A Work Of Artifice Analysis

Girls need to worry less about fitting into the glass slipper, and more about shattering the wall of stereotypes. Women are hindered and sometimes prevented from realizing their creative opportunities. Today girls grow up in a world full of possibilities, although those chances are often cut short. Girls are raised to believe that they are not as capable as they are can be, and feel pressured into being feminine. This means being secure and comfortable with the desire to submit to a stronger man and is almost a form of vulnerability. The poems “A Work of Artifice” by Marge Piercy and “Woman Work” by Maya Angelou explore the different ways that women are oppressed and how this leads to loneliness and bitterness.

Both poets chose diction to add

In the beginning of Piercy’s poem she almost celebrates the latent potential of the tree that “could have grown eighty feet tall,” but quickly shifts to the use of words with a negative connotation in relation to the tree such as pruning and whittling (3). If those words were talking about merely a plant they would be fine, but since the poem is referring to a woman, a condescending tone is created. The way the gardener talks to the plant, “It is your nature to be small and cozy/domestic and weak,” shows a condemning tone because a tree's nature is to be anything but small, this also represents how men expect women to conform to their standards(13-14). Whereas in “Women Work,” it begins feeling tense and rushed with no descriptive words. Then, starting with “Shine on me. Sunshine” the poem transitions to a more serene tone as the speaker is searching for relief from her busy life (15). The speaker also suggests that death is her best option, “Cover me with white/ Cold icy kisses and/ Let me rest tonight,” which are all things that are associated with a dead body. In the last stanza, the speaker begins to feel more at ease with herself and the environment, although she cannot have nature, ultimately creating a bereft tone. This shows that even though she is busy all she wants is to find solace, specifically with nature as shown in the last line, “You’re all that I can call my own,” which is ironic because no one can

In “A Work of Artifice,” although it seems insignificant, a majority of the punctuation is around transitions regarding the bonsai tree. Having the punctuation around the plant which represents women, and shows how restricted the plant is, emphasizing the idea that women are confined. All the lines in the poem are short which shows that women are not able to reach their full potential because of being cut short. Girls can have ambition, and try to reach their highest potential or grow 80 feet tall, but in reality, they cannot have too much success, because it threatens the man’s superiority. In Angelou’s poem where the beginning is short and choppy with a simple iambic rhyme scheme, which shows that the speaker may have little to no education, but at the same times shows strength and perseverance through tough times. There is an anaphora of repeating “I got” in the first stanza, which emphasizes a number of things that are yet to be completed.The structure of her poem shows that there is a great divide between the stress of working hard and being grateful for relaxation. Meanwhile, Piercy’s entire poem is written in free verse which suggests that she has an end goal for women to have freedom and complete control of their lives. Although metaphor is generally figurative language, in this poem it can be considered syntax because the entire poem is a