My Darling

After we talked about the "Michael Field" poems in class yesterday, I felt like the poem I wanted to investigate a little bit further was "My Darling." This poem, the first time I read it, seemed like any other antiquated love poem that I've read in any number of classes in my life. However, the idea of this poem being written by an incestuous lesbian couple under a pen name in the late 19th century is one that causes more of my attention to be drawn to it. It is interesting that the very first word of the poem is Atthis, a female character found in Greek mythology, but after that there are no more indicators that the poem is written to a certain gender of person. Of course, the use of the word "darling" adds to the ambiguity in the poem. This is because the word "darling" is used by both sexes to describe a person of the opposite sex, or in this case, the same sex. It can be used as a romantic term or a less meaningful word based in the context in which it is seen. The fact that this poem was seen, in its time, as a poem from a man to a woman says a lot about the society in which the writers lived. This shows the idea that homosexuality has been a thing that has had to be hidden in the past for writers, or people in general, to have the success which they deserve for all of their talents. On a side note, I thought it was interesting that the term "Queen Dawn" was used in the poem. It would be very interesting to me to hear what an ecofeminist would think about this term in the context of this poem.