Renée Vivien’s The Muse of the Violets- A Reflection on Toxic Desire by Lynette B.

The Muse of the Violets by Renée Vivien was translated from French by Margaret Porter and Catherine Kroger in 1977. It is a collection of 18 poems on the topics of love and suppressed desire. The name of the piece is an immediate source of interest. Violets can be used to express femininity or in a more literal sense her past love/friend, Violet Shillito, who died early in her life (Renée Vivien 1970). The piece contains two drawings which depict violets overlapped and facing each other. I interpret these as allusions to Vivien’s lesbian sexual orientation. This aspect of her identity heavily influenced a number of her works, in which she made clear the sexual orientation of the narrator. Vivien originally published her first 2 books under the genderless R. Vivien, while other works were published under the pseudonym Paul Riversdale and various others.

While it prevented English-only speakers early exposure to her works, Vivien’s choice of writing in French is an interesting topic. First I believe that this can be considered an extension of her expatriation of England. Instead of writing in her native language of English she chose French which is heavily gendered. Aside from cementing her decision to leave England and spend her life in French society, this further contributes to how gender plays a role in her pieces and how her readers interpret the relationships present.

The majority of the poems within The Muse of the Violets express an aversion towards love while some even go as far as to berate the object of the narrator’s affection. The included poem above, “Lucidity”, captures this resistance well. The narrator comments on the woman’s vices and apparent turn towards promiscuity. The final lines, “The tombs are less impure than your bed. But the worst, oh woman! Only your mouth will quench my thirst!”, remarks the narrator’s continued desire despite seemingly repelling character flaws. This contrasts starkly to the fairy tale story of “Prince Charming” we read earlier in the semester. In “Prince Charming”, Sarolta begins a loving relationship under the impression that it was Bela, a boy she loved from her childhood, and they soon marry. It is later revealed that her husband was not Bela but instead his sibling, Terka, who had taken on his identity.  Despite the initial deceit and eventual revelation of Prince Charming’s true identity, Sarolta never exhibits a reluctance to love and be loved by her Prince Charming. He is to her a perfect match in beauty and demeanor. The lack of obstacles between Sarolta and Charming results in their happy ending as seen in the line, “They were seen, a divine couple, with the eyelashes of one stroking the eyelids of the other. They were seen, lovingly and chastely intertwined, with her black hair spread over his blond hair…”. Meanwhile, “Lucidity” does not end with a happy union but instead a final declaration of unwavering dependence only preceded by every reason the narrator shouldn’t love this woman.

I wonder if The Muse of the Violets was Renée Vivien’s reflection on herself and her reputation as promiscuous and burdened by vice. Can “Lucidity” and the other poems present in this collection be considered love poems when such criticisms are present? Do obstacles to love create deeper affection or does Sarolta and Charming’s relationship provide a better model for love?

References:

Renée Vivien. (1970, January 01). Retrieved November 08, 2020, from https://prabook.com/web/renee.vivien/3778564