20 pages • 40 minutes read
Delight in Disorder
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Links Between Dress and Sexual Expression
Generally, members of the upper echelon during Herrick’s time were expected to wear elaborate and carefully arranged clothing, with clothing serving as an important mark of both socioeconomic status and respectability. Sexuality in attire would not be necessarily overt. The woman who catches Herrick’s speaker’s eye, however, is slightly mussed and, according to the speaker, far more attractive than those whose “art / [is] too precise” (Lines 13-14). The speaker describes the woman’s clothing in playfully sexualized terms, suggesting both the woman’s allure and her own sexual appeal. In doing so, he suggests the links between dress and sexual expression.
The “disorder” (Line 1) of the woman’s dress brings the speaker “delight” because it emotionally “[k]indles […] a wantonness” (Line 2). In other words, her clothes suggest that she herself is less sexually restrained than others, as reflected in the term “wantonness,” which appeals to the speaker. The speaker studies her outfit, which in turn allows them to sensually peruse her body. For example, the shawl offers a “fine distraction” (Line 4) that allows the speaker to linger on the woman’s shoulders. The loose lacing at the bodice “enthrals” (Line 6) her bustline. Loose ribbons at the cuffs drape sensually against her hands, while the glimpsed “petticoat” (Line 10) is “tempestuous” (Line 10). Its “winning wave” (Line 9) captures movement at the woman’s hips. Even the “tie” (Line 11) of the woman’s “careless shoe-string” (Line 11) helps to “bewitch” (Line 13) the speaker.
In describing the woman’s dress from head to toe, the speaker both eroticizes the woman’s clothing and transforms the woman herself into an object of desire. In methodically assessing each item of clothing, the speaker turns his observations into a type of blazon, a form of lyric devoted to describing each part of a lover’s body that was popular during the Renaissance. In “Delight in Disorder,” the speaker uses the items of clothing to indirectly suggest the attractions of the female subject’s body, implying her beauty and sensuality.
In other words, the speaker is seduced by the “sweet disorder” (Line 1) of the woman’s presentation and becomes enamored by the “wild civility” (Line 12) that they imagine she contains. The de rigueur appearance of other women does not allow for this anticipation of the “wild” (Line 12). For the speaker, the naturalness of the woman’s less-contained beauty is much more appealing than the artifice of others since it suggests the potential for a passionate sexual liaison.
The Dynamics Between Men and Women
Herrick’s speaker objectifies his subject as a thing that exists for his delight, rather than her own being. The woman’s face is not seen, but her body—via her clothing—is studied from head to toe in a sexualized manner. In depicting the female subject of the poem through the stance of an observer, Herrick also subtly examines the dynamics between men and women.
While the speaker’s sexual orientation and interests are not explicitly revealed, the poem heavily implies that the speaker feels a sensual attraction to the woman he observes, creating a sexual dynamic between them. His celebration of the “wantonness” that is “[k]indle[d]” (Line 2) in the clothing through its disarray implies that the speaker may also feel a similar “wantonness,” or sexual desire, upon beholding the woman. The subject is distinctly presented as female due to her clothing (e.g., bodice, underskirt, shoulders being revealed). Words like “wantonness” (Line 2), “enthrals” (Line 6), “tempestuous” (Line 10), “wild” (Line 12), and “bewitch” (Line 13) also add to the idea that the “disorder in the dress” (Line 1) is not just “sweet” (Line 1) but also sexual. That sexuality is imposed upon the dress and the woman by the male observer.
There is also a distinct power dynamic between the speaker and the poem’s female subject, suggesting that the woman must suggest her sexual interest—or what the speaker perceives as her sexual interest—through more subtle means due to the differences in societal expectations for men and women. The speaker’s use of sexualized vocabulary implies that the woman may be using her disorderly dress to signal her sexual availability to the male observer, instead of openly expressing her desires verbally. The speaker’s position as the observer, while the woman remains the object observed and assessed by the speaker, also suggests a dynamic in which the man has more agency and control: He examines her from head to toe, reflecting on how and why he finds her attractive, while the woman remains silent and passive.
The reader is privy to nothing of the woman’s movements, expressions, or thoughts. Nothing is revealed about her face. Thus, her body becomes a conduit for the speaker’s fantasy. In her, he sees a “civility” that hides a “wild[ness]” (Line 12), as well as a “bewitch[ing]” (Line 13) naturalness. It is not her personality that really attracts the speaker but how her physicality lends itself to his needs. In these ways, the dynamics between speaker and object reflect the hierarchical societal dynamics at the time that tended to place men over women.
The Worth of Natural Beauty
Herrick was an Anglican cleric, taking orders in 1623. He was also a Cavalier Poet, part of the “Tribe of Ben,” a group of young poets who idealized nature, pleasure, and worldly joys. Although it is unclear when Herrick wrote “Delight in Disorder,” his speaker’s observations suggest that the main part of the woman’s appeal is that she is natural and unaffected in her appearance. In praising her, the speaker also suggests the worth of natural beauty, challenging the Puritan aesthetics of rigid morality and somber appearance.
The poem conforms to the Cavalier aesthetic of favoring what is natural and free-spirited, in contrast to the more austere and rigid ideals championed by the Puritans at the time. Herrick’s poems are thought to have been “composed in the 1610s and 1620s” (See: Further Reading & Resources). However, the poems were published just after Herrick was ousted as vicar during the English Civil War. In that war, the Royalist Cavaliers lost to the Puritan Roundheads. Cromwell’s new Puritan regime was marked by a severe, inflexible religiosity that curtailed or banned traditional festivities and pastimes as ungodly. The Puritans also had a deep mistrust of worldly art, closing the theaters and disapproving of poems that they regarded as sexually immoral. Herrick’s poem, as an openly eroticized celebration of a woman’s carefree dress and implied sensuality, challenges the Puritan aesthetics of plainness and moral restraint.
Thus, while “Delight in Disorder” isn’t directly a political poem, its lauding of a woman who is not playing by the “art” (Line 13) of knowing how to dress can appear transgressive since the speaker clearly notes that she should be admired instead of criticized for her carefree display. The need to control female appearance and sexuality was an important part of Puritanism, and the “wild civility” (Line 12) that the speaker admires in his subject would have been discouraged. Similarly, “wantonness” (Line 2), with its strongly sexual overtones, would have been considered deeply immoral. The fact that the woman “enthrals” (Line 6) and “bewitch[es]” (Line 13) the speaker is therefore significant, as he presents her natural beauty and the desire she “[k]indles” (Line 2) within him as something joyful and praiseworthy, defying Puritan scruples.
Instead, the implication is that the woman should be praised for not being “too precise” (Line 14) and for being unassuming and natural. In doing so, Herrick also reflects the broader Cavalier aesthetic and political values, celebrating what is natural and sensual over what is spiritual and restrained.
Unlock all 20 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 9,100+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Robert Herrick
