Women of the Future - Cathy Warry

In the poem Woman of the future by Cathy Warry, the school girl describes the way she is made up of all the things she experiences - the things she sees, hears, smells, tastes, remembers-all that she has been taught and all that she thinks . She is wrapped in a cocoon of experience composed of the good and the bad things of the past and present. But one day she’ll free herself of this cocoon and emerge as a woman.

I think the poet’s purpose in writing this was to express herself and share her childhood experience with all the readers.

I also believe that the emotion in the poem is reminiscing as well as excitement for the future. I don’t think the mood changes during the poem, and I believe that the poet is trying to evoke similar sort of memories in our own minds. While reading the poem, I can remember both good and bad things that make me who I am today.

The poet makes us remember these things by the way they’ve worded the poem. By using sentence starters like ‘I am...’ you easily put yourself in the poet’s shoes and remember all the things about your childhood before you grew up. As well as using ‘I am…’ the, the poet also uses a series of very descriptive phrases and sentences that flow very well together and make you able to actually imagine the things of your childhood again.

The structure of the poem is different. It has an irregular number of lines in each stanza, and many lines in the poem feature the ‘I am…’ as the sentence starter. The is no rhyme in this poem, and it contains quite a few sensory details.

The language in the poem is very basic and predictable, but very effective nonetheless. The poem was targeted towards all age groups with this kind of language.

There is a very effective simile in the second stanza on the sixth line from the bottom, which is:

‘I am like a caterpillar
And these things are my cocoon
But one day I’ll bite my way out
And be free’

Which I believe she is comparing the caterpillar to a child (herself), and that the cocoon are the things slowly changing her before biting her way out into the real world and becoming the independent woman she is now.

The poem doesn’t have a regular movement or rhythm, but it continuously uses ‘I am…’ to start many of the sentences.

There isn’t really a ‘sound’ to the poem either. It doesn’t rhyme, it’s not musical, etc. It is how it is.

Overall, I think the poem is a very powerful one. I love the way it can make me remember things I have forgotten or repressed, and make me remember them so vividly as if they happened yesterday. I liked the structure of the poem and found it interested, and I liked the idea of progression through the poem as the poet relives her childhood through her memories and then sees things as they are now as an adult. I really enjoyed Woman of the future by Cathy Warry.