And guilt began, and pain, and death as well,
In stories that we tell.
The lady gave her trust, the heavens shone
Upon a maiden mother, one alone
In ballads we have known.
O first and second Eve, O dream of men
Believing life is good or might have been
And that we live again!
A sleeping beauty dreams her lover's grave,
Opens her eyes upon a human fave,
Keeps up the human race.
The musical sound of the poem makes it very similar to a nursery rhyme, in which there is a message that although we have been exposed to ideas of excellence of women since their childhood, we have to recognize that these ideas do not represent reality. There is also irony in the sound and sense of the poem being that the almost childlike sound contradicts the underlying message that childhood fantasies are not real.
The second literary device throughout the poem is the use of an allusion. The poem alludes repeatedly to Eve and Mary and the Bible, as well as to Sleeping Beauty. These are all representations of women, well known to all. These women are depicted as angelic, innocent, and in need of men to be successful. The narrator discovers that women do not play the stereotypical feminine roles, and men also do not play the stereotypical masculine roles.
I like this poem because it is short and sweet, and contained a message of importance that was not hard to understand. Society has ingrained the ideas of gender roles, and this poem questions it. I love the contradictions between the form and the content.
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