Swammerdam
Byatt in the novel Possession succeeds brilliantly in the monumental technical achievement of creating a deeply layered romance in which two twentieth century literary scholars, Roland Michell and Maud Bailey, become themselves romantically involved as they investigate a startling connection between the two Victorian poets of whom they have made specialized study. Byatt's feat is an especially remarkable tour de force as she invents and adroitly interlaces the poetic works of both Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte into her narrative. This essay will present a critical analysis of Ash's poem "Swammerdam" as it reveals it's intricate intratextual roles in the novel.
Randolph Henry Ash writes the poem "Swammerdam" during the period of time during which he and Christabel LaMotte are initiating the secret correspondence that will develop into the great passion of their lives. Byatt intends the reader to know that Ash aimed this poem specifically at Christabel as audience. The poem itself plays a role in the plot as the first copied draft sent by Ash is intercepted by Christabel's lesbian companion Blanche, verifying her suspicions. Blanche presents the poem to Ash's wife as proof of the affair. Ash sends a second copy of the poem to which he finds it necessary to make numerous changes. Ellen returns the original draft to Ash when he reveals the affair to her. "Swammerdam" reveals much about the character of the poet. His perfectionism, his pride in his erudition, his pomposity, his literary pretension. It is a form of his ventriloquism, the style in which he prides himself for looking closely at historical figures, getting inside them and speaking through them.
The first lines of "Swammerdam" include echoes of Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner," as the speaker begs to be heard. Indeed the name Christabel comes from a Coleridge poem. Thus Byatt evokes multiple layers of literary meaning as she equates her fictional poet with Robert Browning, who in his "Mr. Sludge, 'the Medium'" shows that he shares Ash's skepticism of spiritualist phenomena. Taking this Ash poem in the context of his other works, as created by Byatt, the reader, can also perceive the presence of John Donne, whose attitude toward women's minds as expressed in "Love Alchemy," makes it evident that Ash agrees that men must "Hope not for mind in women." From the same Donne poem, Ash takes his title "Mummy Possessed," his own satiric response to Christabel's belief in spiritualism. In identifying Ash with Donne, Byatt categorizes him as a metaphysical poet. Ash's connection with experience, like Donne's is male and intellectual. These poets distance themselves from life and use their poetry to mentally stimulate their readers, requiring depth of knowledge for understanding. The overall tone of "Swammerdam" can be seen as superior male talking down to inferior minded female.
The egg imagery with which Ash begins the poem is vital to its essential meaning and to the relationship of the poem to the novel as a whole. Early in their correspondence Christabel poses a riddle for Ash, "a fragile Riddle, in white and Gold with life in the middle of it" (151) to which the answer is the egg of Christabel's life which Ash is likely to crush. There is even the unspoken implication from Byatt that Ash may be stealing this image from LaMotte when uses it in his poem. Christabel writes brilliantly in her letter describing her solitude as her egg, "sealed and smooth" within which "gold cage" she has "Wings to spread." In magnificent words that reveal her true promise as a poet Christabel says:
Shattering an Egg is unworthy of you, no Pass time for men. Think what you would have in your hand if you put forth your Giant strength and crushed the solid stone. Something slippery and cold and unthinkably disagreeable (152).
With this image Byatt embodies the central male/female dichotomy of the novel in which men and women scholars vie to interpret and defend their poetic counterparts. As "Swammerdam" continues with it's obsession with eggs and larvae and ovaries we find encapsulated the ironic saga of the fate of Christabel, a woman destined to be known merely as a minor poet, later to be championed by twentieth century feminists, the egg of whose life is indeed crushed by her relationship to the "Giant" poet. The fertilization of her egg and the resultant pregnancy, childbirth, and aftermath are so much more overwhelming to her life than to his. As Ash works with the egg image, Byatt reveals much of his character. The simple picture of life being crushed presented by Christabel becomes intellectually complex and convoluted in Ash's poetic mind. He must include every possible association (hatching, shell, pricking, sucking) as he develops his image. His intention is to show that he is an examiner of minute details like Swammerdam. In his attempt to impress Christabel with his...
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