The Farmer's Wife Analysis

“The Farmer’s Wife” is a richly woven tapestry, underlying the powerfulness of women when exalting their bodies by writing its parts. Right from the outset, the choice of the title is revealing. Taking a look back at “The Farmer’s Wife” magazine in the United States of America, one may recognize the embedded allusion in Sexton’s poem. The aim of the magazine is to build a bridge between real farmers with the audience; it also uses articles to instruct these workers on a variety of activities. The magazine targets these hard-working women who devote their time and energy to the farm. It is believed that the main interlocutors are “farm women as a group” (Lauters 80). Their contribution is inevitable: they do endure hardships under the scorching weather for the sake of plowing the dry land and doing other activities. They are strong women because their bodies merge with the land. The …show more content…
He uses her body to satisfy his needs to reach ecstasy on the bed: “Unlace yourself, for that harmonious chime / Tells me from you that now it is bed-time” (qtd. in Halsey 20). Consequently, the poem propagates a sexually-driven male motive in relation to the female figure; he reduces her to an object of desire. In contrast, Sexton’s poem violates such degradation by evacuating the bed from its sexual connotations, and by empowering the female figure to stand against this debasing stereotype. Her femininity is not defined by the mechanical intercourse. She yields to the lure that she is a mere beautiful object. In her quest for self-recognition, the speaker’s tone is firm. It is due time for a real transformation to free her body through reversing the stereotypical gender roles. In fact, the speaker ascertains that