As I’m sure you’ve all read William Blake’s “Visions of the Daughters of Albion,” I know I cant be the only one who had difficulty in understanding the language used in the poem. I can’t say I was able to fully grasp what was going on 100% of the time, I was still able to establish one central idea—the degradation of women.
“The Argument” found in the beginning of the poem introduces a kind of sexual vibe that I picked up on in the third line. Oothoon, the main character of the poem declares that she is a virgin in love with Theotormon; however her virgin status wasn’t very long lasting. “But the terrible thunders tore,” depicts the pain she felt when losing her virginity, which we only later find out is not the doings of her love, but of a rapist—Bromion. As a woman during this time, Oothoon didn’t have control of many aspects of her life but sexual encounters should have been one of them. Bromion took that away from her and stripped her of her virgin status without her consent. In “Visions,” we discover more details of the rape: “Bromion rent her with his thunders; on his stormy bed – Lay the faint maid.”
Oothoon and the Daughters of Albion look to a land, America, and view it as a place of paradise and freedom away from the awful treatment these women receive in their homeland. When the Daughters of Albion hear the cries of Oothoon, they respond and say, “And they enclos’d my infinite brain into a narrow circle.” I interpreted this line as the women declaring what men had done to their mindset over time, they had patronized and belittled them to a point that their thoughts and brains were of no more use. There was so much these women could have been, so much they could have done; men took that away from them and denied them of their ability to actually utilize their brains for any substantial and real purpose.
The line “The Daughters of Albion hear her woes, and echo back her sighs,” is repeated various times throughout the poem. Because of her rape, Oothoon not only loses her virginity and dignity, but Theotormon because he is enraged and jealous her no longer possesses power of her. The line signifies the women’s understanding of her pain, because they too experience the degradation.