Pregnancy can be a challenging time for any woman, not only do women have to adapt to a constantly changing body but they also have to learn to manage the waves of hormones that are being produced by their prenatal bodies. According to Massachusetts General Hospital’s article “Pharmacologic Treatment During Pregnancy: Weighing the risk”, up to 20% percent of women deal with mental illness during pregnancy and women who have histories of mental illness are “particularly vulnerable” ( ). Not only do women have to deal with their own changing impressions of themselves they also have the burden of other people’s opinions of their pregnant bodies. The poem “Metaphors” depicts a very self-deprecating view of pregnancy and the speaker seems to
In exploring this poem the tone of the opening line – “Abortions will not let you forget” – can be viewed as regretful and as offering a kind of warning. As we move through the poem the tone of line four, might be called literally imaginative, as she say; “The singers and workers that never handled the air”. While in lines 5-6 the tone seems at first brutally honest and realistic and then affectionate and realistic. As she continues to lines 7-10, as well as in many lines of this poem, the mother expresses herself as a person who is fully familiar with all the small, subtle realities of parenting. She even expresses her attitudes toward her abortions even more complex.
"The Mother," by Gwendolyn Brooks, is a sorrowful, distressing poem about a mother who has experienced numerous abortions. While reading the poem, you can feel the pain, heartache, distress and grief she is feeling. She is both remorseful and regretful; nevertheless, she explains that she had no other alternative. It is a sentimental and heart wrenching poem where she talks about not being able to experience or do things with the children that she aborted -- things that people who have children often take for granted. Perhaps this poem is a reflection of what many women in society are feeling.
In Anne Sexton’s poem “The Abortion”, she uses literary devices to reflect her heart wrenching decision of whether or not to abort one of her children, which reflects the style of confessional poetry because she is sharing her personal feelings and experiences. Anne Sexton was a famous poet of confessional poetry, where the poets write about their private experiences with feelings about death, trauma, and depression in their lives. Anne Sexton wrote from the point of view of an upper middle class woman. She had two children, and the stress of having them, gave her life long depression. Sexton was sent to a psychiatric hospital after the birth of her second child. “The Abortion” displays all of Sexton’s feelings that she has about her abortion.
Gaby Rodriguez’s purpose in The Pregnant Project is to inspire readers to think positively and to know their own inner strength despite how others may judge or act.
The spacing and structure of the poem is set up to allow flow and momentum in the poem and its narrative. The speaker’s voice is present with emotion as emphasised in a natural rhythm of thought offering an honest and bare interpretation of motherhood. The open “blank space” of the poem encourages a calm and breathy atmosphere, fulfilling a mood of tranquility and bliss. Each stanza is short with a couple quick fragmented thoughts before closing each section with the power of a single word. Each stanza breaks apart a separate thought filled with a loving passion the speaker uses to stress the beauty, wonder, and over-flowing love present in motherhood. To better the structure, the poem itself is broken into three parts, each representing a stage of motherhood. The first segment of motherhood that is represented is during the moments while the baby is still in the womb and the mother waits in anticipation for the baby to arrive. This “honeymoon” phase is expressed with a tone filtered through a perception of rose-coloured glasses and excitement as the mother is in utter bliss to carry a life into the world. The
The poem “The Secretary Chant” uses imagery about the speaker’s body parts to develop the argument of how society has produced a stereotype that being a secretary is the perfect job for a women, but in reality being a secretary might produce emotional conflicts. The reader can view this when the speaker states, “My navel is a reject button” (15). The speaker illustrates how her belly button is a reject button. The purpose of using a metaphor in this quote is to explain how the speaker’s body is being altered to inanimate objects. The significance of the navel is that after detaching the umbilical cord after birth, the navel no longer has a biological purpose. This is vital because perhaps the speaker feels useless, because the speaker knows her navel is ineffective. Since the speaker is working over time, she probably feels like she
The poem “The Mother” written by Gwendolyn Brooks in 1945, is a poem that focuses on the immeasurable losses a woman experiences after having an abortion. The poems free verse style has a mournful tone that captures the vast emotions a mother goes through trying to cope with the choices she has made. The author writes each stanza of the poem using a different style, and point of view, with subtle metaphors to express the speaker’s deep struggle as she copes with her abortions. The poem begins with, “Abortions will not let you forget” (Brooks 1), the first line of the poem uses personification to capture your attention. The title of the poem has the reader’s mindset centered around motherhood, but the author’s expertise with the opening line, immediately shifts your view to the actual theme of the poem. In this first line the speaker is telling you directly, you will never forget having an abortion. Brooks utilizes the speaker of the poem, to convey that this mother is pleading for forgiveness from the children she chose not to have.
Metaphors by Sylvia Plath The poem 'metaphors' by Sylvia Plath deals with strong issues of pregnancy. The poem was written when she was pregnant. She wrote about her mixed feelings and emotions. The poem itself is a metaphor.
In a world in which abortion is considered either a woman's right or a sin against God, the poem "The Mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks gives a voice to a mother lamenting her aborted children through three stanzas in which a warning is given to mothers, an admission of guilt is made, and an apology to the dead is given. The poet-speaker, the mother, as part of her memory addresses the children that she "got that [she] did not get" (2). The shift in voice from stanza to stanza allows Brooks to capture the grief associated with an abortion by not condemning her actions, nor excusing them; she merely grieves for what might have been. The narrator's longing and regret over the children she will never have is highlighted by the change in tone
William Golding, the author of Lord of the Flies, includes many metaphors, often incredibly dark ones, in his writing. In Lord of the Flies he has some very important metaphors about human nature. He shows this very strongly with many characters. Specifically, Jack, Piggy, and Simon; the human representations of savagery, reason, and human goodness. The book is named because of a pig that gets killed and gets its head put on a stick. The pig head attracts flies, hence the name, Lord of the Flies. Throughout the book there are many symbols but, I believe the pig to be the strongest symbol that truly shows the depths of human nature through the traits of many characters in the book according to their personal relationship to the pig. The pig shows, in more ways than one, how there is a beast inside of all of us, it just takes longer for some to let it out.
General Hospital spoilers promise a week of surprises as the Nurses Ball begins at the start of the week. There are several storylines that have questions that are about to get answered, including one that has been hanging in the balance for what seems like forever. Port Charles is ready for the glitz and glamor the Nurses Ball provides, but the danger that goes along with the event is going to ripple through the town causing issues for several families. May sweeps are halfway over and the General Hospital writers have been busy working hard to please viewers.
Maya Angelou said, “To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow” (Wanderlust 1). The relationship a mother has with her child transcends all other relationships in complexity. Maternity largely contributes to the female identity in part because the ability to sexually reproduce is uniquely female. With this ability often comes an unparalleled feeling of responsibility. That is, mothers experience an inherent desire to protect their children from the world and guide them through life. Serving as a child’s protector then transforms a woman’s perspective, or the female gaze. While these protective instincts often arise naturally, they are also reinforced by the ideas society’s perpetuates about motherhood. Globally, women are expected to assume the roles of wives and mothers. The belief that motherhood is somewhat of a requirement assists in the subjugation of women and reinforces a plethora of gendered stereotypes. While some women enjoy the process of childrearing, others feel that having a family comes at an irreparable cost: losing sight of oneself. In response to the polarized views surrounding maternity, several authors have employed different writing techniques to illustrate the mother-child dynamic. Through the examination of three narratives, spanning fiction and non-fiction, one is able to better define maternity and the corresponding female gaze in both symbolic and universal terms.
'The Abortion' by Anne Sexton is a first person narrative poem in the style of a stream of consciousness and conveys a woman's emotional and physical journey whilst undergoing an abortion. I intend to discuss how through the effective use of imagery, tone, symbolism and word choice the poet successfully builds up an atmosphere which adds to your appreciation of the poem.
In “We Do Abortions Here: A Nurse’s Tale” by Sallie Tisdale, the readers are given a reflection on the experience of working as a registered nurse in an abortion clinic. In the text, Tisdale is very descriptive of how it is like to work in an abortion clinic through the use of imagery. Tisdale portrays a certain level of disconnectedness to the whole procedure itself in how she uses strictly scientific language in order to give insight as to how the procedure is carried out, along with providing thoughts and feelings based on observation, internally. On the other hand, in “The Condition of Black Life Is One of Mourning” by Claudia Rankine, it is started off with a mother, having just given birth, already fearing the day her son could be
Sylvia’s Plath’s “Metaphors” is about a woman feeling insignificant during the midst of her pregnancy. Striking imagery is used to explore the narrator’s attitudes about having a child. Plath uses metaphors in every line, including the title itself, making the poem a collection of clues. The reader is teasingly challenged to figure out these clues, realising that the metaphors have