Can you help me a bit more with this topic? . . . Since LDS funeral sermons were given exclusively by men before 1900, they make an interesting comparison with LDS women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death poetry of the same time period. When he studied LDS funeral sermons, Davis Bitton researched what he called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the gospel of comfort.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d While much is the same (ie, finding healing by looking forward in time, imagining the spirit world, and speaking of being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153relieved from suffering\u00e2\u20ac\u009d), there are some telling differences:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\tMany (even most) female poets did not depict the spirit as going to a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153spirit world\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153paradise\u00e2\u20ac\u009d before being resurrected. Instead they spoke of a time period of quite literal \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rest\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sleep\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that happens before the judgment bar of God. For example, Emily Hill Woodmansee, survivor of the Willie Handcart company, describes it as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153blest oblivion.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Why would pioneer women (willfully?) overlook the doctrine of the spirit world in favor of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153blest oblivion\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\tWhile both male sermon givers and female poets found comfort in the doctrine of eternal relationships, nineteenth-century LDS women found disproportionate comfort in female-and-female and mother-and-child relationships. Out of 67 Exponent death poems during 1872-1882, only eleven are clearly about the deaths of men. Five of those pay homage to high-ranking leaders and four are tributes to for relatives\u00e2\u20ac\u201dtwo for grandfathers, one for a father, and one for a brother. Two poems may be about husbands, but both are so vague that they may be about someone else entirely. While we know this was the time period of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153separate spheres\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as well as the era of polygamy, I was stunned at the dearth of eternal husbands. Why would these women poets neglect to immortalize\/memorialize their husbands? Or, conversely, why did they disproportionately write about children and friends?<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\tA few women seem so devastated by the loss of children that they claim the mother-child bond is the source of eternal \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sealed\u00e2\u20ac\u009d relationships (rather than priesthood ordinances). Lu Dalton argues that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mother-love is strong \/ and deep laid as the everlasting hills.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In another poem two years later, Dalton asserts that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153an angel of God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perfect day \/ Is mine, by the passion of motherhood won, \/ By love and fond memory bound.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mrs. E. B. Browning concurs:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 . . . I appeal
\nTo all who bear babes\u00e2\u20ac\u201din the hour
\nWhen the veil of the body we feel
\nRent round us\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhile torments reveal
\nThe motherhood\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advent in power,
\nAnd the babe cries!\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhas each of us known
\nBy apocalypse \/ . . . the child is our own,
\nLife of life, love of love, moan of moan,
\nThrough all changes, all times, everywhere.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Sorry to drag everyone along on my depressing tangent into death poetry, but I would love to hear speculation on why very faithful nineteenth-century LDS women would write poems that altered doctrine, such as the doctrine of the spirit world and the sealing power of the priesthood, and\u00e2\u20ac\u201doften\u00e2\u20ac\u201doverlook their eternal husbands. Any ideas?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Can you help me a bit more with this topic? . . . Since LDS funeral sermons were given exclusively by men before 1900, they make an interesting comparison with LDS women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death poetry of the same time period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-history","category-arts"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4693"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6238,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4693\/revisions\/6238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}