The speaker in Elizabeth Daryush's poem "Anger Lay by Me"
is a trapped woman. She is trapped by her "lord," but also by society's expectations of
her. It seems that she has been writing and that her lord is not happy with that. He
"stood by me all through the day,/ Struck from my hand the book, the pen;/ He said:
‘Hear first what I’ve to say,/ And sing, if you’ve the heart to, then.’" Writing by
women was primarily frowned upon during most of Daryush's life and this would seem to be
the case in the poem.
The end of the poem illustrates the
second part of my conjecture - that she is trapped by society's expectations of
her.
And can I
cast him from my couch?
And can I lock him from my room?
Ah no, his
honest words are such
That he’s my true-lord, and my
doom.
Here, the speaker is
rather submissive. She calls his words (which we can assume were about her writing or
the song that she was singing) honest. She calls him her "true-lord," which is an
ironic pun on "true-love" and follows that with the idea that he is her "doom." In this
case, she knows that she cannot lead the life that she wants to lead. She will have to
lead the life that she is supposed to lead, under her "lord's" supervision and
control.
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