ENGL347 Women Writers
poem . The aforementioned shared Black mother is present through the determiner ‘ our ’ ( Ibid ), with the sisterly witches directly imitating her through the maternal action of enclosing the speaker within ‘ cloths ’ ( Ibid ). As the mother , sisters and speaker are inseparable from one another , the overarching dominant image that remains is of black womanism tied in with notions of ‘ old magic ’ ( AWS , ll . 28 ) and witchcraft that allows for a ‘ new fury ’ ( Ibid ) in the present . From this , we can perceive the versatility of witches as a poetic subject . With the line ‘ I have been woman ’ ( AWS , l . 25 ) the refrain within Sexton ’ s Her Kind has been reworked to amplify an amalgamation of ancient and modern womanhood that is racialised . The language that concludes the poem is powerful in its simplicity , as the speaker remains bolstered by her ancestral history and the magic this provides her with . To conclude , the allure that witches hold as a subject for women poets to utilise is undeniable and rewarding , as we have seen with these three poems . Whether discussing witches within fantastical , historical or spiritual frameworks , the effect produced is that of a poetic journey through time that remains relevant for modern women in all positions .
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Bibliography
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Boland , Eavan , Object Lessons : The Life of the Woman and the Poet in Our Time ( London : W . W . Norton , 1996 )
Coleridge , Mary , The Collected Poems of Mary Coleridge , ed . by Theresa Whistler ( London : Rupert Hart-Davis , 1954 )
Herskovits , Melville J ., Dahomey : An Ancient West African Kingdom , vol . 2 ( New York : Augustin , 1938 ) Holmes , Clive , ‘ Women : Witnesses and Witches ’ in Past and Present 140 ( 1993 ), pp . 45-78
Kramer , Heinrich and James Sprenger , The Malleus Maleficarum , trans . Rev . Montague Summers , ( New York : Dover Publications , 1971 )
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___________, Sister Outsider : Essays and Speeches ( California : Crossing Press , 1984 )
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