Woman to Child
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| "Woman to Child" | |
|---|---|
| by Judith Wright | |
| Written | 1946 |
| First published in | Meanjin Papers vol. 5 no. 1 [Autumn] 1946 |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Publication date | Autumn 1946 |
"Woman to Child" (1946) is a poem by Australian poet Judith Wright.[1]
It was originally published in Meanjin Papers in Autumn 1946,[2] and was subsequently reprinted in the author's single-author collections and a number of Australian poetry anthologies.[1]
The poem continues Wright's examination of a woman's role as mother. Here she talks directly to the child who she has helped create but who, in time, will "escape and not escape."
Critical reception
In her 1995 critical discussion of the work of Judith Wright for Oxford University Press Jennifer Strauss noted: "The imagery of the poem virtually projects the mother as Creator of the universe – but in a way that mirrors the paradox of the child as 'the maker and the made' in "Woman to Man", because it is the child who makes this Maker of its mother."[3]
In her commentary on the poem in Australian Classics : Fifty Great Writers and Their Celebrated Works Jane Gleeson-White called this poem "powerful and taboo-breaking". She continued: "The poem forcefully captures in Wright's lucid, ecstatic images and sure rhythms the mystery of this [pregnancy] and this unique love."[4]