Minnie Bruce Pratt in her book of poetry Crime Against Nature shows a concern with issues of family, of mothers and their relationship with their children, of the force of history and the degree to which the individual is or is not connected to it and perhaps responsible for it, and of many of the social movements and political concerns of the age, concerns which impinged on families in America and separated generations. She is herself a product of the 1960s and was affected then by the women's movement, civil rights, the war in Vietnam and protests against it, and the general counterculture movement. Pratt remembers the world as it was before these movements changed it and now reacts to the world that has been created. She knows that her sons have emerged into a world where women have more choices than they had in the past, and she wants them to understand how many changes have been made, to respect those changes, and to continue pressing for the advancement of human justice and equality.
The primary subject matter for Pratt is her own life and the issues raised in that life, issues which she tries to resolve through her poetry but which she finds persist in spite of her efforts. The primary image in these poems is the image of the woman as mother. In some of the poems Pratt refers to her own sons and speaks to them as the mother who nurtured them and who is concerned for their future. In others she refers to women as mothers, or as in "Two Small-Sized Girls," she compares the girls to their mothers. and grandmothers. Pratt also uses a form of dialogue as a technique, creating a dialogue between herself and her sons, or using the question as a stepping off point for discussion, or recreating a dramatic moment through the words of one character or another.
The language used by Pratt tends to personalize her point of view clearly, for she includes herself in many of these poems and comments on things she hears, sees, and...