Which poem or story that we have looked at so far made an impression on you? What was the impression it made? Why did it touch your feelings and imagination?
In week 4, we looked a Mary Gilmore and her poem ‘Eve-Song’. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this poem and the discussion in the tutorials that followed. The poem spoke to my inner feminist, and i really enjoyed hearing the different views between the males and the females in the class.
I enjoyed reading Gilmore’s poem and seeing her perception of Man change. It started of with the narrator feeling neutral towards Man’s presence. They state:
But the heart of man was a wandering thing
That came and went with nothing to bring:
The narrator then turned to a more loving feeling towards Man in the second stanza with the line:
That more than man was love and prize
This was before the third stanza when she, in nice terms, rips Man to shreds. She mocks everything that he had once said, from his strength, to his truthfulness. I feel like this paragraph in particular really spoke to me because it really speaks to the current male stereotypes that are still present in culture to this day. While it’s obviously not all men, there are still men who will make false promises to love interests.
The final stanza contradicted the third stanza. This is because the narrator went from hating on Man, to welcoming him home with open arms and giving him a place to rest. It is almost as if she has these opinions about Man, but chooses to accept her fate and be a typical house-wife character, which was common in those days.
This poem really shows how Australia as a nation has grown in terms of equality and the way we view women. This piece would have offended some people when it was written. I see it as a brave statement of society.
Courtney Mattick - Blog 