The Handmaid's Tale - Dell

Red (Freeform Prose)

Color of anger,

Failure of the womb.

Color of passion,

Feverish lust.

Color of prison,

My fabric cage.

Anger will burst,

The womb won’t be needed.

Passion will soar,

Our love is freedom.

Prison will fall,

Tear the cotton to the floor.

For the oppressor is obsolete.

          Red was one of my favorites to write because it actually has a happy ending. This describes the fall of Gilead after years of suffering under its oppressive rule. I chose the color red as the topic because not only does it describe the dresses of the handmaids, but it also can describe a range of emotions and feelings, such as rage, lust, and power. The first stanza tells of the years of control that Gilead had over the handmaids and other women, but the second stanza tells that this isn’t true anymore, because the resistance has won over the republic.

Mother (Free verse with rhyme)

Her shouts of pain hit deaf ears,

Their suffering all became one.

My bearer’s single purpose,

Was all but good and done.

They took me to the witch’s arms,

From God she took a drink.

And shut out my dear mother’s face,

So I might never think.

They sent her to another wife,

To bless me with a sister.

But God said stop this ticking clock,

And they let her poor hands blister.

This poem represents a birthday in the book The Handmaid’s Tale. The first stanza references the handmaid’s who were present during a birth (specifically Janine’s), claiming that they could feel phantom pains in their own stomachs and back. However, no one important is concerned with the women’s pains or feelings, they only pay attention to the wife and “her” soon to be daughter. As soon as the baby would be born, the biological mother’s purpose in the home would be over. The second stanza describes how the baby would be taken to the arms of the wife, often considered to be hard, unfeeling women (probably especially in the eyes of the mother and daughter), which is why I referred to her as a witch. The drink from got references how handmaids were referred as “chalices filled with wine”, the pregnant ones, that is. The wife is considered to be “taking a drink” from this chalice, and the child is a gift from the Lord. The last two lines describe how the literal mother would be sent away from the child so that they may never know their real bearer. Lastly, the final stanza once again references the mother being sent away so she could birth another offspring from another commander. However, her “biological clock” runs out and she is no longer fertile, so she is sent to the colonies to be worked to death, as referenced by the “blistering hands” from physical labor.

Women (Italian Sonnet)

How may I serve my God from my being?

My mind holds treasures found in page and pen.

Lips bear gold from spindles birthed by wise men.

Both my eyes can view what they are seeing.

Heard of woman teaching word from reading?

These hands have worked to wrangle feathered hen.

So clearly there is work that I may tend,

Because our society needs feeding.

But I am told to be a girl of Eve,

For God has blessed my chalice to bear wine.

So they tell me my brothers only read.

Power cannot be held in our naive,

We only get value for months of nine.

The Earth is for us women to plant seed.

Women describes how a religious girl might feel excited to serve the established republic of Gilead, asking what work she may do to assist. She goes through and lists her qualities that make her just as capable to do work as a man, such as reading, education, social skills, world views, and also skills in cooking and teaching. However, the sestet tells her the republic of Gilead only has one purpose for her: reproduction. She is not viewed as the body of knowledge and potential that she is, and is forced to “work” under the government’s oppressive hand.