Women Poets Throughout American History, the Work

Women Poets

Throughout American history, the work of American literary artists has helped shape how people think about America and its values. In the modern moment, American literary artists and those involved in other media tend to represent ideals of freedom, autonomy, and individuality. However, this is a perception which has only developed through centuries of artists trying to speak with a unique American voice. Artists who have been oppressed are most successful in their attempts to explain how difficult existence is for people who have to live with some character trait which allows the social setting to suppress. Women writers, in particular, have used their artistry to show the intelligence of females and to help carve a niche in a male-dominated society. Three female poetry writers from three distinct historical periods, Anne Bradstreet who lived in the colonial period, Phillis Wheatley who was a slave living during the first years of American independence was educated by her masters, and Emily Dickinson who lived in the middle to late nineteenth century, each used the perspective of the female in order to show how women were unfairly marginalized within the American society and how unfair this treatment was.

As a Puritan woman living in the British colonies which would become the first of the United States, Anne Bradstreet was reared in a religion where women were subservient to men, life was hard, and the whole of one's life was centered on The Bible. Women have traditionally been subservient to men, but in communities where Christianity dominates the moral and social code, this marginalization is even more palpable. In her poem "The Prologue," Bradstreet writes that her desire to be a poet is against the norm for women of her time and that she feels a conflict within between what the society tells her she is allowed to do and what she herself feels the need to do. Men around her say that "my hand a needle better fits" (Bradstreet line 32). Women are meant for domestic duties, such as the one quoted in the poem, namely sewing and darning holes in clothing. Not only does she speak about the rigorous nature of her religious sect, but also of the submission she is supposed to illustrate as a woman within this social setting. She is obviously a very educated woman, which is evident from her extensive vocabulary skills as well as her knowledge of the ancient Greeks and their mythology, knowledge which is also rare for a woman who would usually have her education limited. Women would perhaps be taught to read and write but this was for the purpose of their domestic duties and in order to help them in their worship. In this way she seems to be broader of mind than some of her more Puritanical neighbors and by writing her poems, she makes a silent stand against male domination and the oppression of autonomy.