Pro Femina (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Carolyn Kizer
- First Published: 1963
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Social action, Freedom, History, Wives, Mothers, Parents and children, Twentieth century, Gender roles, Feminism, Women’s issues, Oppression, Women, Women’s movement, Women’s rights
The Poem
The words pro femina are Latin, meaning “for the woman,” and the opening line is an imperative sentence: “From Sappho to myself, consider the fate of women.” This announcement of the topic is immediately followed by the exclamation in the second line, “How unwomanly to discuss it!” The implication is clear. Women are not to speak of their own history of oppression—or even to recognize it—for to do so might lead to a demand for change. That is precisely what the poem does demand: a change that will end patriarchal control of women’s lives.
...[The entire page is 2241 words long]
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