The Role of Women in Poetry

"Woman-she is his slave; she has become 

a thing I weep to speak-the child of scorn

The outcast of a desolated home.

Falsehood, and fear, and toil, like waves have worn

Channels upon her cheek, which smile adorn,

As calm decks the false Ocean: well, ye know

What woman is, for none of woman born

Can choose but drain the bitter dregs of woe,

Which ever from the oppressed to the oppressors flow

 The Islam Revolt, by Percy Byshhe Shelley

                                                     

Based on the poem extracted from Percy Bysshe Shelley, women are basically the counterpart of men, who are being controlled by men ever since the rise of the monarchy and the community of the patriarchal system.  Because women were treated as "weak" and "illiterate", they are not allowed to speak out to the public. Sadly, women are not allowed to speak out their minds and change the ideology of the society. Still I was amazed to see some of the female poets , such as the Bronte's sisters. Women, in my point of view, can be as equal as men if they are fully accepted into the world of literature if they have equal education with men. This is because we are born equal the same except the fact that we are different in gender. Most of the women in the past share the same thoughts with men regarding on education, politics, religion, and the society’s welfare. 

Today, I would like to introduce one of my favorite female poet, Slyvia Plath. Most of her poems express her emotional obstacles and trials in life, especially Daddy which is dedicated to her late father whom she loved the most. Because of her father's death, she was quite traumatized by his death. This poem, Poppies in July, isn't just poppies which were blooming in July.At first glance, you will think it is just  a normal poem with few onomatopoeias and blurry imageries. However, it is about the sadness and traumatic end of her marriage with Ted Hughes. The pain that she has gone eventually became numb and began to hallucinate of death, which I found it quite saddening and heart-aching. Still, the uses of personification, imagery and parallelism were really intriguing because it requires you to think in-depth of the poem. Most of the literary terms that she have used in the poetry to show the pain and depression that she had to go through, which she wished it will end someday. Perhaps, the emergence of feminism emerged was due to the sufferings of women that has overly suppressed by time to time.
   

Poppies In July

By: Sylvia Plath

Little poppies, little hell flames,

Do you do no harm?

You flicker. I cannot touch you.

I put my hands among the flames. Nothing burns

And it exhausts me to watch you

Flickering like that, wrinkly and clear red, like the skin of a mouth.

A mouth just bloodied.

Little bloody skirts!

There are fumes I cannot touch.

Where are your opiates, your nauseous capsules?

If I could bleed, or sleep! -

If my mouth could marry a hurt like that!

Or your liquors seep to me, in this glass capsule,

Dulling and stilling.

But colorless. Colorless.

References:

Quotation extracted from: http://www.online-literature.com/shelley_percy/2779/

Image adapted from: http://mikechasar.blogspot.com/2010/04/perplexed-housekeeper-remembering-new.html

Image of Sylvia Plath taken from: www.brainpickings.org    

The poem "Poppies in July" taken from: http://allpoetry.com/poem/8498459-Poppies-In-July-by-Sylvia_Plath