More Than A Smutty Writer

First, let me say just one thing about Aphra Behn, W-O-W!

This lady is so fascinating. World traveler, writer, spy for the English government, adventures in espionage, and advocate for social changes. Her writing reflects her life experiences and her fascination with the entanglement of sex and power, both in the personal and political spheres. Because her works contain subjects that are "inappropriate" for women writers, for many years, her writing was regarded as simply smutty. After reading some of her poems, I would have to disagree with this. I found some of her poetry to be a bit risque but definitely not smutty.

In The Disappointment, Behn writes of an encounter with two lovers that ends in a most disappointing way. The language she uses to describe the couple and their attempt at love making is lyrical and grounded in the classics. It also allows the woman to embrace her sexuality and express "soft Desire." I could be reading this wrong but I thought that once the woman had more control of the situation, the man found himself in "the Hell of impotence" because of her being the aggressor rather than he.

Epitaph on the Tombstone of a Child, The Last of Seven That Died Before, is a haunting piece that pays tribute to the sounds and innocence of childhood. When I think of young children playing I hear their laughter and excited voices and Behn captures these sounds perfectly, "His Voice was Music and his Words a Song." Anyone who has ever been around an excited child when they are trying to tell you something can appreciate the beauty of the line, "The softest pratler that e'er found a Tongue." Behn captured the quintessential essence of a carefree child in this work and this one piece alone should prove that this lady is so much more than a smutty writer.

"All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds." Virginia Woolf