In her poem, “Love Stronger Than Death,” Agnes Mary Frances Robinson writes about imagining being separated from her lover in death. She praises her lover, who she reckons belongs in heaven, while condemning herself: “Hers with the saints for aye to dwell / And mine to lie and pine in Hell” (5-6). Her lover is placed on a pedestal from which she can only look down in search of the speaker, whom she values more than her heavenly companions. It is her Lady’s tears for her that save the speaker, as Robinson writes, “They made the burning caves of Hell / As green as Eden-bowers” (15-16). After she is saved, Robinson’s speaker awakes and praises love–love has provided a haven for her, even in death. The poem speaks to the idea of queer love acting as a haven within a heteronormative society. Despite norms that would generally have them separated–as they are between heaven and hell–the connection between the two of them proves stronger.
The Victorian Queer Archive shatters the efforts of every person who tries to use literature to support the idea that queer people didn’t exist until a few decades ago. While I’ve never held this notion, I wasn’t aware how much poetry existed that was devoted to queerness–and how unshy poets were about their writing about queerness. The archive is a way of preserving queer literature and, as a result, resisting the erasure that would be favored by a predominantly heteronormative education.
I love the meaning of this poem, that love can keep them together even if they’re separated by heaven and hell. The poem is a happy poem in the sense that Robinson is describing the strength of the love between her and her lover however, it also is sending out a deeper message to society. She is alluding to the norms of society and saying that even if society tries to keep them apart and tells them they can’t be together, their love will still go on because it is strong enough. The poem almost reminds me of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s sonnet about the Orlando shooting and his theme of love triumphing over tragedy and death. Also, while looking at the poem I couldn’t help but notice the rhyme scheme. All three stanzas follow something along the lines of ABABCC. This stood out to me because the poem is about keeping two people apart and that is symbolized with ABAB because the lines that rhyme are being separated with another line in the middle and then each stanza ends with a couplet (CC), symbolizing the rhymes being together in the end, even though there was an attempt to separate them.