Prosodic Analysis

Charles Martin’s poem, “Victoria’s Secret,” presents a witty dichotomy between bedroom values in Victorian times and in the present. Martin first paints for his readers a picture of women’s sexuality in the Victorian times: Women were to lie perfectly flat when their husbands were “getting it off on them” (line 2). They were even urged to imagine themselves doing something fun during the process, like buying a new hat. This humorous depiction of men’s callous disregard for women in Victorian sex is contrasted by Martin’s description of modern sex, of Victoria Secret models traipsing along in their lingerie, showing off their “fullbreasted,” “airbrushed” bodies, baring their sexuality for all to see. But through this juxtaposition of time eras and strong correlation between content and form, Martin unearths an insightful question: Are women sexually liberated? Martin masterfully employs the prosodic tools of meter, metrical substitutions, rhyme, and an implied metaphor to to guide his readers to reevaluate the veracity of our “sexual liberation.” Martin employs anapestic pentameter as the base meter for “Victoria’s Secret” to frame his poem in the meter of Victorian times. The anapestic undulations evoke a sense of lightness in the verse, which plays up Martin’s mockery of women’s sexuality, both past and present. In lines one and two, “Victorian mothers instructed their daughters, ahem, / That whenever their husbands were getting it off on them,” clearly shows an anapestic base meter that manipulates what could have been a very serious couplet into a humorous depiction. The anapestic meter also evokes a sense of social commentary often found in Victorian poems. After the latter part of the British Industrial Revolution, the lower classes underwent an intense shift from the traditionally rural lifestyle to that of new urbanization. This shift caused large-scale unrest and social turmoil, upon which many poets and writers of the time focused their pieces.