Analysis of Grimm’s Dear Mili Tale: A Feminist Perspective
Karl Constantine FOLKES 1935 (Portland)
I called her hero.
A fairytale little girl.
And not heroine.
In a Wilhelm Grimm’s story.
A dissertation problem.
“What makes her hero?”
Question posed at my defense.
“Child in dark forest —
What arguments can you make.
To satisfy our questions?”
I was quite surprised.
Not expecting this question.
But answered firmly.
More ready than I had thought.
The answers came from within.
To think of it now.
With the passages of time.
I sometimes wonder.
How did I summon courage.
To face my jury scholars?
Those were seasoned men.
With not a woman present.
Wizened by their years.
Yet ignorant of Wisdom.
Lofty men in their smugness.
And, facing them all.
Words poured forth — like a hero.
Wounded by attack.
Yet strengthened by conviction.
To muster staunch defense.
“Your talk of heroes.
Concerns those who slay dragons.
Armored shining knights.
Like those medieval knights.
Who rescue forlorn damsels.”
“Courtly gentlemen.
Like Knights of the Round Table.
Men as Knights Errant.
Chivalrous toward women.
In readiness to rescue.”
“Men as Prince Charming.
Protectors of all women.
Men as Knights Templar.
All of some noble ranking.
In the form of King Arthur.”
“My hero is quite different.
With a desire.
More subtle to imagine.
Beyond what is commonplace.
What is more hidden than seen.”
“My hero — Mili.
Picks up a tiny rosebud.
Its thorns are quite sharp.
And, showing loving kindness.
Nurtures it with her own tears.”
“Tale of Dear Mili.
A tale of death and rebirth.
Has archetypal meaning.
How like a rosebud nurtured.
We, too, can all be heroes.”
“That is my thesis.
To show a different viewpoint.
One much more subtle.
A hero needs no bragging.
Attends to nature’s bidding.”
“My child heroine.
Slays other kinds of dragons.
Those with distempers.
To bring illumination.
With moral code of ethics.”
My analysis.
Registered new sentiments.
About a hero.
Heroine not withstanding.
Inviting paradigm shift.
My inquisitors.
All argued with much passion.
During my defense.
A final vote was then reached.
With me declared as victor.
My research model.
A von Franzian framework.
Concerned the challenge.
Of Individuation —
And how a rosebud blossomed.
Grimm’s Dear Mili tale.
Invites us to consider.
What life is about.
How all of us — as subjects.
Are challenged to be heroes.
Scheme | ABCDE AFXXG XCDXH XXIXJ XKXEL XAXCF MGNNF HOKCX PCIPI KICXX BXXLX BXPXM LXOPP CGFCX LXAPX JCFXI OXXCX XIXXM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (28%) Tetractys (21%) |
Metre | 11010 010101 01100 001110 001010 11010 1011101 10110 1100111 1101010 11101 1010110 11010 1101111 0101101 11111 1010011 10110 1111010 1111010 10101 1101010 10111 1100110 1010110 01011 1111010 10101 1101010 110101 11110 0111110 10101 110101 110011 10100 1110110 11110 10110 0100110 11110 0101110 11110 1111010 0011110 11011100 10010 1101010 011110 1111011 1101 1101010 11111 0101010 1011011 1111 0111001 111010 1101010 1111110 11110 1101001 11110 0101110 0111010 11100 1101110 111 110010 1101110 10100 1001100 01010 1001010 010101 10100 1101110 10101 0101111 1101110 10110 0111 01010 11 0101010 1111 0111010 11101 1111110 1101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 2,348 |
Words | 487 |
Sentences | 88 |
Stanzas | 18 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 90 |
Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 98 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
About this poem
In 1991, I completed a dissertation in Children’s Literature at New York University entitled “An Analysis of Wilhelm Grimm’s Dear Mili Employing Von Franzian Methodological Processes” and concerning the manifestation of Jungian Individuation in fairytale literature. Marie-Louise von Franz was a Swiss Jungian psychologist and scholar known for her psychological interpretations of fairytales and of metaphysical alchemical processes that occur in the human psyche. At the defense of my dissertation, I was lengthily questioned and even challenged concerning my depiction of the little girl, the child protagonist of the Dear Mili tale, as being a heroine and, even more so, to have had the audacity to depict her as a hero. This poem, “Grimm’s Dear Mili Tale: A Feminist Perspective,” provides me with some valuable therapeutic self-counseling, and the opportunity to share with a larger audience of thinking minds, how the human soul, and particularly the feminine human soul, at times entrapped in a masculine dynamic of suppression and repression, may at times undergo physical or psychological onslaught but, through counseling and self-reappraisal, can find healing and be uplifted to live the life and journey of a hero or an heroine. The human psyche, by nature, desires the liberation of all, the masculine and the feminine. more »
Written on April 14, 2022
Submitted by karlcfolkes on April 14, 2022
Modified by karlcfolkes on February 16, 2023
- 2:26 min read
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"Grimm’s Dear Mili Tale: A Feminist Perspective" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/124866/grimm%E2%80%99s-dear-mili-tale%3A-a-feminist-perspective>.
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