Bitch Poem Analysis

Most of today’s society has had an experience like the character in Carolyn Kizer’s poem “Bitch”, by meeting an ex-significant lover/partner when visiting a local place. The awkward first moment while making eye contact with one another just like a past experience, often creates a challenge about the appropriate way to act. Especially, if the past experiences was not pleasant and/or was full of male dominance. Carolyn Kizer shows this in her poem through the theme, which is, you should never chase after something that was never really yours to begin with and is more harmful than rewarding.
Beginning with the title, “Bitch”, most readers will associate this word to have two possible meanings. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary the word bitch can be defined as, a female dog or “a malicious, spiteful, or overbearing woman —sometimes used as a generalized term of abuse”. Both definitions can be associated with the experiences the character goes through in the poem. The importance of Kizer including both meanings of the word …show more content…
She uses imagery as a means to illustrate the bitch that is described as the speaker and the way her emotions are. She uses words like growling, barking, whimpering, snuggle, running, clumsy, well-groomed, and gag all create a certain image or action all associating with the actions of a female dog. Since, she uses the words like growling, barking, and whimpering there is personification to show that the speaker is taking on these characteristics that a dog usually does. The point of view also changes from the first 28 lines is in first person but talks about the but by the end the last 6 lines changes to second person. However, there are points in the poem that uses assonance like “slobber” and “grovel”. The poem includes alliteration like bitch bark, careless kindnesses, and casual