Full+Moon

Notes: My bands of silk and miniver8 Momently grew heavier;7 The black gauze was beggarly thin;8 The ermine muffled mouth and chin;8 I could not suck the moonlight in.8

Harlequin in lozenges7 Of love and hate,4 I walked in these Striped and ragged rigmaroles;12 Along the pavement my footsoles8 Trod warily on living coals.8

Shouldering the thoughts I loathed,8 In their corrupt disguises clothed,9 Morality I could not tear8 From my ribs, to leave them bare7 Ivory in silver air.7

There I walked, and there I raged;9 The spiritual savage caged8 Within my skeleton, raged afresh10 To feel, behind a carnal mesh,8 The clean bones crying in the flesh.8


 * Poetic Structure**: "Full Moon" follows a rhyme Scheme of AABBBCDEEEFFGGGHHHII. All the stanzas are five lines and the last two lines of any stanza has the same number of syllables and often the last three lines are very close to being all the same syllable length.


 * Imagery**: Though the two main symbolic images of the piece are only mentioned twice, but they set the tone for the piece and really give us the context to view it through. In fact there is not a lot of descriptive language surrounding the moon but it still dominates the poem due its name and its very important presence in coloring our perception of the poem early on. The sparsity of language surrounding the positive metaphors of the poem (bones and moonlight) are interesting to note in contrast with the riches that isolate Wylie and are described in more detail. A possible interpretation is that she wishes to contrast the superfluous detail of fur coast and black gauze with the truly beautiful natural simplicity of the moonlight.

Another Possible allusion/metaphor are the bones int he last two stanzas. Wylie Uses bones to refer to the part of her that is uncorrupted by the morals thrust upon her by society (as evidenced by the fact that she tries to rip the false morality off them and the negative connotations of the word carnal). The bones are the most enduring part of her the self, this might be connected to the book of revelations when the part of the body that is most enduring is the bones and thus the part brought back by Ezekiel and god. of course this is not a direct reference to the bible but to a general mythological understanding of the bones as the most eternal part of the human.
 * Definitions and Allusions** [|Rigmarole][|Harlequin] [|Miniver] [|Ermine] The Allusion to the lozenges and harlequins refers to Harlequins reputation as incredibly agile and physically swift, while the lozenge could mean either the geometric diamond shape or the hard candy/medicine both of which occupy a very small physical space. which means it is a metaphor indicating either a graceful person trapped in a small space indicating the repression the author felt as a youth or the amount of energy and gracefulness packed into a small amount of time and experience. Both of these are possible as Wylie did feel repressed as a youth and as an adult entered into several relationships so intense they required immediate gratification (elopement) within a short period of time (the small space of a lozenge). However due to the tone of the poem I think the repression is more likely as the overall tone of the poem is more despairing then hopeful. However full moon was first published in Black armor in 1923 the same year that the author eloped with Phillip Hichborn lending credence to the theory that it describes the intensity of her short relationships.


 * Paraphrase:** My social status and wealth prevent me form experiencing nature and freedom. Society gives us small doses of acceptable emotion and in these pointless and scripted emotional exchanges I carefully avoid real free emotion. I pretend to conform hiding my true feelings. I cannot remove their ideas from me and allow myself to experience my own life and emotions. So I feel stifled within the cage of societies expectations hoping that the parts of me that are most my own can some day shade the trappings of society.


 * Tone** The tone of Full moon is despairing, the author includes no hope of her escape from these corrupt moralities and carnal meshes that so restrain her. Stanza one and stanza 4 both end on a very despairing note. in Stanza one Wylie is unable to suck the moonlight in representing her inability to commune with nature and freedom. In Stanza four she ends ont he note that her bones (self) is crying within a carnal mesh that has been established as unbreakable, in short she is squashed by the pressure of society and we are elft with no hope for the author except for the fact that she has not internalized these values.


 * History of Elinor Wylie**: Elinor Hoyt Wylie was born in Sommerville New Jersey in 1885. She was raised in a very literary family and form a young aged was recognized at least among them as a prodigy. Evidently Elinor felt repressed in her childhood and was not happy, her father supposedly kept a mistress and her mother was not very present due to being a Chroinc Hypochondirac. Several of her sibling dies young and Elinor Herself suffered severe high blood pressure leading to painful migraines and eventually a fatal stroke. Elinor broke away from her family when she eloped with Philip Simmons Hichborn when she was 25, later she eloped again to get of this marriage and married Horace Wylie. Her eventual third marriage came in 1923 to William Benet. Her multiple marriages and affairs were quite scandalous for the time and gave her a certain ill reputation, and also was said to distract her from her career. It was in 1921 when Elinor Wylie published her first collection of poetry. She was most known for her sonnets. She died on December 16, 1928.

Video
 * Video:**

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Sources: N.A., "Elinor Wylie Biography". Famous Poets and Poems. December 6, 2009 .

Sid Soren Sarah