FREE ESSAY ON MARGARET ATWOOD

MARGARET ATWOOD

Margaret Atwood is a widely recognized literary figure, especially known for her themes of
feminism. Her novels, including Alias Grace and The Handmaid's Tale are widely known for
their feminist subject matter, and one finds the same powerful themes within her poetry.
Judy Klemesrud, in her article for The New York Times, once made the wise acknowledgement
that "People follow her on the streets and in stores, seeking autographs and wanting to
discuss the characters in her novels- most of whom are intelligent, self-absorbed modern
women searching for identity. These women also suffer greatly, and as a result, some
Canadian critics have dubbed her 'the high priestess of angst'"(March 28, 1982). Indeed,
Margaret Atwood has a talent for the conscience feministic perspective, and the tone of
much of her work seems to indicate her sense of political responsibility. Her poem
"Spelling," for example, is a testament to the power of words and it depicts the
victimization of powerlessness of women without language. Atwood describes her daughter
on the floor, learning how to spell for the first time, and then leads the reader through
a history of persecuted, helpless women. For instance, Atwood depicts "the woman caught
in the war/ & in labour, her thighs tied/ together by the enemy/ so she could not give
birth"(803). Such disturbing portrayals of women have earned Atwood the reputation as a
daring feminist. Yet it is important to recognize that her poetry is not just about
feminist themes, it is also an exploration into the depths of human consciousness and
loneliness. This consciousness, paired with her curiosities about the power of language,
is seen in many of her poetic themes. Atwood focuses on different literary and artistic
genres in her poetry, ranging from postcards to photographs to magazine depictions of
love, in order to explore human connections. Although much of her work may seem
fearlessly feministic, in the sense that it brings explores female condition without
reserve or embarrassment, Atwood's poetry probes into a genderless consciousness to
explore feelings of human connectionedness and painful separations.
The first poem that will be examined in this paper is "Variations on the Word Sleep." The
narrator of the poem immediately addresses their conscience need to connect with the
other person, and they also recognize the hopelessness of this goal: "I would like to
watch you sleeping, / which may not happen". The opening to the poem, as we see here,
could be considered typical of Atwood's writing in the sense that one person longs to
bond with another, and recognizes the difficulty. It is this type of vulnerability that
we have come to expect in Margaret Atwood's writings, because as with many feminist
writings, we are aware of the power struggle between men and women, and even between
women. But this poem refrains from identifying sexes; it only discusses a deeply internal
need of one person for another, who is on a journey through he dark maze of their
consciousness. The first stanza evolves from a simple plea from the genderless speaker to
watch their lover sleep, to a deeper, spiritual need. Atwood chooses to remain ambiguous
in this respect, which helps a wider audience identify with the work. 
The poem also has merit because within seven short, simplistic lines we glide from a
gentle longing to a love complex and intense, with two minds merging together in a dream:
"I would like to watch you, / sleeping. I would like to sleep/ with you, to enter/ your
sleep as its smooth dark wave/ slides over my head." The action of the poem continues to
evolve as Atwood carries the reader through what appears to be a lover's dream or
fantasy. The narrator at first wishes only to watch their lover sleep, then they desire
to enter the same sleep with them, then they envision themselves descending through the
layers of consciousness. As the reader follows along with the admiring narrator and his
or her companion, they become increasingly aware of the narrator's need for
transcendence. Atwood uses words that help guide us along the action, such as "watch,"
"enter," "over," "descend," "follow," and "become." All of these words are effective in
making the reader feel as if they too are stumbling along side of the narrator,
desperately trying to enter the depths of their lover. 
Moreover, the narrator is so anxious and passionate, that they are willing to follow
their lover towards their worst fear in order to protect them "from the grief at the
center." This is especially interesting in the aspect of feminism because Atwood's female
characters, especially in his novels, are usually exemplary of achievement and
empowerment. If one is to assume the narrator in this poem is female, than Atwood is
describing a woman chasing her man in a desperate attempt to become his center, and even
to "be the air/ that inhabits you for a moment/ only. I would like to be that unnoticed/
that necessary." The word "unnoticed" here could be seen in a couple different lights, as
could the entire theme of the poem. On one hand, the narrator is reducing him or herself
to being virtually invisible, by becoming the air of their lover. Given Atwood's aptitude
for dismantling the power structures between males and females in her novels, this type
of clinging and desperation seems out of character with her writing. Yet on the other
hand, she has abstained from identifying sexes, and the poetry itself is painfully honest
and romantic in its portrayal of sacrifice. The narrator is recognizing that the object
of their affection, whether they be male or female, has a consciousness worth exploring,
and they are willing to carry this person way from darkness. The other reason that this
poem should be valued is because of Atwood's use of the elements. The imagery of the poem
moves from water ("smooth dark wave") to earth (forest, cave) to water again ("become the
boat that would row you") to fire ("a flame in two cupped hands") then finally, air ("I
would like to be the air that inhabits you"). The poem "Variations of the Word Sleep" is
an excellent example of Atwood's talent for revealing feelings of separations and also
for showing the romance in giving up ones' own identity for the sake of love. This theme
is not typical to what the public would consider ruthlessly feminist, but Atwood's
writings redefine the realms of what women desire and deserve in love.
The next poem that this paper will discuss is the poem "Variations on the Word Love."
This poem is similar to "Variations on the Word Sleep" in the sense that the idea of love
evolves from a simplistic, shallow relationship to realm of love that explores new
meanings of human connection and consciousness. The first stanza even seems to be a
mockery of the idea of love, because Atwood's words ring of cynicism: "This is a word we
use to plug/ holes with. It's the right size for those warm/ blanks in speech, for those
red heart/ shaped vacancies on the page that look nothing / like real hearts. Add lace/
and you can sell/ it." (802). This poem, at least initially, seems to fit Atwood's
reputation as a staunch "feminist" better than the latter poem, in the sense of
"feminism" as a movement which rejects love and men and all things traditional. Atwood's
first few lines reduce the word "love" to an object of convenience. Her words are highly
discouraging, as "love" is merely something sold for commercial value ("add lace on it .
. .") and cutesy magazine advertisements "There are whole/ magazines with not much in
them/ but the word love, you can/ rub it all over your body and you/ can cook with it
too"(802). Again, here we see a bit more of the feminist theme we've come to expect from
Margaret Atwood. She expertly mocks the type of women's literature that provides its
reader's with mushy romance, heavy perfumes, and cooking recipes. Yet, as before, it is
important to interpret Atwood's intentions correctly. Assuming "Variations on the Word
Sleep" was written in a sincere tone, we know that love, for Atwood, transcends the
boundaries of commercialism and even conventional devotion. Atwood is not saying that
love is an over-rated, half-imagined concept created by Hallmark or Cosmo that should be
rejected by intelligent females. She is using her poetry to redefine the boundaries of
love. 
Her approach in this poem is from a post-modernist point of view, because she recognizes
that words can be powerful, yet often inept at holding meaning. Her second stanza becomes
more personal, showing the gap between what the shrunken word "love" and what it can be,
in reality, between soul mates: "Then there's the two/ of us. This word/ is far too short
for us, it has only/ four letters, too sparse/ to fill those deep bare/ vacuums between
the stars/ that press on us with their deafness"(802). So again, Atwood has effectively
evolved the concept of love. And she has let her feminist colors glimmer in her portrayal
of modern women's magazines, while showing that connections between two people are
intensive and indefinable. This poem is also intriguing because she manages to come to
the same feelings of helplessness towards the end of the poem that we saw glimpses of in
"Variations on the Word Sleep." Atwood described the word love as being "single vowel in
this metallic/ silence, a mouth that says/ O again and again in wonder/ and pain, a
breath, a finger/ grip on a cliffside"(802). Here, Atwood captures the desperation of
love while also finding new angles with which to celebrate it. Her last stanza gives the
reader a feeling of transcendence without a single use of the word "love," which
strengthens her theme. As in the previous poem, her description of the emotions shared
between two people has surpassed conventional interpretations of intimacy.
The third poem, "Postcard," is yet another example of Atwood's talent for redesigning the
concept of love. Just as we have seen before, Atwood is interested in the ways in which
both words and literary mediums convey the sense of human relationships. In this poem,
she studies the words that might go on a conventional postcard, and also how reality
differs from the usual declarations of love that come in the mail. The first line of the
poem is representative of what one might expect on the back of a postcard: "I'm thinking
of you. What else can I say?" but Atwood immediately dissects the allusion of an ideal
vacation with a perfect love waiting across the sea. She describes the surroundings as
being dirty and disappointing, and the reader gets the sense that her words may apply to
the narrator's relationship as well: "What we have are the usual/ fractured coke bottles
and the smell/ of backed-up drains, too sweet, / like a mango on the verge/ of rot, which
we have also". One must be careful not to oversimplify Atwood's images here, but it is
interesting to interpret this putrid environment as a metaphor for the disintegrating
relationship between the writer and the addressee. The "backed-up drains," for instance,
and the rotting sweetness are indicative of the poem's dark, disparaging tone. 
This poem delineates from the feelings of intense love in the other two poems, but it is
important to notice that Atwood has avoided, yet again, boxing the two characters into
sexual identities, thus, the reader is free to interpret the relationship in "Postcard"
according to their own experience or imagination. What is also apparent in "Postcards" is
that Atwood sidesteps the usual trappings of what we expect love to be. "Variations on
the Word Sleep" depicts a psychological or dream-like journey which intensified the idea
of connection and sacrifice, while "Variations of the Word Love' pulls new meaning out of
such connections by denying the reduction of language. "Postcard" is certainly less
optimistic about love, but again we see Atwood attempting to transcend the ordinariness
of romance. Just as magazines are often inept at capturing the essence of our
connections, so are corny vacation postcards. Instead of using the back of the postcard
for forced simplicity and reduced senses of time, Atwood writes "time comes in waves
here, a sickness, one/ day after the other rolling on; / I move up, its called/ awake,
then down into the uneasy / nights but never / forward". Again, Atwood has a perceptive
sense of movement in her poetry. As we have seen before, she used words such as "enter,"
"over," and "follow," in the previous lines, and in "Postcards" Atwood rocks her readers
into queasiness with the words "rolling on," "up," "down into," and "never froward." The
narrator's vacation has become an absurd foreign nightmare, and the "glossy image" on the
front of the postcard serves as a metaphor for the dark realities of being disconnected
from others.
In conclusion, Margaret Atwood's poetry is not what one might expect from a feminist
writer. While her novels such as The Handmaid's Tale and Alias Grace explore the feminine
perspective, her poetry can be characterized by its genderless conscious and its
unconventional portrayal of love. Atwood's poetic voice defies the trappings of feminism
in the sense that it embraces romantic images. Atwood shows the reader, through such
poems as "Variations on the Word Sleep" that love transcends ordinary human activity, and
chases it even into the depths of our consciousness and deepest fears. This poem captures
the beauty of love by avoiding gender trappings and by carrying the reader through the
boundaries of language. This is also true of her poem "Variations on the Word Love,"
where Atwood gives us what language is incapable of and reshapes the language of human
connection. Of course, Atwood's poetry should not be oversimplified. In the poem
"Postcards" we see a revival of the "high priestess of angst" that is predominant in her
novels. "Postcards" is undoubtedly bitter: "Love comes/ in waves like the ocean, a
sickness which goes on/ & on, a hollow cave/ in the head, filling and pounding, a kicked
ear." But again, Atwood has found a descriptive language to redefine love and overstep
gender issues. The poetic voice in this poem makes the pain of absence clear to the
reader, and again, we feel the power and pain of human connections. Atwood peels off the
layers of consciousness to reveal a multi-faceted perspective on a usually cliche
subject. Love, through Atwood's poetry, transcends our expectations of humanness and
gender.
Bibliography
1. Atwood, Margaret. Waterstone's Poetry Lecture. Delivered at Hav On Wye. Wales, June
1995. 
2. Brownley, Martine Watson. "The Muse as Fluffball": Margaret Atwood and the Poetry of
the Intelligent Woman. p. 34-51. University of Notre Dame Press, 1999. 
3. Ellmann, Richard. Modern Poems: A Norton Introduction. p. 797-803. W.W. Norton and
Company, 1973.
4. Klemesrud, Judy. High Priestess of Angst. New York Times, March 28, 1982
5. Oates, Joyce C. Margaret Atwood: Poet. New York Times, May 21, 1978
6. Snell, Marilyn. Mother Jones, Jul/ Aug97, Vol22 Issue 4, p24, 4p, 2c