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If I Should Have A Daughter By Gwen Harwood

908 Words4 Pages

Over the centuries, female poets have used their craft to express important ideas about the female experience of having a child. Gwen Harwood, a twentieth century poet wrote the elegy ‘Mother Who Gave Me Life’, which conveys ideas about the very personal bond that is motherhood. Hawood challenges the patriarchal society by creating ideas about women being significant in life. Much like Harwood, contemporary spoken word poet, Sarah Kay uses her voice to explore the importance of the bond from mother to an imaginary daughter in ‘If I Should Have A Daughter’. Kay offers advice to her future daughter on dealing with life's struggles and building resilience whilst saying how mothers will always be there for her daughters. Despite writing in different …show more content…

Kay addresses the importance of striving, being dedicated and persistent throughout life's challenges. Kay’s poem has a futuristic, happy tone, whereas Harwoods is in the past with a more sombre tone. Through ‘If I Should Have A Daughter’, Kay uses metaphors such as referring to the world's tendency to “crumble so easily,” saying how this world is so easily breakable, yet you can't be afraid to experience life's joys. Kay's poem is written in the 21st century which is shown in her poem through feminism. It validates women as Kay explains how she will help her daughter through all the heartbreak, but never let a man stop her from achieving her dreams. “Life will hit you, hard, in the face, wait for you to get back up, so it can kick you in the stomach.” Kay makes ‘life’ which is inanimate, doing human things such as kicking you in the stomach or hitting you hard in the face. The personification helps add life into something lifeless giving the poem some energy. The hyperbole, “And I'm going to paint the solar system on the back of her hands so that she has to learn the entire universe”. Is used to make an exaggeration about how Kay wont literally paint the entire solar system on the back of her hand, rather guide her through life's challenges. Kay empowers women through her use of a spoken word poem, teaching life lessons to tackle head

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