We're betting you didn't expect to see so much war in a poem called "The Rights of Woman." And yet, here we are, talking about weapons and battle. It's all in the name of Anna Barbauld making her point that women really need to fight for their rights. It's an 18th-century battle of the sexes.
Questions About Warfare
- Why does the speaker use so many warlike images and metaphors? What's the effect on your reading?
- How would the poem be different if the speaker urged women to argue and use diplomacy to fight for their rights, instead of taking up arms?
- Why does the speaker say that women have soft tones, blushes, and fears instead of traditional weapons of war like artillery and cannons (9-12)?
- Try comparing the tone and style at the opening of this poem to patriotic songs like the American national anthem or the French national anthem. How are they similar and different?
Chew on This
The style and tone in "The Rights of Woman" is similar to warlike, patriotic hymns and songs, suggesting that Barbauld wanted to stir strong feelings of camaraderie in her readers, which makes the sudden shift at the end of the poem all the more unexpected and, well, weird.
The speaker uses warlike metaphors to make "The Rights of Woman" fit into the genre of the patriotic hymn, but she undercuts that association by making the women's weapons traditionally and ideally feminine characteristics.