The poems Women, Marks, and Woman by Bogan, Pastan and Giovanni respectively all deal with the limitations of being a woman in a man’s world; however, while Pastan and Giovanni blame men for the conditions of women, Bogan blames women themselves.
1) All three explain the limitations women face in a male dominated world.
2) Pastan and Giovanni blame men and limited women’s roles because of them for the condition of women.
3) Bogan blames women for their own condition, despite the male dominated environment.
Women, Marks and Woman all depict the limitations of women living in a repressed society dominated by men. In Women, Bogan depicts how women fail to enjoy “journeys”, “cattle cropping” and a variety of “crops to field” like their male counterparts. In Marks, Pastan depicts the inferior position of a housewife and mother who is graded on her efforts (not too laudably) by her husband and children – her son reports she is “average” but might improve is she “put [her] mind” to it. Giovanni’s Woman shows how she would like to become all manner of things, from a “blade of grass” to a “book” but her beloved “won’t” “be the “dandelion” or “read”. Therefore, all three of these poems deal with the limitations of being a woman in a man’s world, but Bogan blames the condition on women while Pastan and Giovanni reserve this dubious honor for men.
All three poets illustrate the limitations on women in a man’s world. Bogan complains of a woman’s inability to take “journeys” of adventure and of wilderness that men routinely participate in all the time. Pastan laments being graded like an errant student on her wifely and motherly duties, ones imposed upon her by men. Her husband gives her “an incomplete” for her ironing skills. In Woman, Giovanni’s sp
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