The Eviction

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt's The Eviction

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt’s poem The Eviction is a compelling exploration of the human heart’s struggle with its own emotions, framed through the metaphor of a legal eviction. The poem, written in the late 19th or early 20th century, reflects Blunt’s characteristic style—lyrical, introspective, and deeply personal, yet universal in its themes. This analysis will examine the poem’s historical context, literary devices, themes, and emotional impact, offering a comprehensive understanding of its significance.

Historical and Cultural Context

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840–1922) was a British poet, diplomat, and anti-imperialist activist. His work often grappled with themes of love, loss, and the tension between personal freedom and societal constraints. Blunt’s poetry is deeply rooted in the Romantic tradition, with its emphasis on emotion, individualism, and the natural world. However, his work also reflects the Victorian era’s preoccupation with morality, duty, and the complexities of human relationships.

The Eviction can be read as a product of its time, reflecting the Victorian struggle between reason and emotion, duty and desire. The poem’s metaphor of eviction—a legal and social act—resonates with the era’s emphasis on propriety and control. Yet, the poem’s emotional intensity and its ultimate acknowledgment of the heart’s indomitable nature reveal a tension between societal expectations and personal authenticity.

Structure and Form

The poem consists of six quatrains, each with an ABAB rhyme scheme. This regular structure mirrors the formal, legalistic tone of an eviction notice, creating a stark contrast with the poem’s emotional content. The meter is predominantly iambic tetrameter, which lends a rhythmic, almost incantatory quality to the poem. This regularity underscores the speaker’s attempt to impose order on the chaos of their emotions, even as the poem’s imagery and themes suggest the futility of such efforts.

Literary Devices

1. Metaphor and Extended Conceit: The central metaphor of the poem—the heart as a tenant and the speaker as a landlord—is an extended conceit that runs throughout the poem. This metaphor allows Blunt to explore the complexities of emotional ownership and control. The heart, as the “unruly tenant,” resists eviction, symbolizing the uncontrollable nature of human emotions.

2. Imagery: Blunt employs vivid imagery to convey the speaker’s frustration and despair. The “cockle” (a weed) sown in the field and the “squanderings all the public street” suggest the destructive and wasteful nature of the heart’s influence. The act of barring re-entry with a stone evokes a sense of finality, yet the poem’s conclusion undermines this attempt at closure.

3. Personification: The heart is personified as a willful, almost rebellious entity. This personification heightens the poem’s emotional impact, as the heart becomes a character in its own right, one that defies the speaker’s attempts at control.

4. Irony: The poem is deeply ironic. Despite the speaker’s efforts to evict the heart, it returns “in stillness of the night,” reclaiming its “lost tenant-right.” This irony underscores the futility of trying to suppress or control one’s emotions.

5. Repetition: The repetition of the word “away” in the fourth stanza emphasizes the speaker’s desperation and frustration. The imperative tone contrasts sharply with the poem’s conclusion, where the heart’s return renders these commands meaningless.

Themes

1. The Struggle Between Reason and Emotion: The poem’s central theme is the tension between reason and emotion. The speaker attempts to use reason (symbolized by the legalistic language of eviction) to control their emotions, but ultimately fails. This theme reflects the broader Romantic and Victorian preoccupation with the limits of rationality in the face of human passion.

2. The Inevitability of Emotional Attachment: Despite the speaker’s efforts to evict the heart, it returns, suggesting that emotional attachment is an inescapable part of the human condition. This theme resonates with the Romantic ideal of the heart as a source of authenticity and truth, even when it leads to pain or despair.

3. Ownership and Control: The metaphor of the heart as a tenant raises questions about ownership and control. Who owns the heart—the speaker or the emotions that inhabit it? The poem suggests that true ownership is impossible, as the heart operates by its own laws.

4. Despair and Resignation: The poem’s tone shifts from frustration to despair and finally to resignation. The speaker’s initial confidence in their ability to evict the heart gives way to a recognition of their own impotence. This emotional arc reflects the human experience of grappling with emotions that resist control.

Emotional Impact

The poem’s emotional impact lies in its ability to capture the universal experience of struggling with one’s own heart. The speaker’s frustration and despair are palpable, as is their ultimate resignation. The poem’s conclusion—the heart’s return—is both poignant and unsettling, suggesting that emotional pain is an inescapable part of life.

Blunt’s use of metaphor and imagery allows readers to project their own experiences onto the poem, making it deeply relatable. The poem’s emotional intensity is heightened by its formal structure, which creates a sense of order that is ultimately undermined by the heart’s return. This tension between form and content mirrors the poem’s thematic tension between reason and emotion.

Scholarly Analysis

Blunt’s The Eviction is a masterful exploration of the human heart’s resistance to control. The poem’s central metaphor—the heart as a tenant—allows Blunt to delve into the complexities of emotional ownership and the limits of rationality. The speaker’s attempts to evict the heart are framed in legalistic terms, suggesting a desire for order and control. Yet, the heart’s return in the final stanza undermines this attempt, highlighting the futility of trying to suppress one’s emotions.

The poem’s imagery is particularly striking. The “cockle” sown in the field and the “squanderings all the public street” evoke a sense of waste and destruction, suggesting that the heart’s influence is both pervasive and damaging. The act of barring re-entry with a stone is a powerful image of finality, yet the poem’s conclusion renders this act meaningless. This irony underscores the poem’s central theme: the heart cannot be controlled.

Blunt’s use of personification is also noteworthy. By personifying the heart as a willful, rebellious entity, he heightens the poem’s emotional impact. The heart becomes a character in its own right, one that defies the speaker’s attempts at control. This personification allows Blunt to explore the tension between the speaker’s desire for autonomy and the heart’s insistence on emotional attachment.

The poem’s structure and form further enhance its thematic content. The regular ABAB rhyme scheme and iambic tetrameter create a sense of order and control, mirroring the speaker’s attempts to impose rationality on their emotions. Yet, the poem’s conclusion—the heart’s return—undermines this order, suggesting that emotions operate by their own laws.

In terms of historical context, The Eviction reflects the Victorian preoccupation with morality, duty, and the complexities of human relationships. The poem’s legalistic language and imagery of eviction resonate with the era’s emphasis on propriety and control. Yet, the poem’s emotional intensity and its ultimate acknowledgment of the heart’s indomitable nature reveal a tension between societal expectations and personal authenticity.

Conclusion

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt’s The Eviction is a powerful exploration of the human heart’s resistance to control. Through its central metaphor, vivid imagery, and formal structure, the poem captures the universal experience of struggling with one’s own emotions. The poem’s themes of reason versus emotion, the inevitability of emotional attachment, and the futility of control resonate deeply with readers, making it a timeless reflection on the human condition. Blunt’s masterful use of literary devices and his sensitivity to the poem’s emotional and historical context ensure that The Eviction remains a poignant and thought-provoking work.