Virginia Woolf
One of the primary themes which runs throughout much of the author’s work is the sisterhood of women who pursue a life of the mind they desire while also trying to fulfill societal expectations placed upon them. The work “A Simple Poem for Virginia Woolf” encapsulates how Woolf—and specifically her call expressed in the title of her work “A Room of One’s Own’—is the poet’s central symbol for the struggle of the sisterhood.
Kitchens
Kitchens are plentiful in the work of Wallace. Typically, the association of this room with women has situated kitchens as a symbol of conventional domesticity. Wallace’s poems endow the kitchen with a subversive symbolism as the fount of rebellion against convention and the empowerment of women due it being a room where it is not just food that is heated up, simmered and boiled, but conversation leading to ideas.
Targets of Domestic Abuse
Wallace was a couple of generations ahead of the curve when it came to the MeToo movement. She is a narrative poet whose verse tells a story to make a point. The narratives which tell of bruised and battered wives and girlfriends feature policemen and doctors and, of course—though usually only tangentially—the abusers, but they are not really crime stories. They are stories which pursue a broader canvas exploring the way the patriarchal establishment is designed from the ground up to victimize women for their victimhood. The female targets of domestic abuse in these poems are not presented as victims, therefore, but rather survivors of the worst that this abominable system can produce.
Gardens
Gardens also appear with great frequency in her poems about the sisterhood. It is a natural and thematically coherent link to the kitchen. Ideas begin in the masculinity-free zone of the kitchen, but it is still an interior component. In order to trade the line from theory to practice, women must free themselves of the patriarchal topography and gardens are the natural next step in the geography. It is right there, immediately outside the home and still considered the domain of the womenfolk. Man aren’t interested and as result, fail to hear the intensifying buzz of subversive conversation among each woman in her own garden situated next door to another woman in her own garden.
Magic
Thematically speaking, the central poem in the canon of Wallace is almost certainly “Common Magic.” The poem concludes with a flat-out assertion of her overarching poetic intent, to illuminate the “hidden lives” of her characters through the “sudden miracles” which arise as everyday ritual. These rituals are viewed by us every day in the actions of others, but almost always go unrecognized for the magic they contain. If one looks closely, pays attention, connects the invisible dots with lines of consciousness, the hidden lives of strangers can become manifest and understood. And with understanding comes progress. The title of the poem is purposely oxymoronic: there is nothing common about magic and yet the magic symbolizes the most common of actions.
