ENGL347 Women Writers
tradition . Their more salient connection , however , lies in the reader ’ s re-evaluation of the collective consciousness of witches . In giving a poetic voice to the voiceless , we are forced to consider the persecuted women behind the gendered label of witch , as the authors use them as a vehicle to merge female experiences of the past and present .
Mary Coleridge ’ s poem ‘ The Witch ’ is one that revolves around ambiguous voice and manipulation . The generality of the title itself encompasses the historicity of witches as a perennial collective , but the lack of plurality counterbalances this , with the reader inferring that the first-person voice emanates from an individual yet representative witch . The initial line of the poem ‘ I have walked a great while over the snow ’ corroborates this in its sense of timelessness . This use of the past tense that bookends the first and last stanzas of the poem imbues in our reading an image of an immortal wandering figure , explicitly stated in the line ‘ I have wandered over the fruitful earth ’ ( TW , l . 5 ). This is a recurring motif in Coleridge ’ s works but also lends itself to the status of witches in universal legend , as E . G . Parrinder describes ‘ the belief in a … wandering soul ’ that ‘ seems essential to the African and
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European ideas of witches ’. The unfixed fruitful earth that she wanders upon is where the ambiguity of the poem is initiated , as it is not stated how or for whom the earth is fruitful . In consideration of the speaker ’ s arduous journey and pitiful appearance however , it would appear that she is not the recipient of this fruitfulness . Her remarks that ‘ My clothes are wet ’ and ‘ My hands are stone ’ ( TW , l . 3 ) are reminiscent of ordeal by water , further strengthening the speaker ’ s association with witches . Our sympathies are aroused for her as she emphasises her vulnerability in being ‘ a little maiden still / My little white feet are sore ’ ( TW , ll . 12-13 ), with the repetition of ‘ little ’ ( Ibid ) infantilising this virginal speaker . Gendered vulnerability itself is historically affiliated with ‘ theories of witchcraft … which emphasise female weakness ’, as Clive Holmes affirms , which is precisely what Coleridge capitalises on in building the reader ’ s perception of the speaker . This impression of weakness is expounded upon further by the repeated refrain ‘ Oh , lift me over the threshold , and let me in at the door !’ ( TW , ll . 7 , 14 ), with the exclamative carrying an emotional charge and highlighting her passivity in the alliterative verb phrases ‘ lift me ’ and ‘ let me ’ ( Ibid ). Consequently ,