The Decline Of Masculinity In Selected Poems Of Robert Bly

Robert Bly is a famous American contemporary poet, storyteller, translator, worldwidelecturer and the leader of the Mythopoetic Men’s Movement. He has won many prizes,including the National Book Award, Frost Medal and so on. In his poetry collections andnonfiction books, he pays much attention to the transition and development of masculinityand offers nothing less than a new vision of what it is to be a man. As the leader of men’smovement, the theme of men and masculinity is one of the distinguishing features of RobertBly’s works. Bly’s unique and profound thinking of men and masculinity in today’s societyhas been concentrated on his works, which has aroused widespread concern in the wholeworld. Thus the study of masculinity will offer readers a feasible and valuable way tounderstand Bly’s works. This thesis intends to discuss the decline of masculinity and how tobe a truly qualified modern man at today’s society through analyzing the three kinds of maleimages in Bly’s works.The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter analyzes the male image of“the soft male” in Bly’s poems, particularly in his love poetry Loving A Woman in Two Worlds,Bly strikes deeper into the intricacies of man-woman relationships than most of hiscontemporaries. In today’s society, challenged by the increasing powerful women both athome and in the workplace, the traditional relationship between man and woman in themarriage has been undergoing transformation. Under all kinds of pressure, the sexual energyof the men is declining, and the men begin to pursue their ideal women—the holy women intheir deep hearts.The second chapter studies the male image of “the descending family hero” in Bly’spoems, especially in his collection The Man in the Black Coat Turns and his prose Iron John,Bly lays out the wounding in both sides of the father-son relationship. He addresses thedevastating effects of remote fathers and mourns the disappearance of male initiation rites inour culture. As the mentor of son’s physical and spiritual growth, the father can not be aqualified father; and the great fatherly image is descending and the kingly radiance of thefather in the son’s heart is losing because of the increasing absence of father in the family.The chapter three discusses the male image of “the half-adult” who is trappedsomewhere between childhood and maturity in Bly’s poems, especially in his collection Meditations on the Insatiable Soul, Bly meets his fascination with the male psyche and laysthe poetry foundation for his subsequent work with men and his nonfiction work, The SiblingSociety, Bly points out that at the close of the twentieth century, the adolescents havegenerally refused to become adults while the adults have regressed toward adolescence. SoBly feels very anxious about the American society which is running by a group of half-adults,and he hopes that he can help these half-adults to find some ways to be a truly mature man.In conclusion, through analyzing the three kinds of male image of “the soft male”,“thedescending family hero”, and “the half-adult” in Bly’s poems, a major thrust of the paper is toexplore the changes of men’s role and masculinity in today’s society. It is important that thereis a long-term process in which men need to rediscover the essential terms of masculinity andmake great efforts to be a truly mature modern man. Thus, Robert Bly’s ideas of masculinityencourages men and women to find more room for change, a broad movement also amongmen themselves, towards a culture of peace.