The Silence of Women

"The Silence of Women" Reaction

The comparison between "The Silence of Women" written by Liz Rosenberg, and "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell is that both poems include gender ideas. "The Silence of Women" is about women becoming more vocal and demanding as they grow older. The poem suggests this is the case because in younger years women had to be quiet and listen to what the men have to say. For example, on line 6-7,"A lifetime of yes has left them hissing bent as snakes." This part of the poem means that the men are bending their necks down, or bowing to the women saying yes every time the women give them orders to do. Men can't say anything, but approving the women orders because women are now in charge. Similarity, "To His Coy Mistress" is about how the writer expresses his ideas about male senses and what some are alike to women, same as Rosenberg shared about women being in charge over men. Differently, "The Silence of Women" is written by a woman to show a woman's point of view of how they suffer by taking too many orders from men, and "To His Coy Mistress" is from a man's point to show how his own gender, or men are like when they are in love. "The Silence of Women" is about gender criticism ideas, and "To His Coy Mistress" is about appealing to the male senses which makes these poems different, though the same on how they authors are writing about gender ideas.