Apples

Nora Hopper Chesson's Apples

Nora Hopper Chesson’s “Apples” is a haunting and enigmatic poem that weaves together biblical allusions, mythological symbolism, and a subversive reimagining of feminine agency. Through its two distinct yet thematically linked stanzas, the poem explores temptation, wisdom, mortality, and redemption, all while interrogating traditional narratives of sin and salvation. Chesson’s work engages with fin-de-siècle anxieties about gender, spirituality, and the destabilization of moral certainties, making it a rich subject for literary analysis. This essay will examine the poem’s historical and cultural context, its use of literary devices, its thematic preoccupations, and its emotional resonance, with particular attention to its revisionist treatment of biblical and mythological figures.

Historical and Cultural Context

Nora Hopper Chesson (1871–1906) was an Irish poet associated with the Celtic Revival, a movement that sought to reclaim and celebrate Irish folklore, mythology, and national identity in the face of British colonial rule. Though less well-known than contemporaries like W.B. Yeats or Lady Gregory, Chesson’s work often engaged with mystical and folkloric themes, blending them with a distinctly modern sensibility. “Apples” reflects this dual influence, drawing from ancient myth while infusing it with a late-Victorian fascination with the occult, the feminine grotesque, and the liminal spaces between sin and salvation.

The poem’s preoccupation with biblical and mythological women—Eve, Lilith, and an unnamed female figure in the second stanza—aligns with the broader cultural discourse of the 1890s, a period marked by the New Woman movement, the rise of feminist thought, and a growing interest in esoteric spirituality. The fin-de-siècle era was one of both decadence and moral panic, where traditional religious narratives were being questioned, and alternative spiritualities (Theosophy, occultism, Celtic mysticism) were gaining traction. Chesson’s poem participates in this cultural moment by reimagining the archetypal temptress not as a mere agent of corruption but as a complex, even redemptive figure.

Literary Devices and Symbolism

1. Allusion and Mythic Revisionism

The poem’s most striking feature is its intertextuality, drawing heavily from Judeo-Christian and mythological traditions. The first stanza invokes Eve and Lilith, two figures often positioned as opposites in biblical and midrashic traditions. Eve, the mother of humanity, is traditionally seen as the first woman who succumbed to temptation, while Lilith—Adam’s apocryphal first wife in Jewish folklore—refused subjugation and was demonized as a seductress and child-killer. Chesson blurs these distinctions, presenting the speaker as both temptress and wisdom-bringer:

“Am I not beautiful? Am I not wise— / Though I too once walked free in Paradise?”

Here, the speaker aligns herself with Lilith (who was cast out for her defiance) while also adopting Eve’s role as the bearer of forbidden fruit. The conflation of these figures challenges the binary of “sinful woman” versus “righteous woman,” suggesting that wisdom and danger are intertwined.

The second stanza introduces another enigmatic female figure, possibly Azrael, the Angel of Death in Islamic tradition, or a composite of multiple mythic beings. She speaks of “kindly blood poured out for ye,” evoking Christ-like sacrifice, yet her apples promise life rather than death—a reversal of the Edenic narrative. This inversion destabilizes traditional moral frameworks, presenting temptation not as purely destructive but as a paradoxical path to enlightenment.

2. Paradox and Ambiguity

The poem thrives on contradiction, using paradox to unsettle the reader’s expectations:

• “Apples as sweet as sin, and half as fair” – Sin is rendered desirable, even beautiful.

• “The apples half I give and half deny” – The offering is both gift and refusal, suggesting that wisdom (or salvation) is never fully attainable.

• “Lo, I am Lilith! will ye eat and die?” – The question is both threat and invitation, leaving the outcome ambiguous.

These paradoxes create a sense of unease, forcing the reader to grapple with the poem’s moral ambiguity.

3. Imagery and Sensory Appeal

Chesson employs vivid, almost tactile imagery to evoke temptation:

• “Burden of rosy apples” – The visual and sensory appeal of the fruit is immediate.

• “Look deep into my eyes” – The speaker’s gaze is hypnotic, drawing the reader into her spell.

• “My fruit’s as red / As hers, that tempts the quick to be the dead” – The color red symbolizes both vitality and danger, life and death.

The poem’s sensory richness makes its metaphysical themes feel immediate and visceral.

Themes and Philosophical Undercurrents

1. Temptation and Knowledge

The poem revisits the Edenic motif of the forbidden fruit but complicates it. Unlike the biblical narrative, where eating the apple brings expulsion and suffering, Chesson’s speaker offers wisdom alongside danger:

“And gather wisdom ere you gather gold.”

This line suggests that knowledge—even illicit knowledge—is more valuable than material wealth, aligning with Romantic and Decadent ideals that privilege experience over moral restraint.

2. Feminine Power and Marginalization

The poem’s speakers—whether Lilith or the second stanza’s figure—are women who have been exiled, stoned, or rejected, yet return with transformative power. The lines—

“You welcomed her a barren while ago / And me with stoning, even as a foe”

—suggest a critique of patriarchal religious traditions that vilify female autonomy. The speaker’s return (“Come back to seek your grace, my fruit and me”) implies a cyclical, even vengeful reclamation of agency.

3. Sacrifice and Redemption

The second stanza introduces a Christ-like dimension with the mention of “kindly blood poured out for ye,” yet this figure is ambiguously aligned with death (Azrael). This duality suggests that redemption may come through confronting, rather than avoiding, mortality.

Emotional Impact and Readerly Engagement

The poem’s hypnotic cadence and unsettling imagery create a sense of lingering disquiet. The speaker’s voice is at once seductive and ominous, inviting the reader into a space where pleasure and peril are indistinguishable. The final lines—

“Azrael and his apples: eat and live!”

—leave the reader with an unresolved tension. Is this a genuine offer of salvation, or a trickster’s gambit? The ambiguity ensures the poem’s haunting resonance.

Comparative Analysis and Conclusion

Chesson’s “Apples” can be fruitfully compared to other late-Victorian works that reimagined biblical women, such as Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” (which also uses fruit as a symbol of temptation and sisterly redemption) or Yeats’s occult-infused poetry. Like these texts, Chesson’s poem resists didacticism, instead embracing ambiguity and multiplicity of meaning.

In conclusion, “Apples” is a masterful exploration of myth, femininity, and the paradoxes of desire. By blending biblical allusion with Decadent sensibility, Chesson crafts a poem that is both timeless and strikingly modern, inviting readers to reconsider the stories we tell about sin, wisdom, and the women who bear them.

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