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 * Women Through Time | Anthology of Poems **

** Introduction ** This anthology has been designed for a single-sex (female) advanced class. Many students are attempting the advanced preliminary course to gauge their capacity to undertake the advanced HSC course; thus the ability range within the class is relatively mixed. The anthology is entitled ‘Women through time’ and will be the central focus of the first module in the preliminary course. All selected poems are about women and have been written by women. A range of female personas, experiences and attitudes have been included in the anthology in order to give students at least one poem or poet with which to develop a personal connection. A number of the poems including Christina Rossetti’s ‘A Daughter of Eve’, Augusta Webster’s ‘A Castaway’ and Diane Wakoski’s ‘Belly Dancer’ deal with sexual digression and critique the sexual double standard of a patriarchal society. These poems may be appealing to maturing female students who have recently entered or are soon to enter the world of sexual politics. Louise Gluck’s ‘Gretel in Darkness’ handles mental illness and Marge Piercy’s poem ‘Barbie Doll’ broaches the topic of body image issues; both pertinent issues to many youths. The personal relevance of these poems to students will encourage closer engagement with the texts and facilitate the creation of considered and informed personal responses from students (Board of Studies, 2009 p. 38). The module in which the anthology appears has been designed to prepare students for the HSC Module A: Comparative Study of Texts and Contexts. Students will therefore be required to compare how the similar content of these poems reflect the changing values and perspectives of the contexts in which they were written .The poems in the anthology have been purposefully selected to assist students to describe and recognise the relationships between composer, responder, text and context (Board of Studies, 2009 p. 33). The Victorian poems by Rossetti and Webster reflect the restrictive gendered values of Victorian society, yet their critical stance is indicative of the early rumblings of the women’s suffrage movement. These poems differ to Helen Reddy’s ‘I am woman’, whose imperative poetic voice has clearly been empowered by the success of the Feminist movement of the 1970s. The poems have also been chosen to assist students describe and explain relationships among texts (Board of Studies, 2009 p. 33). Common ideas, concerns and attitudes unite many of the chosen texts, regardless of the context of their creation. The idea of female self-sacrifice is central in both Lady Mary Chudleigh’s ‘To the Ladies’ and Dorothy Porter’s ‘Motherhood’ written over two centuries later. The aforementioned notion of female sexuality is also of central concern in Sharon Old’s ‘Grandmother Love Poem’ and //all// of the included texts relate in some way to the wide ranging gendered social pressures and oppressions inherent in a patriarchal society. Once students are able to recognise the similarities and connections amongst these texts they will be equipped to synthesise these ideas into a coherent argument for a specific purpose (Board of Studies, 2009 p. 33). The final synthesis will also involve an explanation of how the language forms and features and structures of the poems shape meaning and influence responses (Board of Studies, 2009 p. 33). Students might focus on how Webster’s selection of the dramatic monologue encourages a sympathetic response from the reader. Alternatively they might focus on Porter’s extended metaphor of the dying Octopus to impress upon the reader the magnitude of a mother’s self-sacrifice for her children. The anthology includes a range of poetic techniques ranging from straight-forward metaphors (“Wife and Servant are the same” in Chudleigh’s ‘To the Ladies’) and choices in diction (“let their virtuous malice dribble on” in Rosetti’s ‘A Castaway’) to more sophisticated cultural allusions (to “fantasia” in Porter’s ‘Motherhood’, for example). Sexual imagery (the “snake” in ‘Wakoski’s Belly Dancer’) and tonal nuances in Rosetti’s ‘In Progress’ are also available to the more able students. The range of structures, language forms and features differentiates the content, providing analytical opportunities at of varying degrees of difficulty. Ideally, the study of this anthology will not merely prepare students for the HSC course and assist them to meet the required preliminary outcomes, but also cultivate in students an appreciation of the potential pleasure to be derived from English poetry.

Danielle Rees - 41485866