# The Harpy explained — Songs of a Sourdough

> Chapter companion for Songs of a Sourdough by Robert W. Service.

## What happens

A woman reflects on her life of bitterness and survival, having been betrayed by love and forced into a life of selling herself. She paints her cheeks, drinks to shine her eyes, and waits nightly for men to come, taking revenge on the 'wolf-pack' who prey on the innocent. She blames fate and the Maker for her tragic role, yet asserts her judgment belongs to God alone.

## Themes in this chapter

### Loneliness and Despair

The speaker laments being 'unloved' in life and death, 'unpitied, unforgiven,' and describes her existence as a 'human sacrifice' to the sins of men.

### The Outcast and the Misfit

The woman is an outcast, scorned by society, yet she knows the shame of the men who visit her, highlighting her role as a misfit who exposes hypocrisy.

## Character check-ins

### Lou

The speaker of the poem, a woman of 23 who is old in wisdom and experience, working as a prostitute in a saloon.

## Key lines

> There is no hope for such as I, on earth nor yet in Heaven; Unloved I live, unloved I die, unpitied, unforgiven; A loathèd jade I ply my trade, unhallowed and unshriven.

I have no hope anywhere; I live and die without love, pity, or forgiveness, and I work in a despised profession without absolution.

_The speaker expresses her utter despair and social condemnation._

> For life is not the thing we thought, and not the thing we plan; And woman in a bitter world must do the best she can; Must yield the stroke, and bear the yoke, and serve the will of man.

Life doesn't turn out as we expected or intended, and in this harsh world, a woman must simply cope, submitting to men's demands.

_The speaker rationalizes her choices as necessary survival in a patriarchal society._

> Wherefore, the wolf-pack having gorged upon the lamb, their prey, With siren smile and serpent guile I make the wolf-pack pay; With velvet paws and flensing claws, a tigress roused to slay.

So after men have used and consumed innocent women, I use my charm and cunning to exact revenge, like a tigress who appears soft but is deadly.

_The speaker describes her method of retribution against predatory men._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/songs_of_a_sourdough_se/chapters/the-harpy
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/songs_of_a_sourdough_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/songs_of_a_sourdough_se/chapters