Monday, April 26, 2021

TO MARRY OR NOT TO MARRY? (April is National Poetry Month)

 

        To marry or not to marry became a major theme among UK women in the 1920's and 1930's. Must one choose between marriage and career? At the time most women could not have both. The issue of marriage became a subject that many women expressed their feelings about through poems.

Old Maid (1925)
Sarah Litsey

“She caught at life with far too fragile hands.
Being well versed in patience such as hers
It managed to evade her mild demands.
Pleasurable martyrdom which sometimes slurs.
Across the prickly edge of torn conceit
Guarded her vanity. Small duties done
Rounded her hours and made each day complete.
Her life went out in dribbles. One by one
She laid the passionless, pale days aside.
Then she adopted a thin, scraggly boy;
And all the neighbors wondered when she died
If he had been a duty or a joy.
Now he is tall and gay and rather brave,
and once each year sends flowers to her grave.”


Spinsterhood (1932)
Anonymous

“I am a book of one volume,
Pocket edition, and easy to carry around.
Yet I remain quietly upon my dutiful shelf.
But if you care to dip within my neat covers
You will find surprising things-
Great hopes, gay laughter, cruel disappointment,
And all the back and forth, that saws a heart in two.”


Misunderstood (1931)
Anonymous

I sit with the sick,
I comfort the dying-
Men look at me, and do not see.
They think I'm shy!
They cannot know that long ago
Out of a book a Knight came riding by.

These men about me
Are fat men, thin men;
They sweat in summer time.
They sell socks and ties,
And gasoline and groceries,
And have not words to charm my heart.

When I am dead.
They will write upon my tomb;
"She never know [sic] love"-
And will not guess
I loved myself too well to share
My own exquisiteness
With less than Lochinvar.

So I make pretense
And send abroad another self
To gossip with the world.
I sit with the sick,
I comfort the dying,
And men look at me and say:
"Pity, she never married."

        Yet, even if they chose to marry some women were unsure about the eventuality of such a union. Kathryn Myrick wrote in 1931:

Marriage
Kathryn Myrick

And then you asked, "How long will you love me?"
And in a low, choked voice I answered dutifully, "Forever,"
But even as I spoke I knew I lied.
"Forever" is too long a time for love.
Love is sharp and bright,
Love is youth and smiling eyes,
Who hums a haunting little tune
As he strolls along.
He stops only one hour
To gather fragrant blossoms to wear in his golden hair.

        Moreover, some women realized that marriage was not just about love, but about their personal freedom. Anne Luxon, a recent UK graduate, expressed her feelings in 1932:

Freedom
Anne Luxon

My husband has left me.
At last I can
Listen to the rain on the roof,
Or sit up in bed
And watch the moon.
My husband has left me.
I ought to be sad.

From Our Rightful Place: Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945 (University Press of Kentucky) 2020


Tuesday, April 20, 2021

WHO'S WATCHING THE SPIES - WALTER MONDALE (1928-2021)

Former United States Senator and Vice President Walter "Fritz" Mondale (1928-2021) lived a life of service to his country.  An important part of that service was his participation in a review of intelligence activities by the United States.  Serving with him during than investigation was Walter Dee Huddleston, UK graduate and United States Senator from 1973 to 1985.  For several years Senator Huddleston worked with the University of Kentucky Libraries Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center to bring important programs and speakers to UK.


In September, 2006 the University hosted a panel discussion about United States spy programs entitled, "Who's Watching the Spies?"  The event was sponsored by UK Libraries Ford Center, the UK School of Journalism and the First Amendment Center.  Dr. Tracy Campbell, UK Professor of History and Co-Director of the Ford Center, chaired the panel discussion.  Participating on the panel were Vice-President Mondale, Senator Huddleston, and Fred A.O. Schwarz, former Chief Council of the U.S. Senate Church Committee which investigated United States intelligence practices in the 1970s.

The Kentucky Kernel afterwards editorialized that, "UK students got a rare opportunity to hear about U.S. history told by a group that has shaped it."

The event, held in Memorial Hall and attended by several hundred people, was also broadcast on C-SPAN which you can view here.  Church Committee Report on U.S. Spy Agencies | C-SPAN.org (c-span.org)    

Monday, April 12, 2021

MY AUTOMOBILE SET ME FREE

 

Between the First and Second World Wars, University of Kentucky women (students, alumnae, faculty, and faculty spouses, published poems in Letters, the campus literary magazine and in the Kentucky Kernel.  Many of the poems explored the contradictions in women’s lives, their views toward careers and marriage, and expressions of freedom.

Perhaps more than anything the automobile changed both the perception and the reality of women’s lives during this period.  Cars offered a degree of freedom not previously experienced by women, and they quickly realized and understood the extent of this change.  It also provided women a means of transportation without depending on men or public transportation.  Writing in Letters in the summer of 1930, Louise Good, a member of the University Scribbler's Club and Chair of Literature for the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs, aptly described this sense of freedom for women:

My Automobile

My automobile is a jailor's key
Unlocking my chains and setting me free
Setting me free on the open road
A gypsy song my only goad
With seven-league boots I'm swiftly shod
I'm armed with Mercury's winged rod
I step on the carpet of Bagdad and soar
Far, far away from my prison door.
No pirate, watching his foaming keel,
Feels freer than I, in my automobile.


From Our Rightful Place: Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945 (University Press of Kentucky) 2020

April is National Poetry Month