Brooks made a strong political statement about abortion in this poem that could easily be interpreted as pro-life. Though her subject goes back and forth between both good and bad feelings about her aborted children and what could have been, the overall tone of this writing is dark, guilt-ridden and depressing. This poem thought-provokingly addresses a prominent issue for many women at this juncture in the history of America that remains a prominent issue for women even today. “The Mother” was written in 1945, shortly after the Great Depression had ended. Due to the extensive financial hardship that came with that time, many women chose to have abortions for fear that they could not afford to properly care for a new baby.
Sylvia Plath was a poet and author who deeply and thoughtfully engaged with the period in which she lived, which was rapidly evolving and developing. This is clear in her poems “Morning Song” and “The Applicant” as well as her novel, The Bell Jar. Plath passionately challenged many social expectations, such as the expectations placed upon females as well as pressures on men – the expectations of “the perfect life”. She also challenged consumerism. Because of the way that she engaged with and challenged the changing reality of her period, her contribution to the literary world is valued most highly.
In these two periods women around the world expressed their frustration with inequality and sexual frustration. Two of the most prolific writers of first and second wave feminism were Kate Chopin and Margaret Atwood, respectively. Chopin was the true bridge between first wave and second wave feminism. She not only dealt with issues of suffrage but also female sexuality. In her short story entitled “The Story of an Hour”, Chopin addresses issues of grief and repression.
Alongside with running a household, women had to deal with grief caused by the loss of the loved ones, deathly epidemics, inflated prices and British pogroms. At the same time they had to present themselves as ideal creatures, delicate and modest, that their husbands fought for and were inspired by. In this case, women had to suffer “privately” without the permission to express themselves openly, especially in front of males. The author describes and proves this “whole transaction”, as she puts it, with the help of some preserved records like letters, diaries, newspaper articles and advertisements, poems, novels and historical facts. Throughout the whole article she gives us examples and direct citations from the few published works and private documents of Rebecca Frank, Anne Eliza Bleecker, Hannah Winthrop, Susanna Rowson and other women to support her main idea.
Maya Angelou added to the Literary Canon Maya Angelou is an editor, performer, singer, filmmaker, dancer, educator, but one thing she does best is writing. Angelou, born April 4, 1928, has had many influences throughout her lifetime. She has been influenced by her hardships, writers, religion, and the African American community. Maya Angelou should be included in the literary canon because she is best known for her autobiographies, which involved her childhood and her early life experiences. Her autobiographies influenced many African Americans and specifically women.
(Poetry Dispatch)To me biggest similarity between Sexton & Plath was both writers seemed obsessed with death not only in their poetry but also in their personal lives. Although both women were Pulitzer Prize winners, their battle with depression and breakdowns ultimately lead both women to committee suicide. Plath's "Ariel" and Sexton's "The Starry Night" both celebrate suicide (Sylvia Plath forum/Poetry Foundation). After Plath's death, Sexton started to incorporate Plath's themes and Nazi imagery into her own work. Despite communicating only sporadically between 1959 and Plath's suicide, both women were definitively influenced by their brief friendship, showing in their respective works.
Duffy takes the form of the dramatic monologue, in which she herself becomes the dead Jewish woman, speaking to us from beyond the terrible mass grave. The poem begins: After I no longer speak, they break our fingers to salvage my wedding ring The image in the readers’ mind is horrific. The word ‘salvage’ shows the brutality and greediness of the Germans who did this to her. This line is written in the present tense, bringing the events of the Holocaust closer to us and shocking us greatly with how this woman's fingers were broken, whilst she was actually still alive. But this poem is not just the tale of the persona's acts of bravery.
“Chuffing me off like a Jew / … to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen” describes her difficult and harsh life and the obstacles she had to face while living with her father. Even though her father and she did not have a good relationship, she still “[prayed] to recover [him]” showing her love for him and when she tried to commit suicide she thought she would get “back to [him]”. Further more, Sylvia Plath suffered from a syndrome called Electra complex, which is
She calls him a bastard because he walked out on her however Duffy uses beloved sweetheart to symbolise her unconditional love for him. Havisham exhibits violent imagery with powerful words, strangle, stabbed and death which all associate her bitterness with her wanting her ex fiancé dead. `Not a day since then I haven’t wished him dead`, proves that Havisham still remembers her wedding day very vividly and feels humiliated having been jilted so is trying to get revenge. Havisham is feeling emotionally detached from life and because of that, envisaging her ex fiancé dead or hurt. The poem infuses images of death to show the extent of her bitterness, along with enjambment.
The narrator is clearly miserable with her life and considers suicide to be the only solution. Killing herself would relieve the pain she feels on a daily basis. “Daddy” is another poem that demonstrates Plath’s common death by suicide theme. In the poem, she writes that “At twenty I tried to die / And get back, back, back to you. / I thought even the bones would do (Plath 58-60)”.