BA #12**

C. Millay's "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed" is a great example of a feminist poet writing to show society what a woman's perspective on war is. The imagery of the birds vanishing shows that this particular women has had lovers, and they have gone to war and died. She now has no birds, or men in her life because there are none left. The birds are male, so readers can assume that Millay is referring to a hawk, or an eagle. Men were the one's who were shipped off to war, not the women. They were left at home. Many women did not marry because there were no men left. What would you think about if this poem were written by a man? Is the woman in the poem necessarily promiscuous? Do you think the woman will move on from the lost birds?

BA # 12

C. Carole Satymaurti's "I Shall Paint My Nails Red" contains view points of a feminist. Men are typically known to expect women to look like a certain image, and the speaker in this poem is fanatic about dying her hair, and painting her nails red. She does these things because she is insecure. Women are typically not stereotyped into using their hands to do work. Men are the ones who usually do the dirty work, but this poem shows that a feminist wrote it because the speaker says "Because I am proud of my hands" (line 2). The poet seems to be a feminist because she puts a situation in the poem about a mother and her daughter not always having the best relationship. "Because my daughter will say ugh"(6) suggests that not all relationships are happy. Some questions I would ask are: What are some more of the social expectations of women that can be applied to this poem? Does the poet seem to know the feminist side of things, and the speaker does not? Does the persona of the poem feel insecure in being a woman, or is she strong?