The poem that I analyzed and added to the Victorian Queer Archive is “Sicilian Love Song” by Lord Alfred Douglas. The themes in this poem clearly emphasize what it was like to be gay in this time period. The poem is about Douglas and his lover having to wait until day is over to be together because their love is forbidden and must be hidden in the darkness of the night. He expresses how long day seems to be and how hard it is waiting for that because he wants to be with this man so badly. The theme of sexual desire is present because he wants to be with this man but has to wait and that is so difficult for him. Douglas structures his poem to actually show the wait for day to end so that night can come and he can see his lover by not introducing the man (the subject of the poem) until the last stanza. He is making the reader wait to meet his lover in the same way that he must do every single day.
Looking at Victorian poems that have a common theme of queerness changed the way that I saw Victorian literature. There are many queer writers that had to hide the sex of the subject of their writing because love between the same sex was illegal. “Sicilian Love Song” shows that even though it was illegal, some writers were not quiet about it and wrote poems (such as this one) that clearly talk about a lover of the same sex and address the unjustness of the law.
Do you think that these quarrels are exhibited today as well? Like coming out as being difficult because, although gay marriage is legal, some people do not support it. I think that it was tough all around, then, because it was both illegal and, I guess you could say, frowned upon. I know plenty of people who have had such a hard time expressing their sexual preference merely because they fear what others would think or say about it. Thus, I feel that some of these qualities are still carried out today.
There’s strong solemn quality in the story this poem tells that is emphasized in the last few lines. We know that Douglas cannot wait until the sun is down to meet up with his lover, but we he writes, “His lips are sweet and red/ Where starlight and moonlight mingle/ We will make our bridal bed/ Down in the cool dark dingle/ When the long day is dead.” We realize that this is their life together. Their bridal bed is temporary because they’ll have to hide their love for one another in the day and only love each other in shame and fear at night. It links to the idea that you spoke about, where we have to wait to meet his lover just as he does, and the meeting is just as short.
I too can see how Douglas stresses his feelings of want and longing in the poem, and I like how you pointed out how we don’t meet the lover until later, like Douglas does. You can see how unhappy he is by the way he describes the day. Like on line four and five when he says “Will the thrush never finish her song?/ She is singing too merrily”, and on line twelve when he says “Die quickly unlovely sun!”. Things that should make him happy only remind him of why he’s so sad.