom.

Proud foes, in vain,
Prepare the chain
For Albion unsubdu'd shall reign. ("The Bards," p.65)

Their soaring mind is free. Their cause is freedom. For Hemans, it is certain that freedom's cause inspires "the valor's undaunted and resistless spirit."("War and Peace," p.95) The valiant is "firm in faith and lofty in spirit and unmoved by death."(99) She takes pride in the "Lion-heart" of British fortitude and the victory. She gets pleased with Britain's victory and the jubilee of the October 25th, 1809.

With myrtles wreath her victor-spear,
And ev'ry grief disown.
Oh! Let a people's voice prolong,
Proud Loyalty's triumphal song;
And faith, and truth, and valor, throng
Around Britannia's throne. ("The Wreath of Loyalty," p.123)

Her country is presented as a female name, Britannia, whose "freedom with lightning-eye and the intrepid look, the lion-heart are there."(130) Britannia gets fortitude with liberty and right. (133) With the loyalty, patriotic mind is kept in every manly heart. She encourages the valiant to fight against the enemy, France, stimulating the patriotism and their heroic deeds for victory. However, in that triumphant hour, the feelings of joy and sorrow are mingled; "for each banner fame and victory wave / Some sufferer bending o'er a soldier's grave."("War and Peace, p.105) She confronts scene of doubt, of care, of anguish." She depicts the nature which is "defaced and consumed by the vengeance and war." That's the scene where "virtue's doomed to languish and death triumphant rides and the cries of death, of torture, and of despair rends the air."("The Angel of the Sun, p.69-71)

3. Religious Sublimation

When she needs a power to sooth a grief and woe, she finds an answer in "Religion."("Lines" p.48) Her religion is around her with her "seraph's eye of smile."("War and Peace", p113) She has a belief in the power of religion "over this guilty globe"(p.120) and wants to be serene in "Religions' fane."(p. 134) She also aspires to see the "foes of mankind and religion consume." (pl 144) Hemans's strength is not military but muse-like, of voice.(Susan J. Wolfson, Re-visioning Romanticism, 150) She invokes the muse, angel of peace and nymph to "bless devotion's all-consoling power."("To Resignation," p.31) In the tranquil spot "of peace, joy and love serene" without war, surrounding nature is filled with peaceful exuberance. So she doesn't have to "envy the victor's wreath, because the Alpine flowers are unfolded for her."(Mountaineer-Song, p.83)
When she roves, her ideal self pictures the exuberance blessed in peace.

How blest! There ever to remain,
And warble still th' untutor'd strain,
……..
In rich festoons, the mantling vine,
Embow'ring, o'er its casement waves;
And bloomy clusters dangling, shine,
Thro' tendrils and luxuriant leaves - ("Mountaineer-Song, p.85)

Her empirical self has experienced the peace without war. But now, it comes to hear the sounds of martial wrath, "while the red banner floats."("War and Peace, p. 91) It sees destruction prevails over every nations and lands.

See passions desolate the ball,
See kingdoms, thrones and empires fall!
See mad Ambition's whirlwind sweep. ("The Angel of the Sun," p.71)

She says that these lands have been "devoted" lands. So she requests earnestly "spirit of mercy" to compose those passions, and to make "the muse's illusive dream and an ideal theme" come true. ("War and Peace," p.92) Her ideal self, soliciting the ideal theme, sees "fair virtue and a child of the skies rise." The child "smiles even on the pangs." Hemans's ideal self finds the child's virtues and depicts her with these adjectives, "noble, brave, adoring, sublime, august, lofty and graceful." This is the angel whom Hemans requests to give mercy and peace.

I see her lift th' adoring eye.
Forbid the tear, suppress the sigh;
Still on her high career proceeding,
Sublime! August! - tho' suffering - bleeding!
The thorn, tho's sharp, the blast, tho' rude,
Shake not her lofty fortitude! ("The Angel of the Sun, p.73)

The lofty fortitude is the virtue Hemans's ideal self wants to keep for her peace and domestic affections. The lofty fortitude provides a power to "disdain the frown of fate (death) and makes the "soul rise to life."(p.73)

Hemans's only answer is "the faith that transcends the phantom Eden of the earthly home to evoke the Eden of Heaven." The ideal home must finally be projected for Hemans. (Susan J. Wolfson, Re-visioning Romanticism, p.143) So her fancy of ideal self is in the skies with "heav'n-imparted ease ("War and Peace, p.91) On its shrine, calm abode, it feels that "it alone is free."(p.109) Her self's mental peace throws "tints and harmonizing light."("The Domestic Affections," p.150) Domestic bliss has fixed the calm abode.

She[angel] dwells, unruffled, in her bow'r of rest,
Her empire, home! - her throne, affcition's breast!
For her, sweet nature wears her liveliest blooms,
And softer sun-shine ev'ry scene illumes. ("The Domestic Affections," p.150)

The radiant shrine is "the fane of rest" and "matur'd to glory by exalting skies."("The Domestic Affections," p.151)

Through The Domestic Affections and Other Poems (1812), Hemans shows the production of writing that sustained the commonplaces of female and domestic ideal. The empirical self depended upon the auditory operation and images, because she could not place herself in the poetic background with the actual experience. So her empirical self experienced the poetic anxiety for the lack of the visual scene. But after the invocation to the poetic muse, nymph and angel, she got 'an eye', which means that her ideal self got powerful for her poetic delineation and overcame the anxiety. Her ideal self showed the female affections. Furthermore, she was eager to perform her work for her heroic patriotism, which showed her desire for freedom and the loyalty to Britain. But upon the horrible scenes of war, her ideal self was eager to take a rest in the religious peace. Her strength was not military but mental fortitude. In addition, she showed her constancy to endure her anguish.

Hemans herself, as a woman writer, had to face up the conservative reaction to the revolutionary decade of the 1790s. The nineteenth century was the era in which 'female participation' in the social and political affections seems to be a sphere of writing only for female writers. The tendency of doctrines of female subordination was dominant until the 1840s: woman's subordination to man was good and natural. To man, male authority was given. Those days, female readership enormously expanded reading materials for the education of daughters. Barbara Welter defined the crucial virtues which the womanly ideal in the nineteenth century rested on.

piety, purity, submission, and domesticity: The effort to confirm to this ideal engaged the energies of almost all women to some degree during at some part s and possibly all of their lives. It constitutes a female tradition. (Barbara Welter, American Quarterly, 151-74)

It could be said that Hemans showed the example of this tradition. Hemans's expression of those ideals, in the context of women's experiences glorified, could be a source of comfort to her readers. Within the dominant male culture, women's voice should be muted. So she seemed to depend upon the auditory imagination and her duty is to 'listen.' But as Harriet Hughes, Hemans's sister, commented on the contrast of the characteristics of her sister, Hemans was feminine in one way and masculine in the other.

It was scarcely possible to imagine two individual natures more strikingly contrasted; the one so intensely feminine, so susceptible and imaginative, so devoted to the gender and the beautiful; the other endowed with masculine energies, with a spirit that seemed born for ascendancy, with strong powers of reasoning, fathomless profundity of thought. (Hughes, Works of Mrs. Hemans, vol. 1 p. 142)

Two opposed ideology synonymously got unified in Hemans. She got fortified with this advantage. In "War and Peace," her appealing power for the unification of the European nations was resounding and strong. In this aspect, her feminine characteristics were not restricted. As far as Chorley was concerned, Hemans had brought feminizing refinements to the national literarue.(Carl Shiner Willson and Joel Haefner, 132) So Hemans's domestic affections are not only the crucial to the comprehension of her poems; but she also is the figure who surmounted the given restriction in her own way. She refines and improves the female theme and subject matters to the sublime level.

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