Poem by John Fitch, Inventor of Steamboat
A little intro. This poem is about an incident that Fitch encountered on his journey from his home in Connecticut to New Jersey. He was making this journey so that he could leave his wife before they had any more children. He considered her a scold.
Sir now I will a story tell which does upon me center.
Near Woodbridge town there I did meet a true but strange adventure.
It was a hot long melting day and I grew almost weary.
To a small house I did repair thinking a while to tarry.
I knocked and entered in the door without eithers permission
And when one minutes space I found I spoke without commission
Said I good woman tell me why that you live so uneasy
Come try some other plan to live and see if that wont pleaseye.
No faith said she no other plan shall ere come in my notion
For since he has a villen grown this shall be his portion.
Well then said I now for your peace let both consent for parting
That the remainder of your days be not so full of smarting.
They both consented to the thing but she was for full hire
One half of all she did demand before she would retire.
Then my judgment soon was made it was without permission
That the whole I’d rather give than live in that condition.
Then quick here eyes like lightning streams began to be aflying
I was apprised of the same methought I was adying
Then a quick a brand out of the fire toward me was coming
And with my pack I made a shield and hindered it from homeing
Then soon I made unto the door sure I was not delaying
And the fume which was behind me was not the least for staying
And when I made into the street she followed me close after.
Had any one but seen the sight I’m sure he would[‘ve] made laughter
The brand soon coming bout my ears and I for it was dodging
Which made me fly to quit the place and seek for better lodging.
If you think my courage was not good permit me Sir the favour
To tell you true and honestly I’d rather run and leave her
If you will send a hero brave that will make her for yielding
One guiney I will freely give and pay the cost of healing.
But the last which I have said I think is something joeking
For womankind cant be subdued without a little choaking.[i]
[i]Ibid, 49-50.
Sir now I will a story tell which does upon me center.
Near Woodbridge town there I did meet a true but strange adventure.
It was a hot long melting day and I grew almost weary.
To a small house I did repair thinking a while to tarry.
I knocked and entered in the door without eithers permission
And when one minutes space I found I spoke without commission
Said I good woman tell me why that you live so uneasy
Come try some other plan to live and see if that wont pleaseye.
No faith said she no other plan shall ere come in my notion
For since he has a villen grown this shall be his portion.
Well then said I now for your peace let both consent for parting
That the remainder of your days be not so full of smarting.
They both consented to the thing but she was for full hire
One half of all she did demand before she would retire.
Then my judgment soon was made it was without permission
That the whole I’d rather give than live in that condition.
Then quick here eyes like lightning streams began to be aflying
I was apprised of the same methought I was adying
Then a quick a brand out of the fire toward me was coming
And with my pack I made a shield and hindered it from homeing
Then soon I made unto the door sure I was not delaying
And the fume which was behind me was not the least for staying
And when I made into the street she followed me close after.
Had any one but seen the sight I’m sure he would[‘ve] made laughter
The brand soon coming bout my ears and I for it was dodging
Which made me fly to quit the place and seek for better lodging.
If you think my courage was not good permit me Sir the favour
To tell you true and honestly I’d rather run and leave her
If you will send a hero brave that will make her for yielding
One guiney I will freely give and pay the cost of healing.
But the last which I have said I think is something joeking
For womankind cant be subdued without a little choaking.[i]
[i]Ibid, 49-50.
posted by Ric Caric at 5:47 PM
7 Comments:
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As a feminist, I suppose I should be horrified that the last line of this poem indicates the potential choking of a woman -but instead, I'm quite amused. We women are intense, confusing, multi-faceted creatures, with layer upon layer upon layer for men to study and attempt to figure out. The frustration the results from that is surely quite strong, and honestly, I find it very interesting that this particular woman was so complicated that the author found himself wanting to choke her in order to figure her out, make her 'behave'. I would like to meet this muse of his, perhaps learn more from her, seeing as she was so much of an individual that it confused him to the breaking point.
What a strong woman, to brave potential rejection and continue her quest for depth. Of course, the author obviously finds depth in a woman ludacris, but why should that stop her? Why should the disapproval of any man, particularly the author, whom is a gifted writer but seems, to me, strangely vacant-minded in his beliefs, stop her from being an incredible human being? A woman's approval certainly doesn't stop a man from doing the same!
Bravo, Muse, bravo. And if he tries to choke you, do remember to call the police.
I find this poem sort of funny, before you jump to conclusions I’m not anti-feminist or pro choking, I can just relate to the authors frustration. Who hasn’t been in a situation where someone annoyed you to the point of contemplating homicide? I also chuckled a little when he said his wife demanded half his stuff and he’d gladly have given it all up just to get away. The overall tone of the poem is very humorous almost satirizing marital disputes rather than actually advocating violence. I got a very clear image of the mans near cartoonish desperation to be away from his wife, it really brought to mind Kermit and Miss Piggy, with Kermit always frantically trying to escape Miss Piggy’s advances. When viewed so lightheartedly it makes it impossible to genuinely be offended by the poems content.
I have to agree with Eden that this a very humorous little poem. Thos poem (minus some of the spelling) could have been written today. It is about a very serious subject matter, but it’s presented in a funny way. People may joke about marriage being the end of one’s life, but this poem obviously shows that some people really feel that way. Fitch, is describing something that more and more of the population is going through. The thing that jumped out to me is the side that he presented. After I read the last line, other things started to pop out at me. Maybe this is a bit of a feminist idea, but he seemed to make fun of the wife. For instance she wouldn’t go until she got her half of everything. Then he went on to say the whole thing about choking a woman to keep her in line. All to often that is how divorce is depicted. The woman is crazy and wants to keep everything and that prolongs the process. Like I said, maybe this is a feminist idea, but it stood out to me. That aside though, it’s a pretty awesome poem.
This poem highlights an age old dilemma. The question at hand is the importance of marriage. Moreover why do we feel so compelled to do it? The pressure probably comes from it being a tradition. Hence society puts a big emphasis on it. Marriage is jokingly described by some men as the “big commitment.” It will certainly end life as they know it. Therefore they try to do all of the things they want to do in life beforehand. Sometimes they cannot accomplish this. Therefore they are trapped. How many country music songs were written to describe this subject? This debate is relevant to a discussion we had in our honors class. The Merchant of Venice describes the complex relationship between the characters of Antonio, Bassanio, and Portia. Bassanio has a problem in committing to his wife Portia. The relationship he has with his best friend Antonio is more important to him. Due to this he is not willing to give it up for a less meaningful connection Portia. Perhaps this is the problem with the author of the poem. He wants the life he had before back very badly. He just wants a clean break and he will give anything for it perhaps even resorting to violence.
Although this poem may have offended some, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It was funny, relevant in any time period or culture, and something most people can relate to. I agree with Willow in that the poem is vividly portraying the frustration inherent in any intimate relationship. I too am not “antifeminist or pro-choking” as eden put it, but I don’t see what all the fuss is about with the line about choking a woman being the only way to subdue her. As far as I am concerned, this is a compliment to women. I applaud females who cannot be ‘subdued’ by men, either by money or physical force and I find it absolutely hilarious that Fitch was running away from her. You go girl.
On the other hand, I also applaud men who cannot be ‘subdued’ by women. I guess I am much like willow in that I am an ‘equalist.’ I really respect people who make their decisions as individuals and cannot be persuaded to think otherwise. It is rare to find people of this sort in today’s society. Unfortunately, all too often people are way more likely to follow the crowd than ‘only be subdued by choking.’
I honestly didn’t quite understand this poem. Did the man want to steal the woman? Or was he just trying to figure out why the man and woman didn’t get along? I also thought it was funny that the woman chased the man away. Why exactly did she do this, I mean was he being offense in his questioning to her?
Unless I left out like a very important line in this which would make sense to me, since this is completely and totally throwing me off track…..
Nope just reread it and still pretty confused…
So did she basically get mad because he was asking her why she continued to put up with this stuff? But since they both are pretty much tired of it, then why would she get offended at that and chase him down the road you know?
Shew, silly people with their silly writings…. I’ll never understand this thing.
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