The Image in Lava describes the poignant image of a mother and her baby, in a darker context than the gentle concept generally illustrates. Having died in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 BCE, this mother and child were frozen, in a sense, by the lava, and preserved in the forms they took on in the last moments of their lives. Hemans takes these images found in the lava and reflects on the aesthetic as well as conceptual notions of them.
Throughout the poem, references are constantly made to the fragility of the mother and baby; they are described as “gentle” and “fair” and “precious.” On the other hand, their surroundings – the environment that they lived and died in – are portrayed as strong and sturdy “empires from earth”; they are “proud memorials rear’d by conquerors of mankind.” This contrast of fragility against strength develops remarkably because fragility is expanded upon and made out to be equal almost to “holiness”, while strength and fortitude are in fact destroyed by the same eruption. There is a sense of comparison that exalts in the power of love (as cliché as that may sound) and elevates it above the manmade sophistication of “relics left by the pomps of old.” This is reinforced by the repetition of “immortal” that is linked to this image of the mother and child; the image they leave in the ashes of the lava “outlives the cities of renown”, giving this immortality to lives that were lost so long ago.
Although the mother and child are said to have an “earthly glow”, they are also described to give the lava a sense of “holiness” that would not surround it otherwise. In terms of objects and objectivity, the mother and child – as a singular object created in the ashes rather than as separate, living beings – are allotted a sense of veneration that rises above manmade objects, mainly through the connection between these “objects”. Their transcendent love as well as their physical connection – “that impassion’d grasp” – are enough for Hemans to elevate their connection above their death. She muses over their fate and deliberates over the significance of it, placing it against the possibility of a division between the two; she considers it “far better then to perish, thy form within its clasp” than to separate, or to lose the love between mother and child.
What I gleaned from this poem is a sense of reverence for the human connection and the meaning of these relationships. The image of the mother and child is almost like a cast for the connections between all humans that transcends time, and while it is distressing to see the downfall of such a city, it is beautiful to see this raw, untouched bond. We’ve lately focused on these ancient artworks that connote a sense of connection between time – as in something created so far in the past correlating to the present – and this seems almost like a piece of art created by the earth. Rather than humans taking nature and creating beauty from it, nature created beauty out of humans, further placing these specific individuals in the realm of objects.
Questions I would pose to the class:
Hemans seems almost desperate in her last lines, saying, “It must, it must be so!” as though she were questioning herself; does her supposed uncertainty lessen the weight of this human connection, or does it rather elevate the idea of the destructive side of nature and its supremacy over humanity?
Obviously human connectivity is elevated above human creation; the image of the mother and child are constantly compared to the structures and buildings around them. After reading Bryant’s “Democracy of Objects”, does this confirm or deny the theories presented in this article? He delegates humans to be on the same level as non-human objects, and yet Hemans seems to argue against this idea and instead places these human objects on a holy, transcendental level. Which idea rings most true?
Another small question I had personally: in the stanza starting on line 25, the poem refers to “it” and yet does not define what “it” is; looking back, I assumed it was the “fond bosom” of the mother, or the “hope” described in line 24. I wondered if the class may have other opinions on what “it” is referring to.
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