Although “Women” by Louise Bogan comes across as making women very inferior, it is quite noticeable that the poem is meant to be satirical. Upon reading the poem the first time, I was somewhat taken aback and upset at the words. When realizing Bogan was writing sarcastically, as a way to showcase the common thoughts that society has of women, I realized I really admired the poem and how Bogan chose to get her point across. The tongue-in-cheek attitude of the poem makes the poem even stronger in tone, and stronger in conveying Bogan as a very smart poet.
For my creative post, I have chosen to imitate the poem “Women,” but make it the opposite of satirical. I will try to make my imitation one that shows how wonderful and strong women are, the opposite of what society was thinking of them during this time period (and even some in our time period). It was hard to imitate the poem clearly, so I did the best that I could! I tried to focus on not only the strength of women but their ability to do anything and everything, usually all at once.
Louise Bogan
Women have the entire world in their souls,
They are provident as well,
Overjoyed in the ability of their bodies to birth a child or
To discover species.
They see men trying to run the nations,
They hear themselves
Bickering with one another yet they
Defend each other shamelessly.
They journey, when they could be waiting,
They are flexible, all while seeming put together.
They use for themselves that benevolence
To which no man is friend.
They can cook meals, write novels, scale mountains
Or own a patented invention.
Their love is eager and boundless
Too tense and too lax.
They hear every whisper spoken about them
A shout and a cry in defense.
Then they push lives over their door-sills
The next generation of women going by.
Katie,
I’m glad you thought that Louise Bogan was being serious when you first read this poem because so did I. Like you, I was also impressed when I realized she was being sarcastic. The initial anger this poem inspires is genius. I would imagine her contemporary readers were a little perturbed on their first read as well, proving her point that those negative stereotypes do not, in fact, portray what it is to be a woman at all.
That’s why I’m glad you chose to do a poem about women’s strength. I liked the lines “They journey, when they could be waiting,/ They are flexible, all while seeming put together./They use for themselves that benevolence/ To which no man is friend.” I was reading a post on buzzfeed today that was arguing the same thing, so that was neat to see.
I have to tell you, though, the real reason I wanted to comment on your post is to applaud the last two lines, especially the “Then they push lives over their door-sills.” That creates a nice image and the soft “s” and “sh” sounds work nicely there. You should keep that phrase and use it again sometime if you ever find yourself writing this sort of thing in the future.
Great Job!
I agree about Bogan’s poem and its difficult-to-discern satirical edge. By laying out the cliche sense of women’s roles / sensibilities, it makes them seem not only cruel, but absurd. Interesting imitation as well — I like how you work within the thematics of the poem and gently turn the tables on the male audience as well.