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Constance Naden (1858-1889)
Mar. 29th, 2012 10:01 amConstance Naden received a first class university education, and seems to have been equally interested in the sciences and the arts. Having no need to support herself, she studied as she was interested and won several prizes in quite different areas.
She died very young, of complicaitons following an operation to remove uterine fibroids (which some saw as a judgment on her for being a female intellectual). She was remembered at the time as an intellectual, a scientist, a science writer, an atheist and a poet.
I like her funny poetry, which certainly is not what one imagines when one thinks of Victorian lady poets.
Like most comic poets, she favours poetry with a strong rhyming scheme. I like ‘reptile/crept, I’ll’ in 'Solomon Redidivivus' which is about a loooong term relationship, as creatures evolve from amoeba to human.
‘Next each became a reptile
With fans to sting and slay.
No wiser ever crept, I’ll
Assert, deny who may.’
'Evolutional Erotics' is a comic series of poems about romance, from his and her point-of-views. You can read them here: http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/vwwp/view?docId=VAB7115&chunk.id=d1e21686&brand=vwwp&doc.view=0&anchor.id=#VAB7115-315
But when you look at them, as well as being funny they assert that:
* education is important for women as well as men;
* science is important and fabulous!;
* evolution is real! also exciting!
* which leads to atheism.
This is a fairly radical set of claims, fitting with Naden’s radical life. After all, she was commemorated immediately after her death by having a medal for the best philosophical essay at the University of Birmingham named after her.
She died very young, of complicaitons following an operation to remove uterine fibroids (which some saw as a judgment on her for being a female intellectual). She was remembered at the time as an intellectual, a scientist, a science writer, an atheist and a poet.
I like her funny poetry, which certainly is not what one imagines when one thinks of Victorian lady poets.
Like most comic poets, she favours poetry with a strong rhyming scheme. I like ‘reptile/crept, I’ll’ in 'Solomon Redidivivus' which is about a loooong term relationship, as creatures evolve from amoeba to human.
‘Next each became a reptile
With fans to sting and slay.
No wiser ever crept, I’ll
Assert, deny who may.’
'Evolutional Erotics' is a comic series of poems about romance, from his and her point-of-views. You can read them here: http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/vwwp/view?docId=VAB7115&chunk.id=d1e21686&brand=vwwp&doc.view=0&anchor.id=#VAB7115-315
But when you look at them, as well as being funny they assert that:
* education is important for women as well as men;
* science is important and fabulous!;
* evolution is real! also exciting!
* which leads to atheism.
This is a fairly radical set of claims, fitting with Naden’s radical life. After all, she was commemorated immediately after her death by having a medal for the best philosophical essay at the University of Birmingham named after her.
