Making Comparisons

After reading the poems “Dover beach” by Matthew Arnold and “My Husband’s Back” by Susan Minot, I Immediately noticed the influence of gender that created differences amongst the poem. Due to the circumstances of the speakers in the poem, and the issues discussed it seemed clear to me the masculinity of Dover Beach and femininity of My Husbands Back. For instance, in the poem Dover Beach, Matthew Arnold was for a majority of the poem, discussing the pressing issue of modernism that was taking place in society at the time. Arnold compares the concept of society rapidly changing to the physical aspect of the sea which represents masculinity. It Is only in the last stanza that Arnold introduces the concept of love, as if it were an afterthought to deal with a world that “hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain”. It seems as though the central message Arnold was getting across in his poem was the damage modernism had brought upon his society instead of the emotions and feelings incorporated with love.
In her poem “My Husband’s Back”, Susan Minot primarily represents femininity solely based upon the title. This poem was clearly dedicated to her husband, and Minot progressively makes that clear to the audience throughout the rest of her poem. In the first stanza, Minot articulates problems that typically women would experience such as cooking and taking care of the children. She describes “Weeping into a pot of burnt rice” and “the baby flushed with the flu asleep on the pillow” which are typical concerns that a women would have. After stating the circumstance of the speaker, Minot continues to describe her as sitting back and admiring her husband almost to a point of dependency. She describes his back as “firm and compact like a young man’s back. And the giant world which swirls in my head stopping most thought suddenly ceases to spin”. In the poem, Minot expresses the experiences of admiration and dependency in a feminine mindset.