an oppression imposed by patriarchal society. Upon first examination of the poem, the form of the stanzas reveals the monotony of Boland’s view of female history through present-day. Each stanza, fourteen in all, is four lines with sentences split between the stanzas. This can symbolically represent the unchanging role of women throughout history. This symbolism is explained in the first stanza: “Our way of life / has hardly changed / since a wheel first / whetted a knife” (1-4). Just as the female role in society hasn’t changed, neither does the poem’s form despite split sentences. These split sentences also illustrate the speaker’s viewpoint -- as the sentences continue through several stanzas, so too does the role of women continue through differing time periods. For example, the second sentence beginning with line 5 runs through four stanzas before ending in line 17 while the scene changes from pre-historic times to the modern-day supermarket. As previously referred to, various historical time periods are represented through the allusions Boland uses to convey the perpetual role of women. The poem begins with the invention of the wheel during pre-historic times: “since a wheel first / whetted a knife” (3-4). As the poem progresses, the time period changes to more recent times: “cash register,” “washing powder” (14-15). One final allusion is that of a beheaded king (29-30). This allusion most likely refers to the execution of Louis XVI on the guillotine during the French Revolution. These allusions all demonstrate that while history was being made, the woman’s role was at home cooking, cleaning, and gossiping: we were gristing bread or getting the recipe for a good soup to appetize our gossip. (32-36) The hypocrisy is quite apparent in these allusions -- while men were fighting for social freedom and equality, they denied women the very things they were fi...
