Judith Wright Poetry Essay.Doc
Judith Wright Poetry Essay:
All great poets evoke emotional and intellectual responses from their readers. Judith Wright is one such poet as she uses a wide range of appropriate language and poetic techniques to challenge the responder with complex ideas, such as the inherent flaws in our nature and the folly of chasing total perfection in Eve to her Daughters, challenging the individual to question their role in a post-Edan world. The idea of finding our individual place in the world is again apparent in Remittance Man which despite its distinctly Australian feel evokes strong emotion in a wide range of audiences challenging them to think about whether or not it’s a person place in the world that truly defines who they are. In both poems Wright successfully engages the audience expressing her feelings about characters and issues, while it may seem Wright composes mainly for herself she has a powerful and sometimes slightly disturbing effect on the responder.
Eve to her Daughters starts centered on the biblical characters Adam and Eve after their expulsion from Edan. The poem starts with a light tone almost gossip “It was not I who began it” to gain the reader’s interest. Then starts to describe life after the fall “turned out into caves”, “having to work for our bread” but then Eve reveals that she wasn’t unhappy saying “Where Adam went I was fairly contented to go”.
In the second stanza Eve’s colloquial language continues “But Adam, you know…!” as she goes on to describe Adam’s reaction to the fall “He kept on brooding over the insult, over the trick.” “He found a flaw in himself and he had to make up for it” we are shown Adams pride for the first time. Eve is loving in her criticism of Adam and even makes light of things “He even complained of my cooking (it was hard to compete with heaven).”
Then the poem adopts a darker tone and a more universal meaning as Adam becomes a representative of all men, and Eve of all women. Wright then uses imperative
All great poets evoke emotional and intellectual responses from their readers. Judith Wright is one such poet as she uses a wide range of appropriate language and poetic techniques to challenge the responder with complex ideas, such as the inherent flaws in our nature and the folly of chasing total perfection in Eve to her Daughters, challenging the individual to question their role in a post-Edan world. The idea of finding our individual place in the world is again apparent in Remittance Man which despite its distinctly Australian feel evokes strong emotion in a wide range of audiences challenging them to think about whether or not it’s a person place in the world that truly defines who they are. In both poems Wright successfully engages the audience expressing her feelings about characters and issues, while it may seem Wright composes mainly for herself she has a powerful and sometimes slightly disturbing effect on the responder.
Eve to her Daughters starts centered on the biblical characters Adam and Eve after their expulsion from Edan. The poem starts with a light tone almost gossip “It was not I who began it” to gain the reader’s interest. Then starts to describe life after the fall “turned out into caves”, “having to work for our bread” but then Eve reveals that she wasn’t unhappy saying “Where Adam went I was fairly contented to go”.
In the second stanza Eve’s colloquial language continues “But Adam, you know…!” as she goes on to describe Adam’s reaction to the fall “He kept on brooding over the insult, over the trick.” “He found a flaw in himself and he had to make up for it” we are shown Adams pride for the first time. Eve is loving in her criticism of Adam and even makes light of things “He even complained of my cooking (it was hard to compete with heaven).”
Then the poem adopts a darker tone and a more universal meaning as Adam becomes a representative of all men, and Eve of all women. Wright then uses imperative