Poetry Explication
“Mother of the Year”
‘The Victory’ by Anne Stevenson

In the poem ‘The Victory’ by Anne Stevenson, she uses morbid language and imagery to create the awkward picture of a heavy disdain towards her child. Through this, the speaker creates the contrast between the normal reactions of childbirth. The poet intends to have the speaker’s outlook of the child develop into that that ironic feeling a mother should have for the birth of her child. When the reader knows that the “victory” is her birth of her son, the speaker berates her “tiny antagonist”. The poem addresses the speaker’s dreams of her respite and her ascension only to be crushed by the reality of the idea of her devoting her life to her infant. Because of this, her tone is an emphatic tone of defeat that translates to disappointment. To accomplish this, the speaker’s language uses a bellicose register such as antagonist, glory, and knife as well as bruise to relay the message of how motherhood and responsibility for the child has “won” over her by a “gory” struggle.

“Suicidal Thoughts”
‘Metaphors’ by Sylvia Plath

In the poem ‘Metaphors’ by Sylvia Plath, the poet expresses the feelings of the small things having their appearances be the message of that enduring factors that cannot change. These objects and things are the terms which define the enduring nature of life but on the other half of the poem it expresses the things that can change, the tone wherein the poet uses to expresses the desperation to grasp the nostalgic past through explaining the nouns that represents change.