Bronwen Wallace was a feminist writer whose poems indicate how society perceives women’s lives in a different manner. In most poems, she uses paradox to drive the point home. Wallace uses a narrative style to connect obligation with everyday events. For instance, in the poem “Common Magic,” she employs imagery and conflict to give readers an opportunity to express different views. In the poem “Dreams of Rescue,” Wallace uses oxymoron to elicit different opinions of violence meted out against women. The poems draw both positive and negative aspects of life to portray the world as a magical place.
Wallace employs ordinary situations in her poems to create imagery of common life events. The setting of most poems is home. Domestic violence against women occurs at home. The women characters used in her poems are portrayed as isolated in their homes. In the poem, “Toward Morning,” Wallace uses a certain woman character left alone at home by her husband. The woman is isolated and alienated at home to perform roles assigned to her by a patriarchal society. Wallace uses the home as a setting to demonstrate how it can be a drawback or an opportunity for a woman.
Several poems use inverted perception to depict women as strong and powerful rather than weak and inferior humans as perceived in a patriarchal society. Readers get insight into how an abused woman is a strong survivor rather than a mere victim. This is observed in the poem, “Thinking with the Heart,” where a battered woman by a male lover appears strong. Wallace creates a perception of perceiving things differently to attain a change in society.
