Marilyn Hacker Redefines Mother, Woman, and Daughter in Selected Poems 1965-1990
Marilyn Hacker. What does she mean? What does she mean? I check with Thrall, Hibbard, and Holman who define poetry to be "a term applied to the many forms in which man has given a rhythmic expression to his most imaginative and intense perceptions of his world, himself, and the interrelationship of the two" (364).
I forge ahead through hundreds of pages of poetry. Images and impressions are beginning to form in my mind. Finally, Hacker, you provide a clue with "Feeling and Form" where you compare your poetry to Cezanne's apples:
I do like words, which is why I make things out of words and listen to their hints, resounding like skipping stones radiating circles, draw- ing context from text, the way I've watched you draw
a pepper shaker
…show more content…
Her poetry provides a complex view of motherhood, in which she contradicts conventional notions with contrasting images in poems such as "1976," where the mother's anger and fear are expressed through violence toward the child, and in "Iva's Birthday Poem," a poem of the mother's intense pride and joy in her child. In "La Fontaine de Vaucluse," Hacker also destroys the patriarchal myth that limits mothers to a single dimension of identity. The women in this poem are both devoted mothers and devoted artists, who recognize that they are lucky enough to "feed [their] children and [themselves] on what [they] can earn" (115). Like the woman in "Living in the Moment" who locks herself "in the bathroom away from the babies [with her] notebook on her knees" (94), the women of "La Fontaine de Vaucluse" cannot achieve fulfillment from motherhood alone. Iva's mother's complexity is demonstrated in her varied activities, such as her diligent shopping for gifts for Iva and her writing
Poet May Swenson writes about conventional subjects, such as love, and, through her poetry, she argues that it is the common occurrences that matter to the creative mind. Inspiration permeates the form in Swenson's poetry. She creates a relationship with the reader by having her speaker be a poet, inspired by an everyday life experience. In her poem, "Unconscious Came a Beauty," Swenson suggests that the inspiration for poetry should come from a natural experience; however, inspiration is momentary, and poetry comes from not only the inspiration, but also the energy that the poet gleans from it. In "Unconscious Came a Beauty," Swenson uses poetic layering: she writes a poem about a poet writing a poem inspired by the natural world. The speaker-poet is holding a pencil, which the butterfly stops when it lands on her wrist. The speaker was in the initial act of writing a poem, but the butterfly stops her, as though to say that what she was going to write on her own would not be nearly as great as what she can write with the butterfly's help. The butterfly and the speaker become one, as the butterfly "merge[s] its shadow profile with/ [her] hand's ghost" (5-6). The poet's hand acts like a vessel for the butterfly's inspirational energy to flow, and this natural experience helps the poet write better poetry. Swenson suggests that without natural inspiration the speaker's poetry is lifeless, since the poetic hand is a ghost, and the speaker needs the butterfly to revive her writing. The merging of the shadow and the ghost is a metaphor for the natural beauty and experience of the butterfly giving new life to the speaker's poetry. To emphasize this metaphor, Swenson gives th...
Gwendolyn Brooks' poem "The mother" tells us about a mother who had many abortions. The speaker is addressing her children in explain to them why child could not have them. The internal conflict reveals that she regret killing her children or "small pups with a little or with no hair." The speaker tells what she will never do with her children that she killed. She will "never neglect", "beat", "silence", "buy with sweet", " scuffle off ghosts that come", "controlling your luscious sigh/ return for a snack", never hear them "giggled", "planned", and "cried." She also wishes she could see their "marriage", "aches", "stilted", play "games", and "deaths." She regrets even not giving them a "name" and "breaths." The mother knows that her decision will not let her forget by using the phrase "Abortions will not let you forget." The external conflict lets us know that she did not acted alone in her decision making. She mentions "believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate" and "whine that the crime was other than mine." The speaker is saying that her decision to have an abortion was not final yet but someone forced her into having it anyway. The external conflict is that she cannot forget the pain on the day of having the abortions. She mentions the "contracted" and "eased" that she felt having abortions.
Images: Did the poet create strong images? What could you see, hear, smell, taste, or feel?
Humanitarian intervention can be defined as the right or duty of the international community to intervene in states with certain causes. The causes can be that the state has suffered a large scale loss of life or genocide due to intentional actions by its government or even because of the collapse of governance (Baylis, Owens, Smith 480). One of the main arguments in the article was president Obamas decision not to bomb Syria after many of his Allies and people believed he would’ve after making so many plans and decision to carry out the bombing. Obamas decision can be expressing in some of the key objections to humanitarian intervention. For example, the first key is that states do not intervene for primarily humanitarian reasons. This means that humanitarian intervention would be unwise if it does not serve the states national interests. President Obama did not want to risk taking a shot while there were United Nations inspectors on the ground completing work (Goldberg
Edgar Allan Poe once said, “I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty”("BrainyQuote"). Poe has been known for his fantastic and eerie short stories, but he also wrote poetry. In fact, it was poetry that started his career. Throughout Poe’s life, poetry was a big part of him, and with his passion he created great works like “The Raven”. With Poe’s life story, poetic vision, and great poems, he has changed the literary world forever.
From the Ancient Greek word poieo, meaning “I create”, poetry is, what is said to be, the most linguistic art form known to mankind over the years. Poetry, as the dictionary states, is a literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhyme. Poetry has made its mark on modern European languages in its most relative element-rhyme. Although rhyme did not make its way into classic Greek or Latin poetry until the late Middle Ages, along with many other literary devices, such as alliteration, and assonance has made poetry a sound of music to readers. Some say poetry is merely words on a page, but to others, it is an art form, an illustration of someone’s life, someone’s feelings, and an emotion given away through words in hopes that someone else might find serenity.
The concept of humanitarian intervention is highly contested but it is defined by Wise to be the threat or use of force across state borders by a state (or a group of states) aimed at preventing widespread and grave violations of fundamental human rights of individuals other than its own citizens, without the permission of the state within whose territory force is applied.
Influenced by the style of “plainspoken English” utilized by Phillip Larkin (“Deborah Garrison”), Deborah Garrison writes what she knows, with seemingly simple language, and incorporating aspects of her life into her poetry. As a working mother, the narrator of Garrison’s, “Sestina for the Working Mother” provides insight for the readers regarding inner thoughts and emotions she experiences in her everyday life. Performing the daily circus act of balancing work and motherhood, she, daydreams of how life might be and struggles with guilt, before ultimately realizing her chosen path is what it right for her and her family.
Yet a term as broad as "poetry" is not so easily quantified as to simply attribute physical characteristics to it and let all writing either fall into or out of that category. Poetry is determined by the effect upon the reader. It is an individual opinion, and thus defined by the collected (individual) reactions.
Edna St. Vincent Millay has created complex as well as emotionally and politically charged poetry in her career. Her poetry is often considered expressive yet also indifferent by some critics. Yet, her skill with metaphor and other evocative poetic features bring us poems that are reflective of her self, and also ourselves as readers. By developing skilled metaphors for interpreting and developing her own identity as an author and for us as a reader, we are given a construction of selfhood. In this essay, I will analyze Edna St. Vincent Millay’s two poems; If I should learn, in some quite casual way, and What lips my lips have kissed in order to explain the meaning and presence of selfhood in lyric poetry. Through interpreting Millay’s poems, I will explain the construction of selfhood or identity in each poem through formal structures. Understanding selfhood comes with understanding one’s surroundings and how we are able to relate or compare ourselves to these surroundings. Edna St. Vincent Millay does a very complete job of bringing metaphor, narrative, diction and imagery to h...
Marianne Moore’s most popular poem, which is also her most ambiguously titled poem, is called “Poetry.” In this poem Moore decisively strayed away from her conventional writing style of contrariety and the bizarre, but it does seem to share other characteristics of her earlier poetry. Moore’s apparent purpose in writing “Poetry” was to criticize the present social outlook on the entire idea of poetry, to come up with a universal definition of poetry and of genuine poetry, and ultimately to convince those who dislike poetry of its benefits. She attempted to present this criticism and definition by means of blatant irony, and even though she desperately wants to describe the seemingly trivial activity of poetry, she fails to provide a definition that is not caught up in the negative.
The way in which one views the phenomenon of nature can define the character of that individual. How one interprets the sight of nature has the ability to identify that individual as a poet. One who views nature simply and at face value like a child rather than manipulating and falsely analyzing as an adult would, is a poet. Emer...
Restlessness is the main focus of Phillips’ article, it is the title of his article and in his opinion it is the reason why poems exist at all. “Poetry is the results of a generative restlessness of imagination… uncertainties become obsessions to be wrestled with, and with luck, the result is poetry…” (Phillips 132) Phillips, in summary of his article, claims uncertainties in life trouble our minds until the uncertainties become obsessions. We become restless in our quest to understand the uncertainties we face and by writing poems we can organize our thoughts and try to understand the things we do not. Phillips furthers his explains his claim by admitting “ I write poetry for the same reason that I read it, both as a way of being alive and as a way of trying to understand what it means—how it feels—to be alive.” (Phillips 133).
Poetry is a form of written word which has experience created by sound and meaning. It integrates various elements: Imagery; a figurative language which prompts the reader as well as the listener of the poem to create mental images. Poetic choice of words; this is based on the sound that is, denotation and connotation. Denotation refers to the accurate meaning of the word while connotation refers to the intended meaning of a word. The sound is another element of poetry which about the rhyme; words that sound similar or exactly alike in the poem. It employs metaphor which expresses something new and meaning way by way of comparison on unlike things. The theme as the main element is the purpose of the poem. Poetry is tied as an art because of
"The point of view which I am struggling to attack is perhaps related to the metaphysical theory of the substantial unity of the soul: for my meaning is, that the poet has, not a personality' to express, but a particular medium, which is only a medium and not a personality, in which impressions and experiences combine in peculiar and unexpected ways."