Full+Moon,+Soren's+Analysis

Elinor Wylie’s full moon is a poem which speaks about the author’s repression as a woman due to her social status using mostly metaphor and some imagery. Full Moon is a poem that that though in the context of the authors life seems fairly straightforward, rarely says anything explicitly and relies on us to figure things out. Wylie also shares a certain romantic obsession with nature which she uses to illustrate her repression and ensuing alienation. One of the most important building blocks for our view of this poem is that it is in the first person, whether this means the author is speaking or some character of her own invention is speaking is important to consider in analysis of the poem. In the case of full moon Wylie is using herself as the speaker or at least a character similar to her as she speaks of repression due to a high social status and the ensuing expectations place upon her. This poem comes from at time in her life where she felt so constrained by her societal ties that she had to elope with a man so as to get around her families wishes, in that light it is fairly safe to assume that a desperate and repressed Wylie was speaking of herself in this poem. If we interpret the poem in the context of a young woman who is feeling incredibly limited by the possible futures shown to her placed o by society then the poem becomes a lot clearer. Full Moon makes extensive use of metaphor and imagery to speak of the authors repression. The use of metaphor gives its opening two stanzas a more subtle tone as if the author has to be secretive in her complaints, never explicitly speaking of her dissatisfaction until the final stanza. In the first stanza she uses the opulence of her furs and black gauze which she describes as “heavy” and “beggarly” as a symbol for the societal pressures of her upper-class lifestyle. Because she is “muffled” by this opulence she is separated from the moonlight. The moon is a very complex object symbolically, it can means subtlety, femininity and freedom. The light of the moon gives us the ability to operate at night away from the eyes of the rest of humanity separated from the pressures and restraints self consciousness puts on us and able to be ourselves, thus the moon means freedom. In classical mythology the moon is Artemis or Diana a chaste but free woman able to hunt in the wild on her own and so it is this aspect of feminine freedom that her wealth and opulence keep her from. Another element of the pervasive moon symbolism is the nature aspect of the moon. If we view the moon as representing freedom and her wealth preventing her from getting that freedom we can see a romantic view that nature is good and city life is bad. Her opulent clothing is all man made impractical clothing that shows how far she is removed from rural life. While the fact that freedom is represented by the one very natural item in that stanza shows the belief that her wealth keeps her from nature as well as freedom or even that the keeping her form nature keeps her from freedom. In the second stanza Wylie reinforces her repression with some of her most enigmatic poetry,

“Harlequin in lozenges Of love and hate, I walked in these Striped and ragged rigmaroles;”.

A harlequin is a character from Italian plays who’s primary characteristics was physical agility while a lozenge is either a diamond like geometric shape or a small hard candy. Both of these objects occupy a very small physical space, so the metaphor “harlequin in lozenges” refers to a very agile energetic individual packed away in a small space and hence alludes to repression. Two other important ideas is that this energy refers to love and hate, meaning a relationship and “striped and ragged rigmaroles” referring to worn out pointless phrases. I believe that what she is trying to get across is that society is packaging her romantic experiences up in small tastes of acceptable relationships that are controlled (lozenges) and pointless (rigmaroles). This shows that her repression is not only in what her future will be but also the romantic choices she will be able to make. The third stanza describes the hopelessness Wylie feels in such a repressive society. She says she is forced to shoulder their corrupt morality and could not separate herself from it despite how much she tries. It is in this stanza that she introduces the bone metaphor which is very important for the last two stanzas. Her metaphor for discounting their "corrupt morality" is rip them from her ribs. In this case the bones and skeleton of the body represent the innermost part of her that remains most her own despite the corrupting influences of society. This might stem from the passage in the book of revelations where the part of the body that is brought back from the dead in the end times is the bones, representing their embodiment of the enduring part of the soul. So when she speaks of her bones trapped in a carnal mesh she means she is trapped in by he flesh and clothes which embody her position in society and social expectations. Wylie is a very romantic poet though she focuses mostly on the aspects of nature and the corrupting influences of society. The Idea that her clothes (society and wealth) separate herself from both freedom and nature shows a disregard for civilization from the start. In fact the entire poem is about how repressed she as an individual is by the society which keeps her form a more natural idea of a woman embodied by Diana and the moonlight. Though there is little talk of a companion or imaginations eh does bring in enough romantic ideas I feel it is safe to call her a romantic. I feel one other interesting aspect of the poem is that though Wylie's tone is very despairing throughout the poem in her life she did break free to an extent, she eloped twice and was able to marry the person she loved. so in a sense she broke free of the childhood restraints that were placed upon the way she lead her life but she did not break free of the societal restraints. She was seen as a little scandalous by her contemporaries and her three marriages were spoken ill of, it is not until modern feminist critics have revived her that much interest has been shown to her work. In conclusion "Full Moon" is a stirring poem which uses metaphor and symbolism to speak of the authors childhood (and somewhat lifelong) oppression. Wylie creates a beautiful poem that really shows how she felt as a youth and to some extent holds true in her adulthood.