Analysis of The Rock of Cader Idris by Felicia Dorothea Hemans

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0 (B), Humboldt-University of Berlin (Anglistics-American Studies), language: English, abstract: In my paper I will analyse the poem 'The Rock of Cader Idris' (1822) by Felicia Dorothea Hemans and in this connection I chiefly confine myself to imagery, Hemans' biographical background and some stylistic means. The procedure I planned is to analyse the ballad's content with regard to the four substances earth, water, air and fire, to the senses of perception and to the persona's transformation from a passive observer to an active creator. I aim to show that the persona's emotions can be attributed to natural objects and that nature or art respectively takes the role of a healer. Moreover, I would like to illustrate that Hemans knew her trade, namely writing poetry. Before starting I would like to mention that I did not want to say 'it' when talking about the persona, so I decided to use 'she' in order to stress that the poem was written by a woman and that the persona herself can be regarded as female, too, as I will show in the sequel.