Poem 12: Otherness and Unfixed Gender

I really loved reading the poems in, “Wine, Women, and Death: Medieval Hebrew Poems on The Good Life.” Particularly, I was drawn to poem 12 not only because of the various ‘others’ that we are confronted with as the poem progresses, but because gender constructs seem unfixed as well.

In the beginning of the poem, the poet establishes himself as the ‘other,’ an outsider, with the line, “Many men will fault me.” The weight of the line seems to carry a moral judgment that surrounds the poet’s, ‘heart’s delight,’ and echoes Nature’s grievance and judgment in Allan of Lille’s, “The Plaint of Nature.” In “The Plaint of Nature,” Nature grieves because ‘man has inverted the rules of Venus, its arrangement of genders, and has deviated from the true script’ (134). Homosexuality or coupling that is not in the service of regeneration/reproduction is one of the sources behind Nature’s grievance, and drives her to ‘excommunicate’ those men that are said to go ‘against’ her, and their own ‘nature.’ The moral judgment found in “The Plaint of Nature,” seems to resonate in Poem 12’s, “Many men will fault me,” for the poet is expressing how men will criticize or condemn him, much like Nature, for loving the ‘fawn.’ Interestingly enough though, an ambiguity surrounds the poet’s position as an ‘other.’ The line, “Death to their kind,” seems to suggest that the poet is on the outskirts or alienated from dominating society (‘men’) because he is of a different ‘kind.’ Despite this, the use of ‘their kind,’ seems to be used in the same spirit or attitude we’ve seen attached to Saracens, infidels, heathens, etc. in our earlier readings, and other’s dominating society (‘men’). The poet’s contempt over dominating society’s (‘men’) views or attitudes towards homosexuality or coupling that challenges male and female gender constructs and does not adhere to the dominant or submissive position assigned to these constructs, is felt in this line (‘Death to their kind’); ‘men’ become othered because they can be seen as ‘doubtful members of a given category’ or in this case, group or culture. The poet’s ‘heart’s delight,’ ‘fawn,’ is also othered within the poem.

The ‘fawn’ is the epitome of beauty and the promise of love. The poet’s use of animal imagery works towards othering the fawn, not in a way to enhance bestial qualities, but to illuminate a beauty that is both female (‘beautiful hind’), and exotic (‘gazelle’). Raymond P. Scheindlin states that the line, “There’s Adonai!” is found in the bible, and speaks to how, “The world of the fawn exists at a higher level of reality than that of mankind.’ Although, this assertion pushes the fawn into an ‘othered’ realm because he becomes a subliminal character, it also others him by associating him with a female ritual; thus, the fawn does not adhere to gender constructs, and seem to take on the persona, such as one that Nature (Alan of Lille) believes ‘inverts the rules of Venus.’ Researching the word ‘Adonai,’ I found that it is associated with an ancient feast honoring Aphrodite and Adonis. This feast was only celebrated by women and took place during two days where Venus’s dead lover, Adonis, is resurrected. Although the word ‘Adonai’ establishes the fawn as male, it also places him firmly within a female realm; this is further reinforced in the next line when the fawn is called a ‘stubborn wight.’ Despite the fact that a wight is a creature, it is also defined as a ‘living being,’ and in light of the ‘Adonai’ ritual of bringing Adonis back to life, the second definition seems to be what the poet intended to imply. The fawn is ‘othered’ precisely because he resides not only in a world whose reality surpasses mankind, but a world that is female, and I would argue challenges gender constructs/roles. In lines 13 and 14 the poet writes: “He listened, and let me come home with him. He did what I wanted, obeyed every whim.” These two lines seem to invoke Nature’s (Alan of Lille) assertion on the subject versus the predicate, and how some men deviate from their nature by taking a submissive or passive role, the role of assigned to ‘woman.’ The fawn ‘listens’ much like the ‘Lady’ or maidens we’ve encountered in previous reading. He is submissive in the fact that he not only does what the Poet ‘wants,’ but ‘obeys’ the poet. The word ‘obey’ establishes how the fawn carries out or complies with the Poet’s demands, commands, instructions, etc, and reinforces a submissive/passive nature within him. Even the line, ‘I took off his clothes and he took off mine,’ establishes the poet’s male, dominate role, and the fawn’s, female, submissive role; not only is the poet mentioned first, but he is the one taking the active role, and initiating the act (taking off clothes). In the next line, although the fawn literally appears first, he is still taking on the role of a ‘lady,’ and adhering to notions attached to a female gender construct; the fawn ‘offers his lips,’ and the poet still maintains an active dominating role, for he ‘drinks of their wine,’ and there’s no mention of the fawn exhibiting the same level of activeness.

Towards the end of the poem the fawn rejects the poet with: “Get along with you, and be on your way. Don’t you seduce me and lead me astray.” Why the fawn rejects the poet is a little ambiguous, but the line ‘Don’t you seduce me and lead me astray,’ seems to not only depict the fawn’s fickleness or ‘capriciousness,’ but how he believes the poet actions to be immoral (lead me astray). To me this seemed to mirror the notion of a woman needing to keep her chastity in tact, and if the fawn is taking a passive/submissive role, one assigned to women, he is fulfilling it by rejecting the poet, and keeping his virtue, to some degree, intact. In addition to this, the fawn’s rejection re-establishes the poet’s otherness, for this is the second rejection the Poet experiences (‘many men fault me’), and establishes him not only outside of ‘their kind,’ but outside of the fawn’s realm as well.

I look forward to hearing or reading about what other parallels the class makes between “Plaint of Nature,” and, “Wine, Women, and Death.” Also, in what other ways, if there are more, do the ‘lovely youths’ ‘invert the rule of Venus.’