Innocence - “Agoraphobia”
Linda Pastan writes, “Imagine waking/to a scene of snow so new/ not even memories/of other snow/can mar its silken/surface. What other innocence/ is quite like this.” The unmarred snow signals an aura of incorruptibility. The innocence that Linda Pastan alludes to is unqualified because the silken surface is novel.
"Bird of the Night” - “Agoraphobia”
Linda Pastan employs intertextuality by quoting William Shakespeare: "Yesterday the bird of night did sit,/Even at noon-day, upon the marketplace,/Hooting and shrieking." The bird’s weird move sustains that it is not agoraphobic . If the bird were phobic of daylight, considering it is named ‘the bird of the night’, it would not have contentedly sat at the market place because the daylight would have activated uncomfortableness. The bird transcends agoraphobia unpredictably like Linda Pastan.
Angels - “Angels”
Angels typify the discrepancy between religion and Biology. The inclusion of the name Myra Sklarew updates a reader that the rejoinders to the question: “Are you tired of angels?” will follow a Biological angle considering it is Myra Sklarew’s profession. Pastan insinuates that Sklarew would object angels for they espouse Biological limitations such as ‘ great wings, and star-infested sashes.” However, a religious persona would acclaim the angelic aspects that Sklarew loathes.
