America. The personified spirit, or genius, of civilisation, abandons Britannia in Barbauld’s vision: There walks a Spirit o’er the peopled earth, Secret his progress is, unknown his birth. Moody and viewless as the changing wind, No force arrests his foot, no chains can bind (Lines 215 – 218) The genius of civilization in the poem is decidedly male, and a masculine pronoun is frequently employed to distinguish this personification character from the feminine “Fancy” (line 113) who preceded him. This is emphasised throughout the poem, as we repeatedly see the masculine pronoun: “Secret his progress is, unknown his birth” (line 216); “No force arrests his foot” (line 218), “Where’er he turns” (line 219); “He thinks, he reasons”, (line 221, emphases mine). The freedom of movement that the figure represents is understood to be a masculine prerogative in Eighteen Hundred and Eleven. The dynamic in the genius section is undoubtedly following the reductive traditional format that insists feminised nature and the feminised nation is subject to masculine manipulation. It is revealing that Barbauld writes of the relationship between the genius of Britain as one in which “Obedient Nature follows where he leads” (line 223). The surrounding lines explain how the genius has separated himself from a state of brutishness and has acquired a level of civilisation which apparently bestows superiority upon the genius figure: Where’er he turns, the human brute awakes, And, roused to better life, his sordid hut forsakes: He thinks, he reasons, glows with purer fires, Feels finer wants, and burns with new desires: Obedient Nature follows where he leads; The streaming marsh is changed to fruitful meads;
America. The personified spirit, or genius, of civilisation, abandons Britannia in Barbauld’s vision: There walks a Spirit o’er the peopled earth, Secret his progress is, unknown his birth. Moody and viewless as the changing wind, No force arrests his foot, no chains can bind (Lines 215 – 218) The genius of civilization in the poem is decidedly male, and a masculine pronoun is frequently employed to distinguish this personification character from the feminine “Fancy” (line 113) who preceded him. This is emphasised throughout the poem, as we repeatedly see the masculine pronoun: “Secret his progress is, unknown his birth” (line 216); “No force arrests his foot” (line 218), “Where’er he turns” (line 219); “He thinks, he reasons”, (line 221, emphases mine). The freedom of movement that the figure represents is understood to be a masculine prerogative in Eighteen Hundred and Eleven. The dynamic in the genius section is undoubtedly following the reductive traditional format that insists feminised nature and the feminised nation is subject to masculine manipulation. It is revealing that Barbauld writes of the relationship between the genius of Britain as one in which “Obedient Nature follows where he leads” (line 223). The surrounding lines explain how the genius has separated himself from a state of brutishness and has acquired a level of civilisation which apparently bestows superiority upon the genius figure: Where’er he turns, the human brute awakes, And, roused to better life, his sordid hut forsakes: He thinks, he reasons, glows with purer fires, Feels finer wants, and burns with new desires: Obedient Nature follows where he leads; The streaming marsh is changed to fruitful meads;
Faces%20of%20Nature.docx