The Prologue Literature and Writing Quotes

This is the kind of crap she has to put up with. She feels like no one thinks that she, a lowly woman, can do the hard work of poetry. She's writing against a stiff headwind here, and she makes us feel all the pressure of prejudice in her society. Our speaker isn't exactly a rebel, but she's definitely ready to point out people's prejudices.

Clearly our speaker has a deep respect for the great poets of the world, and she's too modest to even begin to compare herself to them. Here she makes them soar like eagles in the sky. Still, as we've seen in other places in the poem, she has a kind of mischievous streak and, for all the respect she has for poets and poetry, she relishes the chance to raise her voice (at least in writing).