Essay Questions

What imagery can you use to deduce the speaker’s sex? (“After Making Love in Winter”)

The speaker is female, for she asserts, “I can feel my ovaries deep in my body.” Ovaries are existent in women’s anatomies only. Therefore, the speaker is a female who is reminiscing about the aftereffects of lovemaking during winter.

Compare and contrast the speaker’s situation at the beginning and at the end of the poem. What is the implication of the contrast? (“After Making Love in Winter”)

At the start, the speaker acknowledges that her body is hurting; thus, would not even conceal her body by way of a sheet. However, at the end, the speaker claims that “you run your palm, warm, large/dry, back long my face over and/over, over and over, like God/putting the finishing touches on before sending me down to be born.” Clearly, the discomfort at the onset is ascribed to chilly weather. Nevertheless, the speaker goes through a feeling akin to a “rebirth” as a result of the lover’s cuddle. Accordingly, the external weather condition does not sway internal gratification.

How does fear impact motherly love? (“The Fear of Oneself”)

The mother in “The Fear of Oneself” is petrified, for she divulges, “I have never thought I could take it, not even for the children. It is all I have wanted to do,/to stand between them and pain. But I come from a long line/ of women/ who put themselves/first.” The woman’s acknowledgement disbands the Love versus no-Love binary. Even though the woman loves her children, the fear for herself would not permit her to withstand the pain that is typified by the ‘frozen river.’ The mother’s disinclination to detriment herself for the children does not conjecture that she does not adore them though.