Content warning: discussion of sexual assault<\/p>\n
It is no surprise that John Gray, a Catholic priest, would include a subtil serpent in his poetry. In Gray\u2019s poem \u201cThe Vines,\u201d there is a snake who facilitates the immoral sexual activities of personified plants; he does this by using words and social position to create a stupefying environment. This leaves the feminine plants prone sexual predation. In this way, the poem depicts and condemns rape and the people who let it happen.<\/p>\n
The first characters introduced are Bramble and Woodbine, a newly married couple. Bramble \u201cclutches for his bride, \/ Lately she was by his side,\u201d implying a dazed bedroom scene, as if the Bramble is groping through his bed half asleep. The second part of the quotation may be a paraphrase of Bramble\u2019s words, like he is mumbling and looking for the Woodbine. The next line introduces Woodbine as having \u201cgummy hands.\u201d It may be a criticism from Bramble, that Woodbine sticks to other things and is unfaithful to him. However, it could also be the speaker undercutting Bramble\u2019s expectation that Woodbine is sexually available to him. She is clinging to anything she can to get away from the Bramble.<\/p>\n
Stanza four has two of the same lines as the first, those being \u201cBramble clutches for his bride\u201d and \u201cWoodbine, with her gummy hands,\u201d which establish a return to the scene after stanzas two and three. Now, Bramble has found Woodbine, and \u201cAll his horny claws expands; \/ She has withered in his grasp.\u201d The word \u201chorny\u201d carries its modern meaning of \u201clecherous.\u201d The word \u201cclaws\u201d makes this image explicitly menacing. The peculiar choice to use an antiquated plural (\u201cclaws expands<\/strong>\u201d instead of \u201cclaws expand\u201d) works to posit Bramble as old, ugly, lecherous, and violent. The Woodbine cannot get away, but why?<\/p>\n Her gummy hands may be one reason. But before this scene, other scenes of languid violence littered this picture. Something terrible has happened to \u201cpainted ivy\u201d; she is \u201cstretched upon the bank, all torn, \/ Sinewy though she be.\u201d The combination of her being \u201cpainted\u201d and \u201ctorn\u201d evoke a pretty woman, maybe even a prostitute, brutalized and left \u201cstretched\u201d in a vulnerable position. This was once a strong woman, however, as she is \u201csinewy.\u201d \u00a0This confirms that the \u201cwinter\u201d has made a change to these plants, possibly including the Woodbine. Convolvuluses are “love-lorn” flowers that \u201ccease to creep\u201d as they did before. Flowers are associated with female genitalia and youth. Such a verb as “creep” implies furtivity. I posit that the convolvuluses are young girls who are frightened and saddened by what they see has happened to the ivy, as if they had crept closer to see.<\/p>\n These plant characters are in a stupor, unable to stop themselves or others from acting on their impulses. But let us not assume that this is an organic phenomenon. I propose that the snake has dictated this condition. The poem starts with a quotation from an unnamed speaker: \u201chave you seen the listening snake?\u201d The snake who dictates when winter is over is one that no one has seen, at least not lately. They may even doubt if he is real. The other characters must know that he is their watchman, because they trust his authority about when the dawn is coming, although he is underground. This act of \u201clistening,\u201d and telling plants to \u201clisten\u201d as he does in the last stanza, is his way of denying what is happening to the female plants. Someone asks \u201cwho tells dawning,\u201d and he\u00a0 continues stalling, saying \u201clisten, soon.\u201d I am watching, he says, trust me. He will do this until the \u201cday burst winter\u2019s bands\u201d and brings the plants back to full consciousness. In this stanza, it says the snake \u201clistens for the dawn of day,\u201d but in the last stanza he moves the time to the afternoon. He is doing this is in self-preservation. He is \u201clistening death away,\u201d meaning his life is being sustained by making these heinous things happen. If we interpret “death” as the French \u201cLa Petite Mort,\u201d he is also observing the sex out of existence.<\/p>\n The \u201chalf-born tendrils\u201d in the last line may be the offspring of these plant unions. They, too, are grasping, just like their father “clutche[d] for his bride.” The evil done here creates more evil. This serpent is a facilitator only truly evil sex: rape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Content warning: discussion of sexual assault It is no surprise that John Gray, a Catholic priest, would include a subtil serpent in his poetry. In Gray\u2019s poem \u201cThe Vines,\u201d there is a snake who facilitates the immoral sexual activities of personified plants; he does this by using words and social position to create a stupefying … Continue reading Trussst in me, jussst in me<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5331,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125361],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2023-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}