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Womenlights: A collection of poetry
Abstract
Womenlights: A Collection of Poetry by Carmel Lei Morse consists of fifty-six original poems that chronicle life experiences of her maternal relatives and ancestors. Some poems articulate specific actions of these women such as laboring in domestic work, singing, and giving birth. Other poems reflect deeper desires such as the need for autonomy, gender equality, and protection from males in their respective societies. Some poems focus on objects such as an onyx necklace, phonograph, or piece of clothing that symbolize certain life events and emotions. Still others address topics that are a difficult yet integral part of these women's lives: abortion, child abuse, physical abuse, and the death of loved ones. An elegy concerns the death of the author's sister and serves to remind the reader that Greta's strength lives on in this dissertation. The writings here serve not only to narrate life events of the author and her maternal relatives, they possess a universal quality which can be related to several generations of women who lived during decades when women's lives, ambitions, and desires were not taken as seriously as men's. This dissertation strives to rectify the silencing of women's voices during a time when men's needs prevailed in both business and domestic spheres.
Subject Area
Modern literature|Womens studies|American literature|Creative writing
Recommended Citation
Morse, Carmel Lei, "Womenlights: A collection of poetry" (2009). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI3379832.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3379832