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Literary Analysis Of St. George, By Nancy Senior

Decent Essays

The women’s rights movement of the 1970s and the push for gender equality have inspired many people from all around the world. Nancy Senior, a Canadian poet, explains the desire for this movement in one of her works. As a poet, more specifically, she has the potential to define it with her theme and use of figurative language. Nancy Senior used satire as a means to convey a message about women’s rights during the 1970s in her poem, “St. George.” The 1970s was a period of growth in the women’s rights movement: “By 1970, second-wave feminists had inspired women and men… Whether in politics, in the media, in academia or in private households, women’s liberation was a hot topic of the day.”1 Furthermore, it was an inspiring period where people from all around the world were coming together to fight for women’s rights. The growth was also popular in Canada in particular: “Canadian women have participated in many social movements, both on their own, and allied with men. Feminism, or the belief that women have been historically disadvantaged and this ought to change, inspired much engagement and action.”2 One of the people inspired by this engagement was Canadian poet Nancy Senior, who explains the desire for the movement in her satirical poem, “St. George.” Written in the 1970s, “St. George” is a poem that mirrors the need for the women’s rights movement with women’s rights being its overall theme. Senior states in her poem: “And before I could say a word he had stabbed

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