Poems for Women's History Month
The Academy of American Poets was founded eighty years ago by a
visionary woman, twenty-three year old Marie Bullock. In honor of her
and all women, here's a roundup of poems to celebrate Women's History
Month.
"Duality" by Tina Chang
"won't you celebrate with me" by Lucille Clifton
"I May After Leaving You Walk Quickly or Even Run" by Matthea Harvey
"Scenes From the Battle of Us" by Cate Marvin
"Fifty-Three" by Eileen Myles
"Diving into the Wreck" by Adrienne Rich
"Duende" by Tracy K. Smith
"Stanzas in Meditation" by Gertrude Stein
"Lady Tactics" by Anne Waldman
"On Being Brought from Africa to America" by Phillis Wheatley
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/3/5/15
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/3/5/15
Rule No. 1: In a simple series, use
a comma to separate the elements, but don’t put a comma before the
conjunction.
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Rule No. 2: Use a comma to separate
two independent clauses connected by a coordinating conjunction.
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Rule No. 3: Use a comma following an
introductory clause or prepositional phrase of four words or more.
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Rule No. 4: Use commas to set off
modifiers that are not essential to the reader's ability to identify a
particular person, place or thing.
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Rule No. 5: Use commas to separate
adjectives of equal rank.
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Rule No. 6: Use commas to set off
words that add emphasis, shift attention or provide a fuller explanation
(parentheticals, "yes," "no," names in direct address).
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Rule No. 7: Use commas to set off participial
modifiers that come at the beginning of a sentence or after the verb.
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Rule No. 8: Use a comma, carefully,
to set off quotes or paraphrases.
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Rule No. 9: Use a comma with hometowns, ages,
years with months and days, names of states and nations with cities,
affiliations and most large numbers.
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Rule No. 10: Use a comma to separate duplicate
words to eliminate confusion.
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I chose Gertrude Stein. Stein was born in 1873. She was a German Jew, and her family moved a lot in her childhood around Europe, form Germany to Venice to Paris, then eventually the United States. Stein eventually went back to Paris and lived in a building that was ultimately the center of many great artists, such as Pablo Picasso. Stein's travel definitely reflects into her writing. In Stanza II of her "Stanzas in Mediation," she lists off men and women that she has encountered in the past and how she learns about their character. "And they can not only be not here but not there" is a line I particularly liked of the stanza because it shows how little she knows about the people she encounters but how much she can't picture them being anywhere else but where she first met them. Stein's travel came through particularly fondly in Stanza XXXVIII with the phrases "There is no beginning to an end but there is a beginning and an end to the beginning." This phrase is one of my favorites. It explains the paths she chose through travel and how her development as a writer never ended but she was able to learn so much through her time at her many homes.
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ReplyDeletePhillis Wheatley was the first black poet in America to publish a book. She was born around 1753 in West Africa and brought to New England in 1761, where John Wheatley of Boston purchased her as a gift for his wife. I read her poem "On Being Brought from Africa to America". It was a good poem. This poem was about blacks who were brought to the US from Africa to be slaves. She is basically talking about how we should band together and not give up hope. Things will get better for the blacks in the long run.
ReplyDeleteThe poem i choose was Wont you celebrate with me by Lucille Clifton. Just from reading the title you can tell that something good has happened in her life that's why she is celebrating. From reading the poem it tells you about her life how she was raised and how she was looked at.
ReplyDeleteLucille Clifton was born on June 27, 1936 in Upstate NY. Her poem, "won't you celebrate with me" discusses her hardships and how she has endured them. The title indicates something happy and lighthearted, but under it is all the things that are against a nonwhite woman, in a society run by white men. She seems slightly cynical, but proud of the life she has made and the obstacles she has overcome. The shift happens when she comes out of the past to celebrate the present. She indicates that if she can make a life, anyone should be able to.
ReplyDeleteLucille Clifton was born in Depew, New York. She was employed in state and federal government positions until she became a writer. Her poem "Wont you celebrate with me" was really interesting. It talks about how life is and how sometimes it treats you wrong. It shows how you could struggle through life but you hold on and stay positive.
ReplyDeleteI read won't you celebrate with me by Lucille Clifton it was an okay poem. The theme of the poem is going through a struggle and being proud of yourself that you went through that struggle.
ReplyDeleteThe poem that I picked was Scenes From The Battle of Us by Cate Marvin because of her imagery and the the ideas that she talks about. One of those being the parallels that she created between Romantic Comedies and War Movies which she describes as both being about war. I found the idea very interesting and very true when I though about it. I also really liked the formatting of the poem which switched between a narration of her main ideas and a more personal view within the topic. I think that the formatting may have been my favorite part because it tells to different stories that have similar ideas which I found very creative and interesting.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed Lucile Clifton's poem " Wont you celebrate with me". The tone is uplifting and positive poem. I feel like it represents women in general and our struggle to be relevant in society over the years. The way its simply written makes it fragile in a way. I like that its short and it gets to the point right away. The attitude is proud and happy of the things shes accomplished. Overall there's no shirt in the poem its all very positive and reflective of her accomplishments. The theme is that woman have came a long way since babylon! Although we had a lot of struggles along the way we made it as women!
ReplyDeleteThe poem I chose was Scenes From the Battle of Us by Cate Marvin. By reading the title, you could gather that the poem has to do with love and breakups. A battle is a continues fight, which means that the relationship referred to could be struggling to stay together or struggling to keep apart. In the poem, the author writes in first person, and speaks using metaphors to describe how she feels at different points in her difficult relationship. Cate Marvin uses anxious words to describe the desperate feel of the relationship, like frantic, collapsed and wanted. She uses animals and things found in nature as comparisons to different feelings and choices one might make. She mentions they sky, pigs, pups and a tree with white limbs to illustrate the softer, natural side of the relationship. The attitude of this poem is painful because it is so truthful. She brings out the raw side of a partnership that no one ever wants to talk about- how someone could want to be with someone else but also leave them forever, all at the same time. This poem doesn't have a clear shift, the stanza that illustrates the point the most would be the fifth one, when Marvin compares romantic comedies and war movies and says that they are, in reality, representing the same thing. Looking at the title again, I can see that it has to do with the formatting of the poem. This is the thing that drew me to it and made it stand out over the others. There are eight stanzas in the poem. There are two perspectives in the poem; the overview way of approaching the subject, and the much more personal way. The 1, 3, 5, 7 stanzas are a broader approach to the theme, that love is difficult and a constant battle, sometimes one people can't win. The 2, 4, 6 and 8 stanzas are the personal, delicate ones. They represent the side of the lover that still wants to stay, is still trying to find a way to stay. This is a really interesting way to illustrate how much of a struggle this relationship seems to be, and she does it without directly talking about the specific relationship itself, instead using descriptive metaphors and imagery that makes the theme come alive.
ReplyDeleteI chose "I May After Leaving You Walk Quickly or Even Run" by Matthea Harvey. I think that poem is about how she spends the day inside while it is raining outside. She is placed in a very soft and tranquil enviorment which is very greatly protrayed frankly, because it also soothes the reader's senses to a point. The reader is very calm and warm. (at least I was) Also, in the poem she is sitting next to a fire and I think that, that was theline that mainly stuck in my head and led me to calm down and the way she used imagery to explain the tea it was just wow. It was a fairly short poem but, there was so much explained in so little words. I loved it!
ReplyDelete-Leilanis Molina Grade 9
Lucille Clifton born in Depew New york.Her poem about Why you celebrate with me is about how she goes threw a struggle and at the end she is happy she went threw that struggle.
ReplyDeletePhillis Wheatley was the first black poet in america to publish a book . She Moved From her hometown to new england in 1761 where her slave owner john Wheatley purchased her and she was working in he's house . She Began Writing poetry when she was thirteen .
ReplyDeleteLucille Clifton was born in Depew, New york, on June 27, 1936. I like this poem a lot because she is telling a story in such few words about how she is living in a world where its not easy to be a black woman. She hasn’t let the obstacles in life defeat her. This is an inspirational poem that any black woman should think to read when feeling down about her self.
ReplyDeleteduality, by Tina Chang, seems to have a really weird message that sleeping with men in order to make them think about their lives is a good thing to do? what? I really wish you would give us actually good poetry. despite the stupid subject matter, its very well written.
ReplyDelete(Hetep Shekem)
The story i chose was "Duality" by Tina Chang. in my interpretation the poem is about how you can still be loved although that person do not have the popular trend. In other words, being confident in yourself.Tina Chang was the first woman ever been called the laureate of Brooklyn.Her work has acknowledge in Identity Lessons, Poetry Nation, Asian American Literature, Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation etc.
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