Women and Munition making

Women At Munition Making by Mary Gabrielle Collins

The word ‘minister’ suggests religious imagery
Almost comparing the women to god, in a sense that
They have the power to create life and are reffered to later
On in the poem as the ‘creator’

This shows how looking afer children as a mother is her main priority

Their hands should minister unto the flame of life, Their fngers guide The rosy teat, swelling with milk, To the eager mouth of the suckling babe Or smooth with tenderness, Sofly and soothingly, The heated brow of the ailing child. Or stray among the curls Of the boy or girl, thrilling to mother love

The use of the word thrilling shows how passionate
She personally is to be a ‘mother’

The poet is using assonance to therefore create a sofer tone
Which also makes the poem sound more feminine

This immediately changes the tone and shows a contrast from the frst part of
The poem, this also can represent how the war has changed the women

This portrays how society
Thought women in general
Were delicate

But now, Their hands, their fngers Are coarsened in muniton factories.
This shows how the war has Their thoughts, which should fly
Toughened the women Like bees among the sweetest mind flowers Gaining nourishment for the thoughts to be, Are bruised against the law, ‘Kill, kill’.
Shows that the poet almost
Blames the government
For this change

This is suggestng that women's thoughts shouldn't’t
Be of war

‘Bruised’ suggests that their
Minds have been damaged

Could show that Collins is against the war, she thinks that it is going against nature.

They must take part in defacing and destroying the natural body Which, certainly during this dispensaton Is the shrine of the spirit. O God! Throughout the ages we have seen, Again and again
This suggests that the war Men by Thee created
Is going against the rules normally Cancelling each other.
In place, but it could also show