This is an article for fans of poetry and feminists alike- the Australian poet A.D. Hope published "Advice to Young Ladies" in his book "Collected Poems, 1930-1970". You can read the poem on your own here. It's a fantastic poem and if you're discouraged from reading it because of the historical references, I explain some of the history below.
Hope uses a modern dialect, rhetorical questions, metaphors of freedom, personification, and the imagery of oppression to convey the change of spirit of one woman named Postumia. The change of spirit is representative of the crushing of spirits of women and minorities alike. A young lady named Postumia, who attends a Vestal College, gets tried in an 'affair of the state', which shows just how huge of a confrontation this trial was. Postumia was tried for not dressing pious enough or being demure enough- she was threatened with death for acting too lively. Postumia is one specific person, but she represents many women; she was tried for seeming too intelligent and lively. Not all women are tried, but they could be judged by peers or ostracized. Throughout literature and history, we see countless examples of the confrontational moment when men realize a woman is just as capable of almost everything.
In this poem and in history, Postumia was judged by the Pontifex Maximus, essentially the head of the college, and that detail again highlights the attention her particular case received. Because she was intelligent, proud, and lively, the head of her vestal college tried her. She was reprieved but defeated. She left that trial with 'stiff mouth and listless step', in contrast with her jokes and "modish frocks". The speaker goes on to say that they 'buried her alive', which is a descriptive metaphor that really conveys the severity of suppressing the true personality of someone who doesn't fit their mold that they were born into. It shows the importance of education with equity in discussion and the importance of self-expression during a person's lifetime. A person not allowed to express themselves and reach their fullest potential is otherwise buried alive. Without the ability to truly express herself through witty remarks and modish clothes, "they preserved the body they did not wish to die until her mind was quenched to the last spark." They kept her alive only to benefit themselves, and the metaphor of quenching the mind to the last spark can be interpreted as they put out the flaming passion for knowledge.
The poem's attention shifts from Postumia to the effect of this cross-cultural oppression of women. It changes the attention from one to many in the metaphor of the 'black maw' of oppression swallowing spirited and talented women because "being a woman made genius a crime." Oppression of women made and makes hard-earned brilliance an offense, and not just for Postumia. The seventh stanza ends in a semicolon and the speaker continues to ask another question that shines a light on how cultures shame women. Saying that Saint Paul declared husbands to rank next to God shows just how these oppressions were supported in law-like scripture. The ninth stanza shows that Livy and Paul couldn't tell Rome was doomed when they spoke of Postumia's subservience with pride. The speaker mocks the historians efforts to recount flaws in collapses of commonwealths such as Rome because 'the cause is sometimes simpler than they think.' Because Livy and Paul regarded Postumia's subservience with pride and forgot about how the crushed the potential of women, the speaker hints that civilizations collapse when great leaders ignore the oppression of all people.
The juxtaposition of names of men to names of women in light of abuse really highlights the discrepancies of the act of crushing anyone's desire for knowledge and self-expression. The power in this stanza really lies in the reader realizing that historians have blamed the fall of countless empires because of the people who held back the men who spurred change, but the historians failed to realize that holding down these women was half the reason for the fall of these societies. It's also up to the reader to read this stanza and be shocked at how many cultures, including American cultures, have treated the power and brilliance of women throughout history and to this day, and to recognize the double standards that destroyed Rome and other empires.
The very last stanza leaves the reader with a question that should have a haunting effect that lingers with them as they are hyper aware of the double standards in many societies for not only women but minorities as well. It asks the reader, by using the word 'we', if we, as aware members of society, can be positive "if more societies crumbled for preventing the education of curious minds" than societies that trusted a slave's womb to breed free men. The comparison to trusting slaves to breed free men shows how the issues are generational and that change is something we need to have happen now because slavery, in general, makes the playing field very uneven. We need to realize our sexist, ableist, racist thoughts and check ourselves because we're all guilty of passively oppressing people. We also need to make sure we don't support the people who can violently oppress minorities. This poem highlights the importance of education and self-expression and encourages readers to follow up by doing the research on products they buy and donating or volunteering for schools.
