Menstruating Isn't Shameful. Period.

         The Menstrual Hut

How can I listen to the moon?

Your blood will listen, like a charm. 

I knew a way to feel the sun

as if a statue felt warm eyes.

Even with ruins on the moon, 

your blood will listen, every time. 

Now I am the one with eyes.

Your blood can listen, every time

     I struggled for a little while to understand this poem, but I finally think I have an understanding of it. The lines in a normal font are the words of a young girl who is likely just beginning to menstruate, and the italicized lines are the words of an older, experienced woman telling the younger woman what to expect and how to deal with this new segregation. 

     Menstrual huts are very small buildings away from the home where a menstruating woman is sent because she is viewed as "unclean". The practice is rooted in Hindu traditions and is practiced in many countries all over the world. However, the poor ventilation in the huts and the open conditions can be dangerous and even fatal. The poem never explicitly mentions menstruation except in the title, the only reference is to "blood". Blood is a very powerful image. Blood is a life force, and it connects us to our family. The repeated reference to blood creates a powerful connotation. 

     The first stanza of the poem first deals with the young woman's loneliness and wishing to see the moon. She asks how she can "listen to the moon," which shows how segregated she feels from the natural world. In this hut, she cannot even see the moon or feel the night. The second voice responds, saying that her "blood will listen," which probably refers to the way that periods can be related to the moon phases. It also relates to the sisterhood that is felt by the women sharing these huts. They are all exiled from their homes and shunned by their male relatives while they are menstruating, so they really only have each other. 

     The second stanza goes on and the young speaker says that she "knew a way to feel the sun". This implies that she was once free to do as she pleased before she entered her menstruating years. In the next line, she uses a metaphor to refer to herself as a "statue". This refers to the way that men would view her as a woman. The other voice responds that "even with the ruins on the moon," her "blood will listen". Even while the women are considered unclean and ruined, the other women, their "blood," will be there for them.

     Finch uses the two voices in this poem to demonstrate the sisterhood felt between the women as well as the segregation from others. 

Reading Poetry and Chill?

Sir, I am not a bird of prey:

a Lady does not seize the day.

I trust that brief Time will unfold

our youth, before he makes us old.

How could we two write lines of rhyme

were we not fond of numbered Time

and grateful to the vast and sweet

trials his days will make us meet?

The Grave's not just the body's curse;

no skeleton can pen a verse!

So while this numbered World we see,

let's sweeten Time with poetry,

and Time, in turn, may sweeten Love

and give us time our love to prove.

You've praised my eyes, forehead, breast:

you've all our lives to praise the rest.

          Annie Finch writes her poem "Coy Mistress" as the incredibly sassy response of an empowered female to Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress". Finch's poem gives a voice to the mistress, who responds to Marvell's narrator confidently and humorously. While Marvell's poem argues to seize the moment by having sex, Finch argues to enjoy the time it takes to get somewhere. "Coy Mistress" is incredibly clever and Finch borrows images from Marvell's poem to turn his point around and enforce her own.

          Finch constructs this poem in rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter while frequently referencing Marvell's poem. This gives the poem an almost conversational feel. Her opening line where she reminds the man that she is "not a bird of prey" basically begins her whole argument debunking the dramatic narrative of Marvell's narrator. This is also fairly ironic since while she writes this, she is basically preying on his entire poem. Her tone is extremely powerful and she thoroughly manages to get her point across with her irony and turning his own arguments against him. She refers to him as "sir," which adds to the irony of her completely disagreeing with him and insulting him.

         Finch writes about how time is not a thing to be feared in this poem. She agrees that "brief time will unfold", but not so quickly that they are pressed to have sex immediately. She also argues that death does not just effect the body, but the real tragedy of death is that creativity is put to an end. The line "no skeleton can pen a verse!" makes this point clear. 

         The end of the poem is very clear. The mistress basically just wants to hang out and read poetry. Finch claims that poetry will "sweeten time" and give them time to prove their love. This is very different from Marvell's assertion that the couple should have sex in order to forget about their impending dooms. As romantic as that sounds, I think I like Annie Finch's idea better....

         The irony and borrowing of Andrew Marvell's own phrases adds to the power that the mistress has. She proves herself to be very clever and pretty much completely turn's Marvell's narrator's argument on its head. 

Blindly in Love

Fucked Up Ode
By Dean Young

We all know that moment when the woman              1
lays her hand on the mans scar. We have all              2
heard water pouring in Brahms, wrens twitter           3
in the flowering bush. Still we don't                           4
understand each other? What a lot                             5
of practice it takes making the howling                     6
face blank. We manage the couch up the stairs'         7
right angle, we've touched each other                        8
exactly right, both touching and being touched         9
but then we miss each other by seconds                    10
which is all the chaos needs. It's not just mis-           11
hearing that makes us shout what we don't mean,     12
throw money on the table and leave. Always            13
too much and not enough, all those workbooks        14
full of calculations worthless. We swore                   15
each day we'd check the tadpoles, threw                   16
the knife so far into the air, we forgot                        17
to keep watch for it coming back down.                    18
How many letters are being crumpled up                  19
right now? I find myself saying I love you                20
to almost nothing, to fog. Can't we                            21
go back to being children with keys                          22
looped on string around our necks?                           23


   Dean Young has created a somber poem that follows the rocky relationship between two people through the conflicts they face and ultimately destroy them. His message within this poem is that love can change and disappear without warning and consequently, he wishes he could be a child again when life was much simpler. He utilizes imagery, a confused and upset tone, and unique diction to convey his emotions through this poem.
   At the beginning of Young's poem, he suggests a typical scenario in a relationship or an image his reader can picture of a woman placing her hand on her significant others scars, signifying that she accepts him and loves him with all of his imperfections. Using first-person point of view, Young continues to state "We" when discussing things so he can create a sort of bond and connection with his readers and so the readers can do the same to his words that follow. The next piece to his poem is referencing Brahms, a german composer and pianist of the romantic period, and states "we have all heard water pouring in Brahms" (2-3). Young follows this by mentioning wrens, a type of small bird know for being near homes, and implies that we have all heard these as well. Both of these references suggest and romantic, comfortable feeling to both Young and his readers. In addition, Young provides his readers with clear imagery of the bird and its "twitter" (3), and of how the music sounds which allows the reader to connect and understand his references better. The matter-of-fact tone in these first few lines suggests that there should be no problems between people if they all hear and see the same things, however, this quickly changes.
   In the following line, Young presents a question to his readers. "Still we don't understand each other?"(4-5); suddenly, the mood and tone of the poem shifts completely. Young begins to reference all that his significant other and himself have done together, from moving furniture to "touching and being touched" (9). These examples provide great imagery and insight into the relationship between these two individuals. Young makes the reader see that everything may seem great from the outside, but that happiness is not always present. He states, "we miss each other by seconds which is all the chaos needs" (10-11), alluding to the idea that it does not take much for a relationship to crumble. From here, Young lists off a handful of the broken promises and issues that arise between the couple that lead them to fall apart. He writes, "It's not just mis-hearing that makes us shout what we don't mean, throw money on the table and leave"(11-13), implying that their issues are deeper than misunderstanding each other. The meaningless things such as "workbooks full of calculations" (14-15) or "check[ing] the tadpoles" (16) are made out to be the biggest issues, however, Young is acknowledging that they simply are not. What is a great issue, metaphorically and literally speaking, is that the couple "threw the knife so far into the air, we forgot to keep watch for it coming back down" (16-18), implying that they knew their was danger in their relationship yet they tried to avoid it even when it was very obvious something was wrong. These references all create great imagery in the poem, however, they also allude to the issues present in the relationship.
   The final lines of this poem revolve around Young reviewing the end of the relationship in his head and trying to make sense of and simplify the situation he's in. His tone in these final lines turns to one of sadness and desperation, he seems to have lost all his ambition to work through the troubles his relationship faced and has come to terms with it's failure. He states that he "find[s] [him]self saying I love you to almost nothing, to fog" (20-21), alluding to the fact that his relationship has diminished and he is trying to find solitude in that. Young finishes the poem with a final plea, "Can't we go back to being children with keys looped on string around our necks?" (21-23), as if begging for simpler days again in his life.
   Young's poem is a canvas for many emotions to explode on and he uses a constantly changing tone, great imagery, and unique wording to make this happen. This poem does a fantastic job conveying the issues a relationship can face and how blind people in relationships can be to the sour feelings present.

Life is Different

"Many Lives"
by Alicia Suskin Ostriker
from The Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog

Many lives said the old woman
the grains of sand add up
I have been a housefly and a queen

The grains of sand add up
to nothing said the lovely tulip
unless love waters them

Do you even know what love is
said the dog and are you sure
the grains of sand add up



All of the poems share the same points of view: from an old woman, a tulip, and a dog.  Therefore, the name of this book is quite fitting.  Ostriker stretches the bonds of each narrator, and has the three interact in ways a single narrator would not allow.  This poem is a perfect example of this conversation; each narrator takes what has been said and adds their own light to the address.  The sequential order- always old woman, tulip, then dog- also contributes a cyclical manner to reading the poems one after another, affording the reader a sense of connection highly prevalent in this collection; tying the pieces together, intertwining their meanings and morals.


The old woman in "Many Lives" reflects upon the full life she's lead, recounting in her mind all the roles she has played.  Her station in any situation has ranged from "a housefly" to "a queen" (line 3), illustrating that her life was varied and long.  Every small instance "[adding] up" to become as numerous as "grains of sand" (line 2).  For the tulip, these moments in life mean "nothing" (line 5) except if "love waters them" (line 6).  The dog presents the viewpoint that questions the other two, repeating the woman's and tulip's assertions as questions.

The dog ties all three speakers together by presenting a contrasting viewpoint from the old woman and the tulip.  While the old woman and tulip mostly agree- with the tulip only modifying the woman's statement- the dog does not.  He challenges both of the others, asking if they "even know" (line 7) what they are talking about and "are you sure" (line 8) your life was so full. 

What draws me into this poem is how much Ostriker changes the meaning of a phrase within such a condensed piece.  Also, her ability to have subjects interact that would never talk together on a deep level in real life redefines how one thinks about fiction writing.  This poem proves that length does not mean quality or level of thought-provoking.

Jeffers' Death Plan

The Bed by the Window

I chose the bed downstairs by the sea-window for a good death-bed

When we built the house, it is ready waiting,

Unused unless by some guest in a twelvemonth, who hardly suspects

Its latter purpose. I often regard it,

With neither dislike nor desire; rather with both, so equalled

That they kill each other and a crystalline interest

Remains alone. We are safe to finish what we have to finish;

And then it will sound rather like music

When the patient daemon behind the screen of sea-rock and sky

Thumps with his staff, and calls thrice: 'Come, Jeffers.'

A majority of Jeffers’ poetry is based on his view, both belief wise and visually. However, this poem stretches that as it is uniquely autobiographical. It takes place in the house he built and describes both the way he lives and his mindset on his own death. Interestingly he was not very old at the time this poem was written, nor doing poorly economically to reinforce thoughts of death. “The Bed by the Window” serves as insight to Jeffers view of his mortality and does so through specific connections to his life, poetic structure, and powerful imagery.

The room created in Jeffers’ poem does exist, showing that this is not only a dramatic view on the short lifespan of people but also personal aspect. It is well known that Robinson built his stone house “Tor House” where he and his family lived for the rest of their lives, making the part of “When we built the house” in line two connected to reality. The house was also located on the Californian coast, connecting to “the screen of sea-rock and sky” where the daemon calls from. Most significantly, instead of ending the poem with the daemon calling thrice to any person, he specifically calls himself to his death bed. It is common for Jeffers to discuss the extinction of humans in his poems and refer to them more as a temporary species inhabiting Earth, but putting his name in creates a personal connection to death. By placing his poem in his spare room and based around his life, he creates almost more of a confession about his ideas of death than a description.

The structure and word-choice throughout the poem also convey Jeffers’ feelings on his own death. Until the last line of the poem, Jeffers never finishes a sentence at the end of a line. This creates a steady flow through the poem the mimics the flow of life, ended with Jeffers’ call to his deathbed. Also, in line three he uses “twelvemonth” instead of year that reinforces the flow of time not limited to larger units of years but separated into smaller units. In line two he switches tenses, from the past with “When we built the house” to the present “it is ready waiting.” This gives the room the feeling as though it was always meant to exist (as death will always occur) and it has been ready to accept Jeffers even before it was built.

Jeffers also uses subtle yet impactful imagery to show the imminence of death. Though the poem is specific to his life, he does not spend much time describing what the room looks like. All that is known of it is it having a bed that looks out a window into the sea. He also personifies his thoughts in the middle of the poem, and his coming to terms with the idea of his own death. Also, he does not paint death as something evil. His daemon is “patient” and will call only when everything he was meant to complete in his life has been accomplished. Though the call to death is still commanding and if not ominous with the staff thumping, it is not portrayed as entirely evil.

People often spend time considering their own death, will it occur too soon? Or possibly will it be long after they know who they are? Jeffers seems to have designated a room in his house both to try to predict and become comfortable with the idea of his own death. By placing the setting in his house and himself as the narrator, he has made the poem a strong possibility (upon further research I have found that he did actually pass away in this bed as well as his wife some years prior). Through the structure of his poem, Jeffers has mirrored the finality of death through the rhythm of a sentence. Also, the imagery creates death as something not to be feared, and also shows that though the poem is specific to him, the occasion is not. Altogether it creates an interesting perspective on how to imagine your own death without sadness.

Bitter Woman

The Edge

Time and again, time and again I tie
My heart to that headboard
While my quilted cries
Harden against his hand. He's bored --
I see it. Don't I lick his bribes, set his bouquets
In water? Over Mother's lace I watch him drive into the gored
Roasts, deal slivers in his mercy. . . I can feel his thighs
Against me for the children's sakes. Reward?
Mornings, crippled with this house,
I see him toast his toast and test
His coffee, hedgingly. The waste's my breakfast.


This poem is the written equivalent of condensed and packaged bitterness. It shows a marriage between two people, a woman and a man, in which the man has all of the power and the woman feels trapped and abused. Like many of Glück's poems, this piece shows the bitterness and desolation of life as a woman and wife in a patriarchal society and marriage.

Glück's imagery is very precise and calculated, showing very specific thoughts and actions in order to convey the speaker's feeling of frustration and resentment. She says that she "tie[s] / [her] heart to that headboard" while the two have sex (1-2). This implies that she must separate herself from the situation, meaning that the relations are unwanted on her part. The image, however, shows quite literally that her heart is not in her marriage, and she feels that she must set her feelings aside to fulfill the duties that society and her husband impose on her. The images of sex, particularly of unwanted or violent sex, continue throughout the poem. "Don't I lick his bribes," "I watch him drive into the gored / Roasts," and "I can feel his thighs / Against me for the children's sakes" all are sexual images (5,6-7,7-8). The first is submissive, the second is violent, and the third quite clearly says that either one or both of the couple do not feel compelled by love or desire. They all show that the feelings of entrapment and the frustration at the relationship carry over from the bedroom into the everyday things that the speaker does or watches her husband do.

The tone of this poem is purely bitter. The speaker is angry, and there is a feeling that the anger has been building for quite a while. Her use of rhetorical questions and of several short phrases show her outbursts of frustration and her bitterness. She asks, "Don't I lick his bribes, set his bouquets / In water?" (5-6). She later asks, "Reward?" (8). These two questions convey how wits-end frustrated the speaker is. Short statements such as "He's bored" and "The waste's my breakfast" show the situation itself and the bitterness of the speaker (4, 11). She is so angry that she cannot use long, descriptive sentences. She has to express herself only with short statements filled with feeling and vitriol.

This poem shows the anger and emptiness that fills the life of a housewife. Glück was married in the 60s and 70s before getting a divorce, and you can see the influence of the times on her life and work. She was married with children and no job to occupy her, and, coupled with depression that is clear in her work and several disorders that were addressed in her childhood, she probably had a very hard time feeling content with the nothingness of housewifery, especially since her marriage never seems to have worked. This is all expressed in the poem, which shows the bitterness that she feels and the resentment, both at her husband and at her life.

A Contemporary Myth (In Which I Write About Greek Mythology and Sylvia Plath Again)

Aftermath - Sylvia Plath

Compelled by calamity’s magnet

They loiter and stare as if the house

Burnt-out were theirs, or as if they thought

Some scandal might any minute ooze

From a smoke-choked closet into light;

No deaths, no prodigious injuries

Glut these hunters after an old meat,

Blood-spoor of the austere tragedies.

Mother Medea in a green smock

Moves humbly as any housewife through

Her ruined apartments, taking stock

Of charred shoes, the sodden upholstery:

Cheated of the pyre and the rack,

The crowd sucks her last tear and turns away.

In this poem, once again, Sylvia Plath combines themes of both women’s issues and Greek mythology. This time, she uses a Greek epic to discuss the concept of the 1950s housewife. In addition, she also shows her disdain for people who clamor to see a tragedy that has taken place, rather than taking the time to offer respect and condolences to those affected. To showcase this, as well as the housewives she saw in many of the women around her, she uses the story of Medea.

In mythology, Medea is the wife of Jason, of Jason and the Argonauts. She is often portrayed as a priestess or an enchantress, and she is the granddaughter of Helios, the god of the sun. The most famous story involving Medea is one in which her husband abandons her when the king of Corinth offers him his daughter’s hand in marriage. As revenge, Medea murders their children.

The murders are a horrific tragedy, and if the story took place in modern times, it is what Medea’s neighbors would “loiter and stare at the house” to see. Words like “ooze”, “smoke-choked”, “glut”, and “blood-spoor” are chilling and slimy, just the adjectives that Plath would likely use to describe these people. In the end, when each person “sucks her last tear and turns away”, they physically remove the grief from the situation and replace it with tabloid greed. They come looking for a “scandal”, and when they are “cheated of the pyre and the rack”, they leave. All they care about is the thrill of a tragedy, and Plath cannot stand it.

Another thing Plath could never stand was the idea of staying idle and mindless as a typical housewife. She paints Medea as such a housewife, and a broken one at that. In Medea’s home, we see familiar objects such as “shoes”, “upholstery”, and “apartments”, but they are now “charred”, “sodden”, and “ruined”, revealing the physical and emotional upset that has occurred. She still “moves humbly”, though, and shows no emotion as to what has just happened. In portrayals of women in the 1950s, we often see them silent and puttering as they go about completing the work that must be done, all while the true action of the piece occurs. Here, Medea is just as silent, with no grief or anger or remorse, and it is just as frightening as the concept of complacency was to Plath.

Sylvia Plath has painted a fearful picture of suburban scandal in the 1950s. The neighbors are nosy, the perpetrator is blissfully unaware, and yet the story is much more familiar. In fact, the story has existed for thousands of years. Still, the only way to make the present resonate with both itself and with the future is sometimes to correlate it with the past. By using elements of Greek mythology to highlight problems with society, Plath created a poem that transcends time to tell a heart-wrenching story.