The Wife of Asdrubal

In Felicia Hemans "Tales, and Historic Scenes, in Verse" the peom "The Wife of Asdrubal," she states, "Bright in her hand the lifted dagger gleams, Swift from her children's hearts the life-blood streams; With frantic laugh she clasps them to the breast. Whose woes and passions soon shall be at rest; Lifts one appealing, frenzied glance on high, Then deep midst rolling flames is lost to mortal eye (408)." This passage is describing a mother killing her children on a burning roof because her husband surrendered to the enemy to save his life and doom everybody else. This peom is very interesting because of some of the events that happened in Hemans' life. Her husband left her to go to Italy, and her dad left her mother to go to Canada (405). I find this interesting because maybe this is a poem that describes her feelings toward her husband and fater. The fact that the mother took the life of her children could be a example of what a single mother will do to make sure that her children never suffer. Being a single mother cannot be simple especially back in a time when women did not have nearly as many rights as women do now. Although her mother and her were able to care for their children as single mothers, she at some point or another appears to have become frustrated with the way that they most important men in her and her children's lives seem to abandon them. Because of this, this poem seems to be a symbol of her never ending desire to do what ever is necessary for her children without having to depend on their father kind of the way her mother did.