She's poetry in motion: Metaphors of movement in some contemporary American women's poetry

Being able to move, and being constrained from moving, have always been important poetic metaphors for female writers. Thus it comes as no surprise that motion is a recurring theme in women's poetry in the 20 th and 21st centuries. The ability to move is not taken for granted by women; one must be free in order to move, and women have often found their range of physical motion limited by familial and societal constraints. When contemporary American women poets use metaphors of motion, then, freedom lies at the heart of their work.;There are many different metaphors of motion found within the writing of American women. Whether that motion is walking, driving a car, riding a bicycle, or dancing, the very fact that the speaker of the poem is able to perform the action is testament to her ability to control her own life. Women have always sought a life of movement that is unrestrained, a life open to the joys of physical, intellectual and emotional freedom, and this quest is reflected in their writing. This dissertation examines how some contemporary American women poets use metaphors of motion in their work, and what that motion -- or the lack of it -- says about the lives of women as experienced within their poetry.