The poet Michael
Field was not actually a man. Or a woman. Michael Field was the
pen name of two women who lived in Victorian England, Katharine Bradley
(1846–1914) and Edith Cooper (1862–1913). The story is even more complicated than
that. Katharine Bradley was Edith Cooper’s aunt, and they were lovers who lived
together as a couple. The two were accomplished authors who collaborated to
write eight books of poems and numerous verse dramas.
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| Michael Field: Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper |
Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper, like many women writers
of their time, published under a man’s name as a way to be taken seriously. In
fact, once the secret got out that they were really a female writing duo, their
work was reviewed less earnestly by critics, as the novelist and critic Emma Donoghue documents in her
engaging and beautifully written biography, We Are Michael Field.
In their time, “the Michael Fields,” as they were called by their circle,
were befriended and accepted by many of the leading writers of the day,
including Robert Browning, Oscar Wilde, and Havelock Ellis. They were true eccentrics who actually wrote a book of love poems to their deceased lap dog. Their work fell out
of fashion toward the end of their lives and has only recently received new
attention. I’m extremely grateful to Professor Pearl Chaozon Bauer of Notre Dame de Namur University, who acquainted me with their writings and is part of
a new wave of scholars reviving the work of Michael Field.
The work of Katharine Bradly and Edith Cooper declined
in renown partly because of sexism and homophobia. Their poetry also dropped out of favor because the Michael Fields accepted
many of the conventions of Victorian style. They preferred “thou” to “you,” “doth” to “does,” and
used poetic interjections such as “O!” The pair often wrote in rhyme, meter, and
form. Since their careers ended right at the same time that modernism was purging poetry of the cliché language of the nineteenth century, the poetry
of the Michael Fields was lost in the tidal wave of new writing that discarded
more traditional diction.
Then why is it important to give the work of the Michael
Fields another look? Because their poetry still feels contemporary and exciting in many
ways. They were clear-sighted writers who saw with a fresh and free-thinking
perspective. Here is a poem of theirs I particularly like:
Nests
in Elms
The rooks are cawing up and down the
trees!
Among their nests they caw. O sound I
treasure,
Ripe as old music is, the summer's
measure,
Sleep at her gossip, sylvan mysteries,
With prate and clamour to give zest of
these—
In rune I trace the ancient law of
pleasure,
Of love, of all the busy-ness of
leisure,
With dream on dream of never-thwarted
ease.
O homely birds, whose cry is harbinger
Of nothing sad, who know not anything
Of sea-birds’ loneliness, of Procne’s
strife,
Rock round me when I die! So sweet it
were
To die by open doors, with you on wing
Humming the deep security of life.
It’s so unexpected that cawing crows become for the speaker
of this poem a reassuring presence, affirming the calm persistence of life. I
often think of crows as annoying, noisy, dirty birds, but Michael Field surprisingly sees their vitality and tenaciousness. The crows stimulate the
poets to write in runes of “the ancient law of pleasure,/of love”—a pagan and joyous
celebration of the carnal side of life. Not what I think of as Victorian
poetry, at all! Even within the confines of this Petrarchan sonnet, Michael
Field manages to include thrilling language: “Rock round
me when I die!”
Sadly, both Katharine and Edith succumbed to the family
illness of cancer, Katharine dying at 67, and her niece Edith at 51,
predeceasing her aunt by ten months.
If you don’t know the writing of Michael Field, take
the time to seek out their work. They’ll surprise you with the sensuality and
depth of their poems.
Zack’s most recent translation, Bérénice 1934–44: An Actress in Occupied Paris by Isabelle Stibbe
Other recent posts on writing topics:
How to Get Published
Getting the Most from Your Writing Workshop
How Not to Become a Literary Dropout
Putting Together a Book Manuscript
Working with a Writing Mentor
How to Deliver Your Message
Does the Muse Have a Cell Phone?
Why Write Poetry?
Poetic Forms: Introduction; The Sonnet, The Sestina, The Ghazal, The Tanka, The Villanelle
Praise and Lament
How to Be an American Writer
Writers and Collaboration
Types of Closure in Poetry
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