ENGL 229 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Gwendolyn Macewen, Michael Ondaatje, Exoticism
3 Sep 2018
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Note: in essays, introduce the poem as if the reader has never read the poem before and then sell them the poem so they want to read it. Love leaves a mark/a trace on those affected by it. The nature of power is relative and variable. It is difficult to say who has power in this poem. Poem begins with if so it is hypothetical, it is imaginary. This whole poem is a total fantasy. Mother is schizophrenic and often in asylums. As a child she is often alone and feels alienated. Changed her name from wendy to gwendolyn. Published her first poem when she was 17 and becomes something of a sensation. Toronto in the 1950s and 1960s was very puritan society. Binary structures (waking and dream; mundane and magical) Macewen desires to escape the bonds of her own life.
