Erin Slattery and Elizabeth Roberti

May Sarton 

1. In May Sarton’s poem Journey Toward Poetry on page 296 what do you think she meant by... 

“After the mad beautiful 

racing is done, 

To be still, to be silent, 

to stand by a window

Where time not motion changes 

light to shadow, 

Is to be present at the 

birth of creation.”

     2. What main theme do the three poems, Journey Toward Poetry, The Muse as Medusa and Of the Muse all seem to share?

Carol Ann Duffy

1. In the poem Standing Female Nude, the main character will be hung and considered art when she is a river-whore, selling herself for the art piece and possibly at night while prostituting.  

Why do you think she was laughing at such a horrendous situation?

2. The poem Litany, on page 335 'an autobiographical poem, evokes the speakers childhood memory of tasting and regurgitating a tempting obscenity'

Most children get punished multiple times through out their childhood,  what do you think made this memory significant enough to Duffy that she would write a poem about it?

May Sarton reciting her poem My Sisters, Oh My Sisters

Carol Ann Duffy reciting Mrs. Aesop