Women Issues in Plath and Rich Poems
Compare how Sylvia Plath and Adrienne Rich address issues facing women in mid twentieth century America in their respective poetry.
-Sylvia Plath, “Morning Song,” p. 1444;
-Adrienne Rich, “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law,” p. 1416;
Sylvia Plath and Adrienne Rich adopt totally different tones in their poems though they both explain the plight of women in the mid-twentieth century. Rich’s poem “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-law” is very pungent and explores various aspects of the life of a woman. Plath’s poem, “Morning Song,” on the other hand, is limited to a single facet of life. Plath attracts the audience’s attention to the demanding nature of motherhood and how it affects the life of a woman. Rich, on the other hand, denounces the sorrows inflicted on a woman by male exploitation. A woman has to work continuously in her husband’s house, sacrifice her ambitions, and forgo her independence. Rich also adopts a revolutionary tone encouraging women to fight for their rights, an aspect that is missing in Plath’s work.Both Rich and Plath explain the struggles that a woman must go in order to be considered complete by the society. According to the two poems, a woman has to adjust constantly to meet the needs of those around her. In Plath’s poem, a woman must learn to develop maternal instincts upon the birth of a child. She has to adjust her schedule and respond appropriately to the baby’s needs, “One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy…” (Plath 13). The title in Rich’s poem suggests the loss of identity of a woman once she gets married.
Works Cited
Plath, Sylvia. Morning Song. n.d. 4 May 2020. <https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49008/morning-song-56d22ab4a0cee>.
Rich, Adrienne. Snapshots of Daughter-in-law. n.d. 4 May 2020. <https://genius.com/Adrienne-rich-snapshots-of-a-daughter-in-law-annotated>.