Explication of Women Essay Example

beneath the feet of men. Hence, representing the oppression of women by men, a common pattern repeated throughout the poem.

Moreover, the symbolism of the rocking horse reiterates the customary function of women. The speaker explains what other functions women should serve: "Or they should be little horses/ those wooden sweet oldfashioned painted rocking horses/ the gladdest things in the toyroom.” As toys, the women in this poem are possessions of spoiled children (men) to be used and forgotten once they are no longer new or attractive. The man is the one riding the rocking horse illustrating the supportive, yet passive, role women play and the need to move with “motions of men.”

With regards to tone, the poem takes on a thick sarcastic tone that is expressed in, "To be joyfully ridden/ until the restored egos dismount and the legs stride away/ Immobile sweetlipped sturdy and smiling.” The supposed, essential job of women has been to restore the egos of men by providing them a sturdy shelter from their failures. Women's attributes are easily disposed of as "the legs stride away." Riding also has a sexual connotation, which could easily symbolize the typical, heterosexual, male-dominated relationship. These rocking horse traits symbolize men’s desire of the “traditional” women to be confined, valued for their beauty, and ready to serve.

Conclusively, the last few lines are laced with bitterness: “"women should always be waiting/ willing to be set in motion/ Women should be pedestals to men.” The speaker is sarcastically agreeing to the whims of men. Swenson describes women as “always waiting,” a very drastic change from moving pedestals and rocking horses. The

message is very clear with regards to the social standards of women. Women are destined to be passive yet supportive in the “traditional eyes of society”, symbolized by the moving pedestal. They are expected to be treated as “the gladdest things in the toy room,” symbolized by the rocking horse. At the heart of the poem, the aesthetic form, tone, and symbolism mimics the expected womanly attributes valued by men in a traditional sense.