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PART 8: WOMEN'S VOICES |
The Enemies Elizabeth Jennings Last night they came across the river and Now in the morning all the town is filled Yet all the city is a haunted place.
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INDEX the first world war
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INFORMATION IDEAS The poem also draws attention to the role of women in conflict. These women (the suggestion is that these events are happening in a place and time in the past) fulfil the traditional role of serving. They provide a welcome for the 'swift', 'dark' invaders : is this the ancient law of hospitality, or the product of fear, or a practical response to defuse tension? The women don't ask their uninvited guests to explain themselves - but they do create a situation in which the strangers could, if they chose, tell the women why they have come. (The women imply that the difference in language could have been overcome.) The invaders are all men; and it's the men who have been invaded who put up the shutters and retreat into silence, no longer at ease with each other. The women, one feels, continue to communicate, even without words. Despite - or because of - their supporting role, the women are in a good position to start resisting the virus of fear. Again, what could, what should happen next? |
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