ENG307H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Elegy, Isabella Kelly, Joanna Baillie
Document Summary
Jane cave: written a few hours before the birth of a child. Asks for child to die with her if she has to die. Thinks child will have dire fate if he survived; showed difficulty of bastard/step children. Mother protects child from beating storm of life. Imagines her own death; wants baby to carry on her legacy. Child"s future becomes burden to mother after his death, inherits the being and memory of her; mother as martyr (she died bringing life) Joanna baillie: a mother to her waking infant (442-43) Mother and baby both alive; a celebratory poem. Baby as a source of innocent joy, oblivious to life (sadness + reality) Hopes child will be around to help her after she grows up. Highlights the difference between innocence + experience, simplicity + complexity. Intimacy of mother + baby but at the same time, the baby"s in its own detached (happy) bubble. Babies remind us life"s not just state of woe.
