Posted: May 23rd, 2015

Poetics of Violence

Introduction

Violence can be defined as a physical hurt considered legitimate by the performer and illegal by witnesses. I have observed that this idea helps account for the cultural bias which we still have towards the idea of violence as a physical or material harm. Violence is a popular cultural concept that derives from a certain cultural tradition, which may understand violence as an illegitimate use of physical force and hurt. Ideas of violence are common in Irish, bodies of literature. However, this body of Irish literature that contains violence is further divided into categories of being written by male or female poets. Irish poets, such as Michael Longley, Michael Hartnett, Richard Murphy, and Patrick Kavanagh hold violence in a different regard than their female colleagues; namely, Vera Brittain, Eavan Boland, and Lucy Whitmell. The poem “Death of an Irish Woman” by Michael Hartnett offers a description of how Irish women meet their death through violence. The persona in the poem presents the reader to his relationship with a woman when he says “I loved her the day she died” (15-16). He further describes her as “a summer dance crossroads” (15-16). The summer cross road description portrays how women ambitions in Irish society are torn between violence and the law. Vera Brittain portrays the ways that women have devised to avoid violence against them. In her poem “lament On the Demolished” she shows how women take up men’s attributes since masculinity matters in Irish society.

In the poem, “Peace”, Michael Lengley talks about ways to end violence. He says “I understand some notions on how to avoid conflict among the society” (287-289). On the other hand, Richard Murphy in his poem “Trouville” demonstrates the dominance of violence in Irish society. Patrick Kavanagh in the poem the “The Great Hunger” he says “we will wait and watch the tragedy to the last curtain….” (69-70) He explores the theme of hunger and suffering hence offering a connection of how the suffering is faced by women more than men.

Eavan Boland’s “The Singers” In the poem the Irish is inspired, and their silence is challenged when the persona says “a voice where they found a vision” (16). He insists on the women getting a voice to advocate for their equality rights in the Ireland society.

Poems of Violence

Michael Longley, in his poem “Peace”, advocates against women and children violence. He preaches for peace and shows that it is the only way to follow (287-289). In his poem, the theme of violence is very evident, and he also offers a solution to the violence in society.

In the poem “Death of an Irish Woman”, Michael Hartnett describes how this Irish woman met her death. This is when he writes “I loved her from the day she died; she was a summer dance at the crossroads” (15-16). Although she was not minding much about her safety, the Irish woman fell on the hands of law and was jailed. From my point of view, justice did not prevail in jailing the woman. Michael portrays this through violence against women who have no choice but work in the wee hours for their survival together with their families. To my understanding, the poem is showing how women have suffered a lot and have eventually died. On one hand, the woman in the poem was very entertaining and hardworking, but on the other, there was a conflict between personal ambitions, work and law of the land. (Michael, 300-301).

From another angle, Richard Murphy in his poem “Trouville” expressed how violence prevails in his concerned society. In the poem “The Great Hunger”, Patrick Kavanagh despises the conflicts loneliness and rural life frustrations. He cries out on how the hunger is not sparing anybody and wonders if anyone will survive when he writes: “we will wait and watch the tragedy to the last curtain, till the last soul passively like a bag of wet clay, rolls down the side of the hill” (Kavanagh 13-15). He criticizes how people meet their death in the verge of trespassing ‘the no-man’s land’ in their quest for food. This is a portrayal of women as suffering more than men because they are the breadwinners (Kavanagh 69-70).

Differences between women and men in poetic writing

I feel that, in the western union, a hegemonic pattern of masculinity characterized by aggressive, authoritative, able bodied, heterosexual, and physical fitness is celebrated symbolically and presented as an ideal to young boys. Men with this kind of pattern have been noted to be violent and have an affinity for conflicts (Guiyou, 7-13).

Women are also very observant in their places of work and have noted certain gender patterns in their organizational culture. The mass media too has certain patterns of masculinity, celebrate certain codes of conduct and jeer at others too. The media are not responsible for foxing an individual’s conduct though it shapes self understanding and repertories of conduct (Emmanuel, 9-27).

On the other hand, I have observed that women poets in most times are portraying themselves as overseers and commentators on the issues of violence or war and events that their divergence offers. They do not meet individual death, but display themselves as survivors and face psychological tortures when they see their men being killed in the battle front. Women poets have always regarded and adopted a social attitude in believing that women held a place in the society, away from battle lines.

Matthew Leichty’s poem on “She Left No Bruises” is a real life story being narrated by an abused man. From my point of view, though the man is not physically hurt, his wife undermines him and assaults him. From this poem, it is clearly seen that the subject of the poem does not come out clearly. Unlike women, he admits that he has been undergoing through some kind of domestic violence. Moreover, there has been little systematic research on the characteristics of women arrested for partner assaults but recent researches concentrate on women victimization. Men seem to be prompted by their own personal experiences to write about violence and thus there are few men writing about it in poetry. There is misuse of public regulations against men when dealing with cases of domestic violence (Guiyou, 7-13).

I can clearly articulate that Patterns of masculinities have been observed to change over time. Education is a key contributing factor to the changing models of masculinity whereby schools and colleges reproduce old fashioned models. Education calls for some kind of thinking, reflection thus raising so many questions about masculinity as well as violence. Since many boys see men’s violence in their families, ethics that families portray and their ways of handling conflict should change in order to shape the boys’ own courses of conduct.

Jon Silkin and David Mcduff, in the famous writing within the penguin book about poetry’s of the first world war, narrate of understanding of war as shaking the foundations, a distress which had to be engrossed if traditions were to be endured (Silkin, 1-43).

Some women poets also place themselves in the context of men. In “lament On the Demolished”, by Vera Brittain expresses from his understanding when she says that they went home and discovered that they had accomplished. It is quite interesting as she is placing herself as one of the soldiers who had survived, imagining on how it could have happened if this was real.

It seems that male written poems on violence have also a focus on the public laws against them. It is argued out that following the many instances of violence against women, so many laws and penalties have been enforced on men even on the slightest mistakes.

Lucy Whitmell also in her poem, “Christ in Flanders”, does the same by writing, “But we were usual men. We had so many things in our mind”. I find such statements demonstrating the essence that women could not be regarded as crowds in the actual involvement, so can only reflect what this would look like in the women position.

They feel that most of the laws favor women, therefore, majority of the written poems depict that aspect. Most of the men writers advocate for equity and elimination of biases in the legislation of the laws dealing with gender violence. In their opinion, they claim that women also hurt men but little or nothing is done to those women. However, most men do not come out in open and report to the public those cases of assault since they are afraid of public ridicule. I find that they normally keep it secret on order to preserve their ego and self esteem. Some countries have gone to the extent of forming human rights groups to protect women against gender violence (Emmanuel, 9-27).

Eavan Boland, in her poem “Miss Éire”, applies the stereotype of Irish woman focusing her as a hunger stricken being and a prostitute. One curiosity I encountered in this poem is that she associates this with minimal representation of women in society and government. This has, however, gotten many critics, especially to the upcoming women poets, to term this as discrimination (Eavan, 7-22).

In most of the poems, men are complaining on the excessive protection on women. They seem to be angered by the essence in that; they are not capable of exercising their power of male chauvinism against their wives in domestic matters. Men have raised concerns that women are increasingly becoming violent and thus should be treated similarly as men batterers. In general, men feel threatened by the many laws favoring the girl child, and women in general.

I find that law against domestic violence is focused on women’s victimization rather than women’s violence against men in relationships. According to poems written by men, there is evidence that is primarily drawn from national representation and non clinical samples that women are more likely than men to report violence against romantic partners. There is still an ongoing debate about the validity of these statistics and the categorization in the context of women’s expansive risk of injury, victimization, as well as homicide from their partners. Nevertheless, the number of women arrests on domestic has been rising.

Women Written Poems

I have observed that most women write about violence relating to their personal experiences, and they are willing to disclose their identities, unlike men. Men are ashamed of disclosing their true identities especially when it comes to domestic violence. According to most women written poems in my view, men use undermining words such as “you are stupid”, “don’t dress that way”, “you are worthless” and such mentally tormenting phrases. According to most women, a number of factors contribute to men’s violent act (Christopher & Thomas, 13-43).

I found that, in women written poems, men are the main agents of personal violence against women. Besides they are more likely to bear weapons compared to women. The men are also frequently involved in organized violence such as gang violence and business violence. On the same note, they are the most recruited in the army or military in most parts of the world. Such military technology are often designed by men and even where women cannot enter such as the police force, soldiers, prison officers and prison security agents men are the majority. In other poems, men are the targets of certain types of violence such as public and business violence. Business violence would include intimidation and murder associated with illicit trade of drugs they are the most likely to be arrested and imprisoned with such cases.

According to other women written poems, men are viewed as naturally violent and thus prone to violence as a result of their genetic inheritance. These poems have clearly argued out that men are made more aggressive by their hormones and some think that it is a matter of both the male and female brains, working in different ways given various situations.

What I have learnt in men’s writings on violence is that, they always display themselves at the war zone, experiencing the worst moments of terror or even the tremors of threat and madness. They face real death, and the survivors get serious injuries. In the poem, they show men as courageous ready to face the enemy and not afraid of death. As demonstrated by Siegfried Sassoon in his poem, “Lamentations”, in which he points out how males should be illustrated, in matters concerning the description of the grief.

Culture Related Violence

As outlined in Christopher & Thomas book, I can clearly discover that boys are taught many rituals of violence when growing up. They are bought toy soldiers, and they are told many stories about legendary men leaders who killed their opponents. They are also given toy warplanes and battle games. In addition, boys are invited to play ritual combat games such as football whereby they are trained on how to overcome their opponent’s body in a contest of strength and more emphasis on aggression as the key to the game. Young men who win such competitions are awarded lots of money (Christopher & Thomas, 13-43).

On the other hand, girls are trained in household chores they are told by their mothers on how to cook, wash utensils and also how to make their beds as well as how to be good wives. Thus, girls grow with a sense of love, good relationships and the ability to relate with other people.

Men and Masculinities

I observe that Women also seem to raise the question of norms, ideas of human conduct, which should be set out and modeled in a gaze for all. Therefore, mass communication and art that create and circulate images of how men and women are, and their way of relating are also important arenas of action.

Women poems also advocate the public arena in reducing violence among boys. Though public laws against violence are not easy to enforce especially those against rape, they matter a lot. They can involve influencing men to be morally upright by threatening policies.

Significance of the differences

As a result, I find that discussions of the origins of violence and warfare have been analytically been distinguished from questions as to more proximate causes. In addition, there is an increasing emphasis that is given to cultural performance in curbing violence in society. However, in my view socio-cultural explanation breaks down at some point especially when one is trying to explain cruelty or rather extreme humiliating behavior that appears to go beyond any communicative meaning.

Various poets have observed origins of violence in a group conflict with evolutionary ideas about the progressive role of warfare and violence in the formation of human groupings. In my understanding, such warfare views are certainly important in thinking through possible, evolutionary, cultural ways of dealing with tradition, and the exercise of violence. This is because participants in many conflicts have explicitly appealed to tradition as a defining factor of their violent practice.

Death has also been a central focus in these poem narrations with a significant focus from those emanating from violence. I have discovered a close relation of death and violence especially those involving women. Irish women writers have significantly dwelled on this in a manner that they have openly discussed gender violence especially that which involve women.