the woman poetry essay

The Woman by Kristina Rungano

“The Woman” appears in Kristina Rungano’s first collection of poetry, A Storm is Brewing (1984). She is the first female Zimbabwean poet to publish a book of poetry. It is the only poetry collection of post-independence Zimbabwean-English literature. In her poem, Rungano talks about the role of women in rural Zimbabwean society and how they are treated in the prevalent pro-patriarchal system. The essence of the poem alludes to the indigenous expression, “vakadzi ngavanyarare,” meaning “women should keep quiet.” This piece records how a woman’s voice is muted, burdened with the big earthenware of duty and domestic oppression.

• Read the full text of “ The Woman ”

In “The Woman,” Rungano talks through a lyrical persona who belongs to the rural scene of her country. She represents the majority of the women who are oppressed in the macro-level societal framework, family. This woman is seen invested in various works such as fetching water, working in the fields in scorching heat, bearing children, doing domestic works, etc. She does what he is destined to in a patriarchal society. In contrast, her husband stays busy in worldly pleasures without caring about the pain of his wife. He returns home, sadistically draws pleasure from his weary wife. This cycle keeps repeating in the speaker’s life until her death.

Structure & Form

Rungano’s lyric poem “The Woman” contains 36 lines that are grouped into a single stanza. As there is no regular rhyme or meter, it is a lyric poem. Besides, the text is written from the perspective of a first-person speaker (a rural woman) who talks about the cyclical suffering of womanhood. This piece showcases the feature of 20th-century confessional poetry, where the speaker talks about the untold cruelties, mental agony, and hopelessness. Apart from that, Rungano stylistically uses dashes in some instances for the sake of emphasizing particular terms: “And how feared for the child – yours – I carried.”

Poetic Devices

Rungano’s “The Woman” contains the following poetic devices that make the subject matter more appealing to readers.

• Enjambment: It occurs throughout the text. Rungano uses this device to make readers go through consecutive lines to grasp her idea. For instance, she enjambs the first three lines of the poem.
• Simile: This device is used in the following lines: “Where young women drew water like myself” and “As I hire the great big mud container on my head/ Like a big painful umbrella.”
• Imagery: The poet uses olfactory imagery in the phrases “the smell of flowers” and “sweet smell of the dung.” She uses visual imagery in “the stream that rushed before me,” “How young the grass around,” “the great big mud container on my head,” etc. Besides, she also uses organic imagery in order to convey the internal feelings of the speaker.
• Metaphor: Readers first come across a metaphor in the phrase “sound of duty/ which ground on me.” Here, the sound comes from the speaker’s subconscious mind and keeps her tied to her role as a dutiful mother, devoted wife, and relentless worker. Rungano also uses this device in these phrases, “the pleasures of the flesh,” “angry vigilance of the sun,” etc.
• Repetition: There is a repetition of the term “big” in lines 9-10. It is used to emphasize the magnitude of the speaker’s burden.
• Personification: The poet personifies the “sun” as an angry, vigilant, and male representative. It symbolizes ever-watchful patriarchy.
• Rhetorical Question: The poem ends with two rhetorical questions asked indirectly to the patriarchs, with an undertone of bitter sarcasm.

Rungano makes use of a number of themes in her poem “The Woman.” These include patriarchy, womanhood, women’s suffering, and struggle, motherhood, and society. The poem revolves around a Zimbabwean rural woman who has been married at a young age. She does all the domestic work and looks after her family. Even she has to work in the fields under harsh weather in order to make a living. In contrast, her husband does nothing but intensify the suffering of the wife. Through this story, Rungano shows how a woman is treated in a patriarchal framework. The last two lines pose a serious question to readers regarding how women are brainwashed to take up their gender roles.

Line-by-Line Analysis & Explanation

A minute ago I came … … the grass around it.

Kristina Rungano’s poem “The Woman” presents a rural woman who is married at an early age. She works all day relentlessly under the strict schedule of duty. It is important to mention how Rungano begins her poem. She creates a sense of urgency from the very beginning.

The speaker had just returned from the well a minute ago. She has no time to think about other things except her family and chores. It does not happen with only herself. Several young women face a similar fate in Zimbabwe’s rural scene.

Working under the strict vigilance of the ticking clock makes the woman’s body weary and her heart tired. In the next line, the speaker manages to look at her surroundings. She can feel the force of the rushing stream, the smell of fresh flowers, and the lush beauty of the grass. Here, the “stream,” “flowers,” and “grass” are used as a symbol of youth and freedom. These images from nature are contrasted with the lives of young women who fetch water from the well, including the speaker.

And yet again I heard … … toiled in the fields.

The speaker has no time to heed to such uplifting thoughts inspired by nature. A “sound of duty” rings directly from her subconscious mind. She has to leave her self-fulfilling thoughts aside and attend to duty’s tough call. The speaker is still a girl. Naturally, she has to be drawn to nature’s freeing call. In reality, she can’t.

The bond of marriage has already chained her wings. It has clipped her young feathers right before she could learn to fly. The sound of dutifulness feels like a heavy burden on her back. But, she has to carry it throughout her life and pass it onto her next generation, especially her daughters.

The burden makes her feel old. As she bears the “great big mud container,” a symbol of women’s responsibilities, she can feel how withered her heart is. It is not her age but her duties that make her feel aged. In the next line, Rungano uses a simile in order to compare the earthenware to a “big painful umbrella.” The “umbrella” of patriarchy gives women apparent protection by drawing out their personal desires and sense of freedom.

After fetching water from the well, she got home and cooked a meal for her husband. As she works without any break, her husband has been out drinking and carousing with his friends. He keeps himself busy in the “pleasures of the flesh,” a metaphor for drinking and having intercourse. In contrast to that, his wife toiled in the fields to make a living for both.

Lines 14-21

Under the angry … … applied to the floors

Rungano uses an important symbol in the first line of this section, “the angry vigilance of the sun.” As readers can see here, the “sun” is depicted as a male counterpart. With its scorching heat, it intensifies the suffering of the woman toiling in the fields. Like her husband is indifferent to her suffering, so is the sun. Unlike the symbolic significance of the “sun” in other romantic poems, here the sun is depicted as a tyrant, a vigilant overseer of women’s suffering.

Nobody is there to share the suffering of the woman. Interestingly, only her “womb” is there to share her pain of childbearing. It hints at the fact that the woman is pregnant. Given the fact that she is bearing a child, her husband does not even care to look after her or even help her with her chores.

After returning from the fieldwork, the speaker washed the dishes. Rungano especially emphasizes the term “yours” (the husband’s) by using a semicolon. In the next line, she dexterously uses the pronoun “we” that readers may ignore while reading. Here, “we” include not the speaker’s husband but the child she is bearing.

In reality, she swept the room her husband also shared. Then, she prepared his bedding in the finest corner of the hut. These lines hint at the privilege a man enjoys in his family. Most of the work is done by the woman, but the man is there always to receive special perks like having the finest corner in the hut. She bathed his husband’s cost corner with the “sweet smell of dung” that she applied to all the floors.

Lines 22-30

Then you came … … I hated you

Finally, the lord, with his drunken gait, came in. Then he made his demands to the speaker without looking at her condition. She tried to explain how weary she was after all day’s work. But, he did not care. She brooded over the infant in her womb that was also his child.

The agonized words could not soothe the patriarch’s, cold heart. He beat her and forcefully had his way into her. After he had satisfied his lust, he left her like an object.

The speaker felt unhappy and bitter. She hated him after all he did to her. But, who was there to listen to her agonized request? She had to suffer the pain alone.

Lines 31-36

Yet tomorrow I shall again … … the fruit of the land?

This abominable cycle keeps repeating in women’s lives. Readers can find this scene in any rural society of the world. The unspeakable suffering of women is universal in nature. This cycle has been in motion from time immemorial.

The next day, the same woman who was tortured last night by her husband and her duties should wake up to his duties. She had to milk the cow, plough the land, and cook his food as usual. He should be her divine “Lord” again. Here, Rungano capitalizes the first letter of the term for sake of emphasis. It also has an ironic undertone.

The last three lines contain the crux of the poem. These lines pose two important questions to society. Firstly, the speaker asks whether it is not right that a woman should obey, love, serve, and honour her man. Here, she tries to say that women are destined to be subjugated figuratively. Then she uses a patriotic metaphor, “the fruit of the land.” She asks whether women are not the fruit (children) of the land. This question is not for the women to answer. Rungano asks this question to men.

Historical Context

Kristina Masuwa-Morgan, better known as Kristina Rungano, depicts Zimbabwean society and culture in her best-known poem “The Woman.” This piece was published in Rungano’s first and only published poetry collection in Zimbabwe, A Storm is Brewing . The book was published in 1984 when the poet was 21 years old. She wrote this poem a few years ago when she was studying in Zimbabwe. In this poem, she describes how women are seen in Zimbabwean society and culture. They are treated like objects and subordinates to their male counterparts. The patriarchal framework of the country promotes women’s silence and their utter subjugation. Rungano describes all modes of suffering a woman is entitled to in her family, ranging from doing all the household work to mutedly digesting domestic violence.

Questions and Answers

Kristina Rungano’s poem “The Woman” is about women’s life in Zimbabwe’s rural scene. Rungano describes how a woman has to perform her duties relentlessly and serve her lordly husband throughout her life.

The poem was published in Kristina Rungano’s first collection of poetry, A Storm is Brewing , in 1984.

The speaker of this poem is a young woman who is married at an early age. Rungano uses the first-person narrative technique in order to describe her feelings and sufferings to readers.

Throughout this piece, Rungano talks about a woman who is seen chained to her duties. She works under a strict schedule. Alongside that, she has to work in the fields for a living. On top of that, her drunken husband intensifies her suffering by his indifference.

Rungano repeats the term in the lines, “As I bore the great big mud container on my head/ Like a big painful umbrella.” This repetition depicts the magnitude of the speaker’s pain and her duties.

The tone of this piece is complaining, sad, and hopeless. By using a complaining tone, Rungano tries to pose a series of questions to patriarchal society. It makes the speaker’s case more piercing and appealing to readers.

Rungano uses the “sun” as a symbol of patriarchy. Neither the woman’s husband nor the sun cares for her suffering. It rather intensifies her pain with scorching heat.

These lines hint at the fact that the speaker’s heart is still young. But, the burden of her duties makes her feel aged. Rungano uses these images to contrast them with the speaker’s condition.

The speaker’s heart, the source for personal desires, is tired of the burden of her duties. She has no time to think about herself. For this reason, her heart is gradually weakened.

This line hints at worldly pleasures such as drinking and having sex. The speaker’s husband keeps himself busy in entertainment while she works throughout the day.

The use of dashes naturally puts emphasis on the term “yours.” Here, the speaker wants to point at the fact that the child she is bearing also belongs to her husband. But, he does not care about either her or the child.

The last few lines of the poem describe the cyclical nature of the woman’s suffering. No matter how tired she was for the last night’s torture, she should wake up the next morning and have to follow the same routine. She dejectedly asks herself whether women are destined to serve men.

Similar Poems about Patriarchy & Women’s Suffering

• “Marrying the Hangman” by Margaret Atwood — This poem is based on a real event where a woman marries a hangman to save herself from capital punishment.
• “I’m “wife” — I’ve finished that —” by Emily Dickinson — This piece taps on the themes of women’s suffering and patriarchy.
• “Bequest” by Eunice de Souza — The speaker of this poem describes how patriarchy shapes the fate of women.
• “The Survivor” by Marilyn Chin — In this poem, Chin depicts women as survivors of patriarchal oppression.

External Resources

• Check out New Daughters of Africa — This famous anthology includes literary works of more than 200 African women writers, including some best-known poems of Kristina Rungano.
• Society and Culture of Zimbabwe — Learn about women’s pathetic condition in Zimbabwean society.
• About Kristina Rungano — Read about the poet’s life and her best-loved poems.
• Profile of Kristina Masuwa-Morgan — Explore the academic profile of the poet on the University of Greenwich’s website.

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The Woman Poem by Kristina Rungano Summary, Notes and Line by Line Explanation in English for Students

Table of Contents

Introduction

The poem “The Woman” is written by the first Zimbabwean woman poet, Kristina Rungano. It was published in her first poetry collection “A Storm is Brewing”, in 1984. The poem delves into the poignant portrayal of a woman’s daily struggles, reflecting the societal expectations and inequalities she faces. The poet does not hesitate to talk about the rampant issue of domestic violence and marital rape in the poem. The narrative of the poem unfolds through vivid imagery and a candid expression of emotions, providing insight into the burdens placed upon the female protagonist. The poem highlights the important issue of “women should stay silent” that is prevalent in her community and talks about how a woman is burdened with violence and then required to stay silent about all of it.

About the poet

Kristina Masuwa-Morgan Rungano was born in 1963 in Zimbabwe. She became the first Zimbabwean woman writer with the publication of her first poetry collection “A Storm is Brewing” in 1984. Her poems have been included in numerous anthologies like “Daughters of Africa” and “The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry”. Her second poetry collection, “To Seek a Reprieve and Other Poems” was published in 2004.

The poem is written in one big stanza. It consists of 36 lines, all varying in length. The poem is written in first person narrative and talks about very personal and intimate issues of the woman’s life, showcasing the features of confessional poetry.

The speaker, a woman, talks about her day. She says that she just arrived home after returning from the well. She observed other young women like herself there. She talks about how her body was tired and fatigued and despite the refreshing surroundings of the fresh water flowing and the smell of fresh flowers wafting over her, she could not forget the weariness in her body and the fatigue in her heart. As she contemplates the beauty of the stream and its surroundings, the weight of duty resurfaces, making her feel aged and burdened. She notices the young grass but can still hear the sound of duty calling her, making her feel grounded and aged.

In these lines the woman recounts her day returning from the well, where she observed young women like herself. Despite the refreshing surroundings, the poet uses vivid imagery to portray her tired body and fatigued heart. The poet here uses metaphor and juxtaposition to symbolize duty as a burden that resurfaces, making her feel aged and grounded. This highlights the expectations that are placed upon women and the struggle against traditional gender roles. The poet contrasts between nature’s beauty and the weight of duty to reveal the theme of conflict, emphasizing the toll of conforming to prescribed roles and the loss of personal freedom.

The speaker describes bearing a heavy mud container on her head, comparing it to a painful umbrella. Returning home, she describes cooking a meal for someone who was busy taking pleasures of the flesh from elsewhere while she worked in the fields. She paints the scene of her working under a harsh and angry sun in the field. This laborious work was shared not by her husband, but only by the child in her womb. She tells us that she is pregnant with his child. She washes dishes which are his.

In this section, the poet vividly describes the physical strain of bearing a heavy mud container, comparing it to a “painful umbrella.” Through metaphor and symbolism, the poet highlights the themes of gender inequality, emphasizing the unequal distribution of labor and the impending challenges of motherhood. The mention of her husband seeking “pleasures of the flesh” adds a layer to social expectations, highlighting the sacrifice and hardship endured by the woman in fulfilling traditional roles within the relationship.

The imagery conveys the physical strain of labor under the sun’s harsh gaze, highlighting the unique burden carried by the bearings of her womb. The mention of washing dishes, specifically “yours,” emphasizes the unequal distribution of domestic responsibilities, revealing a theme of gender-based disparity in the speaker’s daily life.

Lines 17-24

The speaker describes doing the domestic chores of sweeping the shared room before preparing her partner’s bedding. She prepares his bed in the finest corner of the hut. She talks about how she had applied dung to the floors for a sweet smell, this suggests a meticulous effort in homemaking. She had just applied the dung on the floor earlier in the morning. However, the narrative takes a darker turn as the speaker describes the partner entering in a state of drunken lust, making demands.

In this section, the poet describes domestic chores, including sweeping the room and preparing her partner’s bedding in the finest corner of the hut, emphasizing traditional gender roles and expectations. The application of dung for a sweet smell adds ironic depth to the otherwise dedicated homemaking efforts. However, the narrative takes a turn after the arrival of the partner. He enters in a state of drunken lust, introducing a theme of power dynamics and vulnerability. The poet has used the unsettling shift in tone to contrast with the calm and serene domestic space, highlighting the complex and uncomfortable aspects of the relationship.

Lines 25-36

The woman tries to reason with her husband. She explains to him that she will not be able to participate in the sexual act as she was tired. She also talks about how, as she was pregnant, she fears that intercourse could harm his child. She says that the damage would occur to his own child that was in her womb. But he still beats her and has his way with her. This incident left her angry and resentful towards her husband, but only for a short time.

The woman talks about how she hated her husband at the time but she knows that come tomorrow morning, she will get back to her daily domestic chores. He will wake him up in the morning again and then milk the cow, plough the land and cook food for him. She says that he will still remain her Lord, so one who she has to obey. Her responsibility and duty is to obey his commands, love him, serve him and always honor him. She ends the poem by saying that she has to do all of this because he is the “fruit of the land”.

The poet talks about the unsettling incident where, even though the woman expressed her exhaustion and concern for the child she carries, she was met with violence from her partner. He physically as well as sexually abuses her. But despite the unhappiness and bitterness that result, the woman knows that the cycle of domestic duties as well as the cycle of abuse will keep on repeating.

She will have to keep addressing her partner as “Lord” and meet the societal expectation for women to obey, love, serve, and honor their men. The poem concludes with the rhetorical question that highlights the oppression of traditional gender roles on women. The poet portrays the partner as the symbolic “fruit of the land” highlighting how he has a right on the land as well as the woman. This section highlights themes of domestic violence, societal expectations, and the internal conflict faced by the woman in conforming to roles within the relationship.

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A Summary and Analysis of Alice Walker’s ‘Women’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Women’ is a 1970 poem by Alice Walker (born 1944), one of the best-known African American writers of the second half of the twentieth century. Although she is probably most famous for her 1982 novel The Color Purple , Walker has written short stories and numerous other novels. She also started out her published career as a poet.

In ‘Women’, Alice Walker pays tribute to the women of her mother’s generation: tough, resolute women who were able to balance their private domestic duties with a fight for better opportunities for their children. Before we offer a closer and more detailed analysis of the poem’s meaning and themes, let’s briefly summarise its content.

‘Women’: summary

The poem comprises a single stanza. Walker begins by summoning her mother’s generation of women. They were true women: they had rather dry, throaty, gruff voices and walked firmly and with a clear sense of purpose. They were able to break down barriers that stood in their way, using not only their hands but their fists (implying anger and strength, as well as that purpose again).

But they could also do the more traditionally ‘womanly’ things of the time, like ironing their husbands’ starched white shirts for work. Indeed, such women were effectively leaders of armies of other women: they wore rags around their heads and commanded and inspired women to follow them.

The struggles they faced in society, to gain access to things like books and places where their daughters might study, were like a field full of booby traps and landmines. These women well understood that it was important for their daughters to get a good education, even though they never had one themselves.

‘Women’: analysis

Alice Walker was born in 1944, the daughter of sharecroppers Minnie Lou Grant and Willie Lee Walker, and grew up in Eatonville, Georgia. Walker’s mother worked as a domestic servant and was a talented gardener, with her daughter later paying homage to the gardens her mother cultivated.

And in many ways, ‘Women’ is first and foremost a tribute to her mother’s tenacity and generosity, although – as the plural of the title immediately suggests – she is paying homage to a whole generation of women who helped to make the opportunities Walker herself, and other women of her own generation, have been able to use.

During the 1960s, Walker had become involved in the US civil rights movement . Indeed, for a time she moved from her home state of Georgia and worked in New York City in the welfare department. Her work reflects not only the struggles of women of Walker’s mother’s generation but, more specifically, the struggles of African-American women, for whom life was doubly hard and opportunities even smaller in number.

Walker is at pains to emphasise that her mother’s generation were not only firebrands or warriors, despite the military language she employs in the poem. Nor, however, does she want to suggest that her mother and other women like her were simply conventional wives and mothers who looked after their children and carried out everyday household tasks.

Instead, they did both. This is neatly encapsulated by the reference to the women having fists as well as hands. Fists are, of course, made from hands: the hands that the women use to conduct their mundane domestic chores could also be tightened into a more bellicose or defiant pose. Fists need not imply violence, and the image that follows links these fists with the act of banging down doors, to get people’s attention and to gain access to places they had been forbidden to set foot before.

Alice Walker’s ‘Women’ is written in free verse . This means that the poem lacks a rhyme scheme or a regular metre or rhythm. But this is not the same as saying that the poem is without any structure or control. Instead, Walker uses enjambment in the poem to great effect. This term (derived from the French) describes a literary device whereby a sentence or phrase continues past the end of a particular verse line and into the next.

And if we analyse ‘Women’ more closely, we find little punctuation. Indeed, there are just two punctuation marks in the whole poem: the dash in the third line, which sharply delineates, but also links, the women’s sharp and resolute features, and the full stop at the very end of the poem.

Otherwise, ‘Women’ is a poem without conventional punctuation. But as T. S. Eliot once observed , verse is itself a system of punctuation. Line endings provide their own pauses in the flow of the poem, as well as joining the thoughts expressed on one line with those that follow in the next.

And in this poem, Walker enacts brief momentary pauses between lines by withholding the final detail until the next line at a given moment: consider how, after ‘fists’, we must wait for ‘Hands’ in the next line; or how the battering down of those ‘Doors’ is delayed for maximum shock value as we wait for the other shoe to drop (or fist to fall) onto those doors in the line that follows.

The overall effect is to create a purposeful, resolute march towards progress as the women bravely work to carve out a brighter and more hopeful future for their children. The effect would be very different if the words were rearranged as prose, or even into longer lines. Each word, each new revelation, has the force of a mini-surprise because it is isolated onto a single line.

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Women Summary & Analysis by Alice Walker

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

Alice Walker published "Women" in her first collection of poems, Once , in 1968. The poem's speaker praises the strength, courage, and perseverance of the Black women of her "mama's generation." Despite not being given the opportunity and resources to excel at (or possibly even attend) school, these women fought for their children to have access to education. The poem further implies that education is an important tool for the liberation of communities oppressed by racism, sexism, and classism.

• Read the full text of “Women”

The Full Text of “Women”

“women” summary, “women” themes.

Black Women’s Strength, Perseverance, and Sacrifice

The Importance of Education

Lines 19-27, line-by-line explanation & analysis of “women”.

They were women ... ... Hands

How they battered ... ... Shirts

Lines 12-18

How they led ... ... Ditches

To discover books ... ... Themselves.

“Women” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Lines 3-4: “of / Step”
• Lines 5-6: “as / Hands”
• Lines 7-9: “down / Doors / And”
• Lines 9-10: “ironed / Starched”
• Lines 10-11: “white / Shirts”
• Lines 12-13: “led / Armies”
• Lines 15-16: “mined / Fields”
• Lines 17-18: “trapped / Ditches”
• Lines 22-24: “what / we / Must”
• Lines 24-25: “know / Without”
• Lines 25-26: “page / Of”
• Lines 26-27: “it / Themselves”

Alliteration

• Line 1: “were,” “women”
• Line 2: “My,” “mama's”
• Line 3: “Husky,” “stout”
• Line 4: “Step”
• Line 6: “Hands”
• Line 7: “How,” “down”
• Line 8: “Doors”
• Line 18: “Ditches”
• Line 19: “discover”
• Line 20: “Desks”
• Line 22: “what”
• Line 23: “we”
• Line 25: “Without”
• Lines 7-8: “How they battered down / Doors”
• Lines 12-18: “How they led / Armies / Headragged generals / Across mined / Fields / Booby-trapped / Ditches”
• Lines 3-4: “Husky of voice—stout of / Step”
• Line 7: “How they”
• Line 12: “How they”
• Line 22: “How they,” “knew”
• Line 24: “know”
• Line 25: “knowing”

“Women” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Husky of voice
• Stout of step
• Battered down
• Booby-trapped
• (Location in poem: Line 3: “Husky of voice”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Women”

Rhyme scheme, “women” speaker, “women” setting, literary and historical context of “women”, more “women” resources, external resources.

A Reading of the Poem — Listen to a recording of "Women."

Learn More About Alice Walker — A biography of the poet from the Poetry Foundation.

A Brief Description of Walker's First Book of Poems — Read a description of the poems in Once, in which "Women" first appeared. 

Writer's Symposium by the Sea with Alice Walker — A 2020 interview with the poet in which she discusses her writing, love, freedom, and societal change. 

Alice Walker Looks Back on Life — A New York Times article exploring Walker's legacy, the publication of her diaries, and her sometimes contentious stances on various social issues. 

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A Personal Analysis of Kristina Rungano’s Poems

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An Historical Overview 

So far this term we have been mainly discussing the most basic, formal elements of poetry: line, meter, stanza, form. We’ve also discussed a number of poems on a variety of subjects. But we haven’t delved into any subject—except of course the subject of poetic—in detail.

Some people find the mathematics of poetry endlessly fascinating—that the beauty of poetry can be discussed in the sterile language of numbers makes them say “wow!” These are the same sorts of people who like to talk about grammar and math. Others find this sort of thing endlessly boring. Fascinating or boring, at some point in your poetic education, it is necessary to deal with poems in that laboratory fashion. But it would be a shame if that were all we did in our study of poetry. So today we turn the corner and begin to look at poetry in a more focused way in terms of what it says and what it does . Poetry we’ll see is not just an idle entertainment. It is an actor in history. The things it does are sometimes progressive and liberal and sometimes conservative and sometimes reactionary. (We’ll see that all these possibilities exist in this week’s poems.)

To review much of what we’ve said already at least once: most English-language poetry is written in standard English sentences. The grammar may sometimes be complex, but it is the same grammar we all have learned in school, or tried to learn. Being written this way, most poetry includes what is known as “paraphrasable content.” (We’ve seen this over and over again as we’ve tried to read the poems on our syllabus.) In other words, it’s possible to look at what the sentences and the poem are actually saying and put that “content” into other words.

If this were all we did in reading poetry, if we thought that once we could report what a poem was saying we were through with the poem, we would do a great injustice to poetry. Moreover any number of poems defy, deliberately or not, our ability to paraphrase them. At the same time, it is nearly impossible to feel comfortable with any poem if you don’t have any idea of what it says or what it does. (As Marianne Moore says in her poem “Poetry” “we do not admire what we cannot understand.”) In the rare cases when a poem cannot be paraphrased, knowing that that is so and why that is so will be of a great help in learning to feel comfortable with the poem. If a poem can be paraphrased, doing so will, again, help greatly in reading the poem.

Poems have something to say. Poems also have work to do.

We have already begun to look at the ongoing conversations among poets and poems. Poets are always talking to each other and to the history of poetry. They are also talking to and responding to the society or culture in which they are written. Like newspaper editorials, movies, novels and political speeches, they attempt to affect the course of their contemporary world and therefore also the course of history. Poetry is an actor in history. (The Romantic poet Percy Shelley called poets “the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”) This remains true even today, despite the waning public awareness of the art.

Putting these two aspects of reading together—looking at poems in terms of what they say and do—we will be investigating a series of poems through a particular theme. In future weeks, that theme will be how poetry responds to and helps shape the time in which it was written. This week the subject will trace the representation of women in the history of poetry, including the representation of women by men and the response by women to that representation as well as the opposite: the representation of men by women and the self-representation of women by women—from the medieval time to our time.

In other words: what men see when they look at women. What women see when men look at them. What women see when they look back at men. And what women see when they look at themselves.

Individual poems on this week’s syllabus make a certain sense read in isolation. But a more comprehensive story emerges when these poems are put into the context of the overarching story they tell. It turns out to be a story about woman and men and power.

We’ll start with some observations that will help you enter this centuries-long conversation.

The poetry written by women is most often (but not always) progressive, while the poetry by men is most often (but again not always) reactionary. We will see first of all what happens when men have the opportunity to define their “other” while that “other” has no means to respond. This was the case in Medieval poetry and remained more or less true up until the Enlightenment (starting in the late 1600s), with some fascinating exceptions.

The overarching story. If we think of these poems as telling a single story, the way a novel tells a story with characters that develop over time, it is a story of a struggle for power. Women have it but can’t keep it. Men desire it but can’t take it. There are really two struggles: first to achieve and hold power, second to define the terms of the story itself.

The story for us starts in the later Medieval times (a very long period of English history from which we will take only the smallest sample) because that is when English poetry started taking women seriously as a subject. In the Medieval world few men and even fewer women learned how to read or write. The poetry from this time and place is almost exclusively written by men. We will not be treating this era of English history as fully as the eras that follow—choosing only three poems in fact [1] —partly because of the difficulty of the language, and also because of the limited time we have.

But it’s useful to look at the beginnings of the objectification of women in poetry written by men: men looking at women as they would look at any object and conveying in their poems what the object means. It starts with men defining women as the holders of power.

The story starts to change in the Renaissance, the age of Shakespeare. This is the time in which what has come to be known as love poetry first comes to be widely written. Love poetry is, however, rarely, if ever, innocent. Love (or, better “desire”) is power. And in the poems, it’s still women who have the power over men. With the poetry of this era, we will be outlining the relationships that emerge between men and women and power. We will be asking the following questions:

• What is the particular nature of women’s power over men?
• Where does women’s power lie according to the poems?
• How do women hold on to power?
• Under what circumstances do they relinquish their power?
• What happens if a woman refuses to relinquish power?

Women have all the power. But it’s mostly men who define that power. Though powerful, women remain for the most part silent objects of male desire or commodities that can be consumed in order to transfer power to men. Desire works like money.

The next period we will be looking at is known as the Enlightenment . While some women, exclusively noble women, such as Queen Elizabeth and Mary Wroth, had been in a position to write poetry in the Renaissance, more women found their way on to the page in the Enlightenment and for the first time these women—not all of them born to the upper class—began to talk back in significant numbers to the story in which they were depicted. What we will see is that as soon as women achieved a measure of freedom to write, they began to criticize the male version of the story and to provide alternatives to it. This does not mean that the story goes away, however. We will see it persist and, in some cases, intensify. In fact in never really goes away.

It is not until the Romantic age that male poets such as Walt Whitman and Thomas Hardy join certain female poets in mocking the story of men, women and power that had by that time been told for about 400 years—and actively challenged for at least 300.

Finally in the Modernist period, the story gets turned around. But not entirely. Although by this point women are equal partners in defining the story, we will see that not everything changes about women’s power.

What we will find through reading all these poems in order is a remarkably coherent slowly developing story about the relations of men and women. It takes place over many centuries and changes only gradually from one in which men have all the power to define both themselves and women—and therefore define women in their image and interests [2] —to one in which women have achieved the cultural status which allows them to speak directly for themselves and to be heard.

As we look at the actual poems, here are some things to think about:

1) How do men look at women? How do women look at themselves? And how do women look back at men?

2) What is the source and nature of women’s power? How is that power attained and maintained? What is the price of maintaining it; what is the price of failing to maintain it? How do the source and nature of this power change through the centuries? (The power Julia has over Robert Herrick is different from the power Lucille Clifton has.)

3) Why do men and women not understand one another, and in what ways do they fail to do so?

4) What do men need women for? What do women need men for?

5) And how do the socially arranged differences between men and women figure into these questions?

These observations should get you started. You’ll find links to the poems below:

“Alison.” Here we have the theme of men looking at and longing for women. This longing puts  the men in the women’s power as long as the women remain an object of longing. How does power actually play between the poet and Alison?

“To Rosamond.” A man is enslaved to a woman who gives him no encouragement. We see a note of the cruelty of women enter the story. Why would women get a reputation for cruelty? The more power they have, the more cruel they are said to be in the wielding of that power.

“In Prais of Wemen.” Praise that includes worship while at the same time maintaining an otherness. Women suffer to produce men. All men should praise women in their role as mothers.

Ford, “There Is a Lady Sweet and Kind,” here we see again the relationship between love and desire and the perpetuation of desire through denial. But here sex is not accompanied by guilt and resistance is not condemned.

“Western Wind.” Women as representation of men’s longing.

Elizabeth I, “When I Was Fair and Young.” The woman whose power is most absolute gives an understanding of sexual politics of youth and beauty, which make her a victim. How does she maintain her power and how does she lose it? What’s the price she paid for trying to maintain it?

Daniel, “Sonnet 6 [Fair is my love, and cruel…].” The cruelty of the beautiful woman and the man’s inability to understand her cruelty, cf. Montagu. The effects of that cruelty (to be a muse). We see her power over him again, how he finds an outlet for his frustrated sexual urges. Do we believe he does not understand the source of this perceived cruelty? Is there a system that controls sexuality to which both he and she are victims or in which they are pawns?

Wroth, From Pamphilia and Amphilanthus . Note particularly in the song the woman’s justification for what the men deem as cruelty. Note the coldness of the tone. Why is that tone necessary? We have a rare look at love from the perspective of a woman of this time. How does Wroth’s poetry differ from the poems written by men?

Herrick, “On Julia’s Clothes,” Herrick was a famous looker at Julia, her clothes, her breasts, the nipples of her breasts provide the subjects of three of his most famous poems. What is his attitude toward Julia?

Suckling, “Upon My Lady Carlisle’s Walking in Hampton Court Garden.” Suckling imagines a woman disrobing. What is his tone? What is his attitude toward her and toward his imaginative undressing of her?

Marvel, “To His Coy Mistress.” This is by no means the only poem from this time which aims at taking the virginity of the object of a man’s passion. How good, how effective, do you think his argument is? Why don’t we find out what her answer is?

Wortley Montagu, “The Lover: A Ballad.” Another Explanation of women’s coldness. Its effect may be power, but its intent is not the acquisition of power, but protection.

Goldsmith, “When Lovely Woman Stoops to Folly.” Damned if they do it, damned if they don’t. cf. Elizabeth I. If you give in you lose your power and become unprotected. If you don’t give in, you lose your chance at the humanizing effects of love: you are left cold, you become cold, and lonely. Cf. Marvel.

[1] We have already read two others that would also qualify this week: “Western Wind” and “Bonny Barbara Allen.”

[2] I want to emphasize here that men have this power by virtue of literacy and access to writing. This does not mean that men have all actual power in social or even political life. Queen Elizabeth was among the most powerful people in Europe at this time. But even apart form the Queen, women have never in reality been precisely what men have attempted to make them in their poems.

Video Lecture: A History of Women, Poetry, and Power

Some Poems: “Alison”   (Links to an external site.)

Geoffrey Chaucer,  “To Rosamond,”

Anonymous, “In Prais of Wemen,”

Queen Elizabeth I, “When I Was Fair and Young”

Samuel Daniel, “Sonnet 6 [Fair is my love, and cruel…]”  (Links to an external site.) [scroll down to sonnet vi].

Mary Wroth, From  Pamphilia and Amphilanthus,  section 37

Robert Herrick, “Upon Julia’s Clothes”  (Links to an external site.)

Thomas Suckling, “Upon My Lady Carlisle’s Walking in Hampton Court Garden”   (Links to an external site.)

Andrew Marvel, “To His Coy Mistress”  (Links to an external site.)

Aphra Behn, “The Willing Mistress”   (Links to an external site.)

Lady Wortley Montagu, “The Lover: A Ballad”  (Links to an external site.)

Oliver Goldsmith, “When Lovely Woman Stoops to Folly”  (Links to an external site.)

George Gordon Lord Byron, “She Walks in Beauty”  (Links to an external site.)

Alfred Lord Tennyson, “Mariana”  (Links to an external site.)

Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach”  (Links to an external site.)

Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, “11  (Links to an external site.)  [Twenty-eight young men bathe by the shore]”

[Scroll down to poem 11]

Emily Dickinson, 445 “[They shut me up in prose]”  (Links to an external site.)

Thomas Hardy, “The Ruined Maid”  (Links to an external site.)

H.D., “Helen”  (Links to an external site.)

Edna St. Vincent Millay,  “I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed”  (Links to an external site.)

Dorothy Parker,  “One Perfect Rose”

Louise Bogan, “Medusa”  (Links to an external site.)

A. D. Hope,  “Advice to Young Ladies”  (Links to an external site.)

May Swenson, “Motherhood”    (Links to an external site.)

Judith Wright, “Woman to Man”  (Links to an external site.)

Lucille Clifton, “Homage to My Hips”  

Margaret Atwood, “Siren Song”

An Introduction to Poetry Copyright © 2019 by Alan Lindsay and Candace Bergstrom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Eighteenth-Century Women’s Poetry and the Feminine Accomplishment

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Kathleen Keown, Eighteenth-Century Women’s Poetry and the Feminine Accomplishment, The Review of English Studies , Volume 73, Issue 308, February 2022, Pages 78–99, https://doi.org/10.1093/res/hgab033

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This essay posits that the production and reception of eighteenth-century women’s poetry was shaped by a pervasive cultural paradigm: the concept of the ‘feminine accomplishment’. As the aspirational middling sort began to demarcate certain pastimes as signifiers of polite femininity, poetry was increasingly promoted alongside dancing, drawing, and singing as a genteel accomplishment for young women. However, this association was never secure: poetry always occupied an ambiguous position within accomplishment discourse, and the implications of its inclusion (or exclusion) were regularly contested. In the first investigation of this phenomenon, this essay draws upon early eighteenth-century conduct literature and biographical accounts to explore how women’s poetry was encouraged by some as an intellectually stimulating recreation (and a source of familial and national pride)—but was disparaged by others as a pretentious, frivolous, and potentially dangerous ornamentation. The experiences of women writers including Jane Brereton, Laetitia Pilkington, and Martha Fowke reveal that, although an aura of accomplished amateurism could authorize their poetic production (in both manuscript and print), it could also lead to their compositions being patronized and dismissed. The liminal nature of poetry’s ‘accomplished’ status would make women’s verse composition a locus for broader contemporary debates surrounding gender, class, education, and the professionalization of writing.

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• May 10, 2020
• 10 min read

CSEC English B: The Woman Speaks to the Man who has Employed her Son by Lorna Goodison Analysis

Updated: May 28, 2021

The Woman Speaks to the Man who has Employed her Son

Lorna Goodison

Her son was first made known to her as a sense of unease, a need to cry for little reasons and a metallic tide rising in her mouth each morning. Such signs made her know That she was not alone in her body. She carried him full term tight up under her heart. She carried him like the poor carry hope, hope you get a break or a visa, hope one child go through and remember you. He had no father. The man she made him with had more like him, he was fair-minded he treated all his children with equal and unbiased indifference. She raise him twice, once as mother Then as father, set no ceiling On what he could be doctor, earth healer, pilot take wings. But now he tells her he is working for you, that you value him so much you give him one whole submachine gun for him alone. He says you are like a father to him she is wondering what kind of father would give a son hot and exploding death, when he asks him for bread. She went downtown and bought three and one-third yards of black cloth and a deep crowned and veiled hat for the day he draw his bloody salary. She has no power over you and this at the level of earth, what she has are prayers and a mother’s tears and at knee city she uses them. She says psalms for him she reads psalms for you she weeps for his soul her eyewater covers you. She is throwing a partner with Judas Iscariot’s mother the thief on the left-hand side of the cross, his mother is the banker, her draw though is first and last for she still throwing two hands as mother and father. She is prepared, she is done. Absalom.

In this poem, the persona seems to be addressing a man who has taken a woman's son into a life of crime and gun violence. The history of the woman's relationship with her son is recounted and the love she felt for him even before his birth. She first knew she was pregnant due to morning sickness- showing that this pregnancy was not necessarily planned. This son had no father, so the mother played both roles in his upbringing. She saw his potential as endless, he could become anything. However, she is the told that he has been employed by a man who 'values' him so much that he gives him his own submachine gun. The son for whom she had great hope for had now been inducted into a life of crime that would ultimately cut his life short. She prepares for the funeral of her son, which she believes will happen sooner rather than later because of what he has become involved in. She compares this feeling of betrayal and misfortune to 'throwing a partner' (or sou sou agreement) with notably untrustworthy people and drawing the first and last hand.

" Her son was first made known to her as a sense of unease, a need to cry for little reasons and a metallic tide rising in her mouth each morning."

This gives some sort of exposition for the life of the woman. It says that ' her son was first made known to her ' through morning sickness, discomfort and emotional hypersensitivity showing that this pregnancy was a surprise and therefore completely unplanned. Chances are that she was irresponsible, and did not use contraceptives.

"Such signs made her know that she was not alone in her body."

This continues to give the impression of a somewhat naive and irresponsible mother who relies on 'signs' to confirm her pregnancy rather than having planned or being aware enough to know. The line saying " she was not alone in her body " implies that she was being taken over by some unknown being and had no choice but to accept this new presence.

"She carried him full term tight up under her heart."

The mother makes no attempt to abort the baby and carries him for the full nine months. The phrase ' tight up under her heart ' shows that she loved and deeply cared for the unborn son.

"She carried him like the poor carry hope, hope you get a break or a visa, hope one child go through and remember you."

This simile compares how she carried the child to how those in poverty carry their hope. This shows that the mother likely saw the son as a potential ticket out of poverty- a child that may secure that elusive visa and get an opportunity to work abroad, and, remembering his mother, send remittances to her. Hope is repeated 3 times here, almost as if to show that where there is a paucity (lack) of money, there is an excess of hope.

"He had no father. The man she made him with had more like him, he was fair-minded he treated all his children with equal and unbiased indifference."

This line boldly states the lack of a father figure in the child's life. The man who had biologically fathered the child had no intention of caring for him. The subsequent line, which states ' the man she made him with, ' gives an impression that the creation of the child was a mechanical, routine process, that, much like the biological father's regard for his child, was devoid of emotion or real care. There was a paternal gamete supplier, but no father.

The speaker goes on in sarcastically referring to the man as 'fair-minded,' due to his indiscriminate disregard for his children. These lines would be somewhat comical, had they not been given with such venomous indictment of the prevalence of parental truancy. He has several children, but makes no attempt to support any of them emotionally or financially.

"She raise him twice, once as mother then as father,"

This line continues to show the impact of the absence of the father- the mother takes the role of both mother and father. She makes every effort to be supportive to this son of whom she expects so much.

"set no ceiling on what he could be doctor, earth healer, pilot take wings."

This continues to establish the high expectations held by the mother. She believes his potential is limitless- he could become anything in the world.

"But now he tells her he is working for you, that you value him so much you give him one whole submachine gun for him alone."

This is the volta or turning point of the poem. Up to this point, the hopes of the mother have been built up and her love and care for her son has been displayed. Her hopes are completely dashed now though, when he tells her that he has been recruited by a gunman. The persona now completely doubles down on the tone of anger/resigned sadness that was underscored previously in the mentions of paternal absenteeism.

This line is a good example of irony . The mother is told that this gunman values her son so much that he gives him his own submachine gun. This is ironic because the son feels this false sense of pride because he is put in charge of this gun. He feels that he is held in a high esteem by the gunman because he is given the responsibility of a terrible weapon that can only cause destruction to himself and his community.

"He says you are like a father to him she is wondering what kind of father would give a son hot and exploding death, when he asks him for bread."

The son, having had no father figure while growing up due to an indifferent father, now views this gunman as his father figure. The mother questions his idolization of this donor of guns using a biblical allusion to Matthew 7:9, which states, "Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? " (a similar verse is at Luke 11:11). The son's penury has led him to seek material goods, so why would this "father figure" offer him a weapon of certain death? The woman accuses the man of being purely wicked and having no regard for her son's wellbeing.

"She went downtown and bought three and one-third yards of black cloth and a deep crowned and veiled hat for the day he draw his bloody salary."

The mother is completely convinced that this induction into gun violence will inevitably get him killed. In melancholic resignation, she prepares for his funeral by purchasing a hat and the material for a dress. She knows that he will eventually draw his 'bloody salary,' i.e. he will reap the rewards of violence- death.

"She has no power over you and this at the level of earth, what she has are prayers and a mother’s tears and at knee city she uses them."

The mother knows that she cannot physically combat the gunman, but, being religious, she believes that she can implore the spiritual, righteous power of God. Faith is the only strength she can possibly use to fight him. She uses her tears, a manifestation of her grief and sadness for her son and a symbol of condemnation of the man who has given her reason to cry, at "knee city." This is a sort of Jamaican term that refers to long sessions of prayer, kneeling. So, the mother prays for her son and implores the intrinsic power of her motherly tears.

"She says psalms for him, she reads psalms for you, she weeps for his soul, her eyewater covers you."

The mother continues her spiritual warfare with this man who has recruited her son. She says psalms for her son- hoping to shield and protect him. However, she reads psalms for the man, (reading psalms for someone often means to hope for bad things to befall your enemies) hoping to injure and inhibit him.

Her tears continue to flow for her son as she implores the forces of heaven.

"She is throwing a partner with Judas Iscariot’s mother the thief on the left-hand side of the cross, his mother is the banker, her draw though is first and last for she still throwing two hands as mother and father."

This stanza is rife with biblical allusions. She is engaged in a savings agreement (called a partner in Jamaica, a meeting in Barbados or a sou sou in other Caribbean islands) with Judas Iscariot's mother (the mother of the well-known betrayer of Jesus) and the thief who was crucified with Jesus. The thief's mother is the banker, who keeps the money- meaning that she may have her money stolen if the thief learnt it from his mother. These women seem to belong to a club of mothers of 'infamous offspring,' reinforcing the point that even people who have done some of the most ignominious acts in human history have mothers.

The fact that she must hold a savings agreement with these mothers of notorious biblical men doesn't bode well for her, as a partner agreement requires trust and honour among the members. The persona says the mother has two ‘draws’ (payments) coming from the ‘partner’ because she has borne the responsibility of both parental roles. being both mother and father to the boy. She has the first and last payments- the last being particularly risky in a partner since dishonesty begins to influence the participants the longer they wait to draw. Similarly, she had the first draw and brought him into the world and she will be there when his life comes to an end, taking the last draw.

" She is prepared, she is done. Absalom."

The mother has prepared herself for the inevitable passing of her son due to his involvement in this criminal activity. She has bought her dress materials for his funeral, and she has prayed. There is nothing more that she can do.

The final word, ' Absalom ' is spoken sort of like an 'Amen' at the end of a poem. This is a biblical allusion to David's son Absalom, who was killed after plotting to kill his father. David however, still feels grief at the death of this son who plotted to kill him. In accepting to be employed by the gunman, the son has basically plotted against his mother’s investment in him and her limitless expectations for him. He has killed her hopes.

The mother, like King David, will experience profound grief over the death of her wayward son.

Figurative Devices

"She carried him like the poor carry hope"

This simile compares how she carried the child to how those in poverty carry their hope. This shows that the mother likely saw the son as a potential ticket out of poverty- a child that may secure that elusive visa and get an opportunity to work abroad, and, remembering his mother, send remittances to her.

"He says you are like a father to him"

The son compares the gunman to a father, showing that he fills a gap left by his own absent father.

"what kind of father would give a son hot and exploding death, when he asks him for bread."

The mother questions the son's idolization of this donor of guns using a biblical allusion to Matthew 7:9, which states, "Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? " (a similar verse is at Luke 11:11). The son's penury has led him to seek material goods, so why would this "father figure" offer him a weapon of certain death? The woman accuses the man of being purely wicked and having no regard for her son's wellbeing.

"She says psalms for him, she reads psalms for you,"

This is an allusion to the biblical book of Psalms. The mother says psalms hoping to protect her child, but she reads psalms for the gunman in hopes of his defeat or injury.

" She is throwing a partner with Judas Iscariot’s mother the thief on the left-hand side of the cross, his mother is the banker,"

This is a biblical allusion to Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus in the bible, and the thief who was crucified on the left of Jesus in the bible. She is engaged in a savings agreement (called a partner in Jamaica, a meeting in Barbados or a sou sou in other Caribbean islands) with Judas Iscariot's mother (the mother of the well-known betrayer of Jesus) and the thief who was crucified with Jesus. The thief's mother is the banker, who keeps the money- meaning that she may have her money stolen if the thief learnt it from his mother.

"Absalom."

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An Essay on Woman in Three Epistles

AN ESSAY ON WOMAN, IN THREE EPISTLES.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. And Sold by Mr. GRETTON, in Bond-Street. And Mr. POTTINGER, in Pater-Noster-Row.

AN ESSAY ON WOMAN.

EPISTLE II.

K NOW then thyself... and make the Sex thy care, The proper study of Mankind's the FAIR; Plac'd in that state — which all who know thee, know A Politician, Poet, Parson, Beau; Created half to rise, and half to fall, Great son of Homer — doating on a doll; Truth's friend so fond of female falsehood grown, The glory, jest, and riddle of the town. Go, wond'rous creature, as Apollo leads, And mark the Path majestic Milton treads; The little versifiers teach to write, Then to thy bottle and thy w.... at night. The wondering actors, when of late they saw A grave Divine explain theatric law, Admir'd the wisdom of the rev'rend cowl, And shew'd a C....., as we shew an owl. Has he who wrote the Rosciad e'er inclin'd. Ten days together to one female mind? Then might thy friend be constant to his W...., And PRIVILEGE be pleaded then no more. Woman to man still yields {and where's the harm?) Who keeps her close while she has power to charm; Then yields her to his fellow-brutes a prey: And where's the fault, my friend, in us, or they? Two principles in human nature reign, Self-love to urge, and reason to restrain: Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul; And reason yields to its supreme controul: Great strength the moving principal requires, Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires; Sedate and quiet sense and reason lie; We yield to passion, and from reason fly. We sieze immediate good by present sense, And leave to fate and chance the consequence: Thicker than arguments temptations throng, More pow'rful these, though those are ne'er so strong. Self-love and reason to one end aspire, Pain our aversion, pleasure our desire; But greedy still our object to devour, We crop, without remorse, the fairest flow'r: Pleasure, with us, is always understood, Howe'er obtain'd, our best and greatest good. Passions, like elements, though born to fight, By female pow'r subdu'd, are alter'd quite; These 'tis enough to temper and employ, While what affords most pleasure, can destroy. All spread their charms, but charm not all alike, On different senses different objects strike; Hence different ladies, more or less inflame; Or different pow'rs sometimes attend the fame; And calling up each passion of the breast, Each lady, in her turn, subdues the rest. As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath, Imbibes the flame which ends not but with death; The flame, that must subdue the fair at length, Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength. So cast and mingled too in Woman's , frame, Her mind's disease, her ruling passion came. Imagination plies her dangerous art, And pours it all upon the peccant part: Nature it's mother, habit is it's nurse, Wit, spirit, faculties, but make it worse. We wretched subjects to the female sway, The tyrant, Woman, one and all, obey; Who, bent to govern by her own wise rules, Will, if she finds not, aim to make us fools; Teach us to mourn our state, but not to mend; A sharp accuser, but a helpless friend! Proud of her easy conquest all along, She still allays our passions, weak or strong. Virtuous and vicious every man must be; Women are neither in a small degree; The rogue and fool, by fits, is fair and wise, Women are always what they most despice: 'Tis but by parts Man follows good or ill; Woman's sole sovereign is her own dear will , While ev'ry man pursues a different goal, Womans whole aim's unlimited controul, The faults of men, and their defects of mind, Afford the highest joy to womankind. See some peculiar whim each man attend; See every Woman lab'ring to one end: See some fit passion ev'ry man employ; Empire alone affords the Woman joy. Behold the Girl , by Nature's kindly law, Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw; Some other bauble gives her youth delight, A little louder, but as empty quite. Dress, dancing, balls, amuse her riper age, And drams and opiates are the toys of age; Pleas'd with this bauble still, as that before, 'Till tir'd, she sleeps... and life's poor play is o'er .

EPISTLE III.

O H Happiness! to which we all aspire, Wing'd with strong hope, and borne by full desire, Oh Ease! for which in want, in wealth we sigh, That Ease for which we labour and we die. Why should the Female ever have the power, To tyrannize o'er Man, and to devour? Why should the wife, the learned, and the fool, The brave, the rich.... submit to Woman's rule? Ask of the learn'd the cause, the learn'd are blind, This bids us seek, that shun all Womankind; Some place the bliss in serving one alone, Some by a single Passion are undone. Some, sunk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain. Some, swell'd to Gods,... confess all pleasure vain; Some hold the maxim others wrong would call, To try all Women... and to doubt them all. Oh, Sons of Men! attempt no more to rise, But own the wond'rous force of Woman's eyes; Who, big with laughter, your vain toil surveys, And shews her power a thousand diff'rent ways. Know all the happiness we hope to find, Depends upon the will of Womankind. Nothing so true as Pope, long since, let fall, "Most Women have no characters at all"; How many pictures of one nymph we view! All how unlike each other... all how true! See Sin in state majestically drunk; Proud as a Peeress, prouder as a punk; Chaste to her husband, frank to all beside, A teeming mistress, but a barren bride; In whose mad brain the mix'd ideas roll, Of Tallboy's breeches, and Caesar's soul. Who, spite of delicasy, stoops at once, And makes her hearty meal upon a dunce. In Men we various ruling passion find, In Women... two alone divide the mind; Those only fixed, they, first or last, obey, The love of pleasure, and the love of sway.

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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Activist Wawa Gatheru on Championing Black Women as Climate Leaders This Earth Day—And Beyond

By Wawa Gatheru

Earlier this year, we saw one of the greatest environmental wins of the decade—and Black women were its unsung heroes. President Biden paused all new expansions of dangerous gas export hubs in the U.S., which experts have called carbon bombs . There’s been fanfare and criticism around the decision, but few have acknowledged how Black women made it possible through community organizing and generational grit. The job won’t be done until there is a permanent halt on new expansions of dirty gas. But to get there, we have to turn toward the women who are leading on climate progress around the country.

As a Black girl who grew up in the climate movement, I’ve always been perplexed by the paradox of representation in this space. While people of color are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis, we are routinely sidelined and boxed as ‘victims’ rather than the leaders we are. This is particularly true for Black women.

Women are particularly at risk to climate impacts because enforced gender inequality makes us more susceptible to escalating environmental harms. Black girls, women, and gender-expansive people in particular, bear an even heavier burden because of the historic and continuing impacts of colonialism, racism, and inequality. And that’s why I believe these circumstances uniquely position Black women as indispensable leaders in the climate movement.

A few years ago, I came across a term that encompassed what I have always known to be true. Coined by Dr. Melanie Harris, eco-womanism is a theological approach to environmental justice that focuses on the viewpoints of Black women across the diaspora. An eco-womanist approach to climate solutions is happening in the underbelly of climate injustice in the US, the Gulf South.

I have been honored to learn from and be inspired by the Black women leading on climate in the Gulf South: leaders like Sharon Lavigne of Rise St. James , Dr. Beverly Wright of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice , Roishetta Ozane of The Vessel Project of Louisiana , and Dr. Joy and Jo Banner of The Descendants Project . I’ve heard firsthand how they launched educational campaigns, organized marches, rallies, and petitions, commissioned research, joined lawsuits, and challenged everyone from local lawmakers to the EPA—all to protect their communities. Step by step, they have fought polluters in an 85-mile stretch from New Orleans to Baton Rouge that’s home to more than 200 fossil fuel and petrochemical operations, earning the name ‘Cancer Alley.’

By Alexandra Macon

By Kiana Murden

By Christian Allaire

The fight in Cancer Alley is for life, community, and legacy. Where there are now toxins poisoning Black families, there were once plantations enslaving their ancestors. It’s not a coincidence that two history-defining tragedies struck the same area of Louisiana—it is the same system of oppression and racial capitalism in different forms. And it’s no coincidence that the resistance to it calls on a legacy passed down for generations: solidarity, creativity, and bold leadership.

The fight is local and personal, but it’s also global and systemic. And failing to recognize Black women as climate leaders isn’t just a moral dilemma. It is a poor strategic decision for all of us to win on climate.

The same industries that poison Louisiana are also fueling the climate crisis. Last year was the hottest in history , and in 2024, we’ve already seen extreme weather events making this planet increasingly difficult to inhabit. Black and Brown communities might be ground zero for climate change, but our response to this destruction impacts everyone.

The women behind the president’s pause have proven that winning on climate is not impossible. Another world is possible and we can collectively build a better world for all. The organization I founded— Black Girl Environmentalist —puts that lesson into practice around the country. As one of the largest Black youth-led climate organizations, we are ushering the next generation of Black women and gender-expansive individuals into environmental work—cultivating their talent and creativity to protect our communities, and win the fight of our lives against the climate crisis.

As a Gen-Zer, I know how tempting it can be to feel immobilized by eco-anxiety or even climate doom. But we can’t.

We can’t afford to, nor do we have the privilege to. Every fraction of a degree matters. Instead, we must look to and join the leaders who, against all odds, continue to fight and win on climate issues across the country. The pause on dangerous gas expansions showed there is power in our collective voice. Black women have lit the way, showing that the power comes from fighting for—and with—our communities. The work isn’t done, but we’ve come too far to turn back.

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