Analysis Of The Poem Daystar By Tonne Dove

needs of her family. Her day is filled with tasks such as keeping her house clean and changing diapers as illustrated by the poet – “but she saw diapers steaming, on the line” (Line 2). The setting of the poem is that of a single family home, which from the speaker’s tone appears to be messy and surrounded with a lot of work that needs to be done. It also appears that the woman is always confined to her home.

Additionally, the poet uses imagery to communicate to readers the wearisome and boring life of the woman. Dove makes reference to “a doll slumped behind the door” (3), which shows how weak the woman must be without any energy left in her. The poet further reinforce the woman’s exhaustion by pointing out how she drags the chair outside the house – “so she lugged a chair behind the garage” (4). The words lugged, steaming and slumped used by the poet all indicate lassitude as a result of the endless demands of a woman as a mother and a wife.

“Daystar” expresses the woman’s life as a dull one with the woman’s inability to do anything exciting for herself due to the reality of daily chores surrounding her. There is no liberty for the woman according to Dove. The beginning of the poem tells us the woman “wanted a little room for thinking:” (1), which highlights the woman’s longing for some personal time and space. She only has a short free time for herself when her children are napping – “to sit out [when the children] the children’s naps” (5), during which she dreams about having some freedom and time for herself. Dove writes, “sometimes there were things to watch-/the pinched armor of a vanished cricket,/ a floating maple leaf” (7-8) to exhibit how the woman just observe nature while sitting outside. Lines 8-11 of the poem tells us how the woman keeps daydreaming by staring into space “until she was assured when she closed her eyes she’d see only her own vivid