The Teeth Mother Naked at Last (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Robert Bly
- First Published: 1970
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry, Meditation
- Subjects: Children, Self-discovery, United States or Americans, Mothers, Parents and children, Politics, Psychology or psychologists, Spiritual life or spirituality, Vietnam War, War, Death or dying, Gods or goddesses, Soldiers, Bombs
Published separately in 1970, then later incorporated into Sleepers Joining Hands (1973), The Teeth Mother Naked at Last has been described as one of the best antiwar poems written in the twentieth century. Bly's strategy in the composition of the poem was to undermine somehow the sterility of the language the United States used—both in its nightly news broadcasts and on its political lecterns—when discussing the Vietnam War and the issues surrounding it. He did this by revealing these familiar phrases and familiar political statements to be false.
After a...
[The entire page is 858 words long]
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