Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In "Enchanter's Handmaiden" by Elinor Wylie, the speaker reflects on the complex, often contradictory demands of a powerful figure, likely an enchanter or a magician, who gives her tasks that seem ordinary but are, in fact, fraught with difficulty, absurdity, and danger. The poem employs a series of contrasts to explore the tension between the mundane and the magical, highlighting the emotional and physical toll of the speaker's role. Through vivid and sometimes humorous metaphors, Wylie examines themes of power, obedience, and the burden of impossible tasks.

The poem begins with the speaker rejecting a simple task that involves climbing a "glassy hill" or wringing a "bloody shirt," tasks that seem straightforward yet are difficult and tiring. The speaker notes that such tasks “are done in seven years’ weary time,” which suggests the exhaustion of repetitive labor, though the tasks are ultimately bearable and do not cause permanent harm to the performer. This introduces the idea of labor that is taxing but survivable, a contrast to the more fantastical and impossible tasks that will follow.

The second stanza introduces a different kind of labor, one that involves working with the elements and a fantastical transformation: “It was giving me a netful of eels to turn into venison pasty!” This task, unlike the earlier, more straightforward ones, is both absurd and magical. Turning a netful of eels into venison pasty is an impossible transformation that seems to mock the very idea of labor. The netful of eels is a mundane object, but the task of turning them into something luxurious like venison pasty is both impractical and fantastical, suggesting that the speaker is tasked with achieving the impossible.

In the following stanzas, the speaker continues to describe tasks that involve physical endurance and suffering, each one with an underlying magical or absurd quality. “It was not asking me to hold the brand / White from the smithy, or receive the lash / Across my weeping; these to burn the hand / And brow with different sort of lightning flash.” The imagery of holding a "white brand" or receiving a "lash" calls to mind physical pain and punishment, but the speaker dismisses these tasks as ones that, while painful, are familiar and do not break the spirit. These tasks involve physical suffering, yet they are still within the realm of possibility, with pain that can be endured.

Instead, the speaker highlights a more surreal and bizarre task: “It was leaving me a stableful of straw to spin into golden mittens!” Here, the task resembles the classic fairy-tale motif of spinning straw into gold, but with a whimsical twist. The idea of spinning straw into "golden mittens" is absurd, mixing the impossible with the mundane. It invokes a sense of magical labor that is both enchanting and futile, as the speaker is given an impossible task that is far from the expected or rational.

The final stanza shifts from the metaphorical and physical to the deeply uncomfortable and morally ambiguous. The speaker notes, “It was making me suckle an imp after promising he was a Christian!” The image of suckling an imp—an evil or mischievous creature—after a false promise of him being a Christian introduces a moral and ethical dilemma. The imp is an innocent but troubling figure, representing both deceit and the cruelty of unfulfilled promises. The act of suckling an imp implies a deep submission to something unnatural, reflecting the power imbalance in the speaker's relationship with the enchanter.

“Enchanter’s Handmaiden” uses a series of surreal, almost absurd tasks to depict the experience of someone subjected to the whims of a powerful figure. Through the speaker’s frustrations, Wylie explores the nature of obedience, power, and the impossibility of fulfilling the enchanter’s impossible demands. The tasks range from the mundane to the fantastical, highlighting the tension between the realistic and the magical, and ultimately, the poem presents a picture of a person who is caught in a cycle of impossible labor, dealing with both physical and moral challenges. The humor in the poem’s absurdity serves to underscore the bleakness of the speaker’s situation, portraying a sense of helplessness in the face of authority and the absurdities that arise from power dynamics.

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