Analysis Of The Poem Daystar By Tonne Dove

needs of her family. Her day is filled with tasks such as keeping her house clean and changing diapers as illustrated by the poet – “but she saw diapers steaming, on the line” (Line 2). The setting of the poem is that of a single family home, which from the speaker’s tone appears to be messy and surrounded with a lot of work that needs to be done. It also appears that the woman is always confined to her home.

Additionally, the poet uses imagery to communicate to readers the wearisome and boring life of the woman. Dove makes reference to “a doll slumped behind the door” (3), which shows how weak the woman must be without any energy left in her. The poet further reinforce the woman’s exhaustion by pointing out how she drags the chair outside the house – “so she lugged a chair behind the garage” (4). The words lugged, steaming and slumped used by the poet all indicate lassitude as a result of the endless demands of a woman as a mother and a wife.

The woman is devoted to the needs of her home without having any time for herself.

“Daystar” expresses the woman’s life as a dull one with the woman’s inability to do anything exciting for herself due to the reality of daily chores surrounding her. There is no liberty for the woman according to Dove. The beginning of the poem tells us the woman “wanted a little room for thinking:” (1), which highlights the woman’s longing for some personal time and space. She only has a short free time for herself when her children are napping – “to sit out [when the children] the children’s naps” (5), during which she dreams about having some freedom and time for herself. Dove writes, “sometimes there were things to watch-/the pinched armor of a vanished cricket,/ a floating maple leaf” (7-8) to exhibit how the woman just observe nature while sitting outside. Lines 8-11 of the poem tells us how the woman keeps daydreaming by staring into space “until she was assured when she closed her eyes she’d see only her own vivid

blood”.
In the poem, the woman only gets just an hour or less of rest and personal time and was called back inside by Liza, who shows some displeasure and wonders what her mother was doing outside with the “field mice” (15). The woman is portrayed as nothing but a housewife and a mother who is overworked and without any time for herself. She has a duty to serve, please and attend to the needs of her husband as well. The woman has the obligation to satisfy her husband’s demands at night despite her tiredness from having to do all the chores during the day. Lines 16-19 of the poem tells us how “[her husband], Thomas rolled over and/ lurched into her”. Dove’s use of the word “lurch” expresses the lack of excitement during this period of intimacy between husband and wife. The woman, during this time of intimacy with her husband, still continues to think about that hour she had for herself - without any responsibility of a mother and a wife required of her. This, together with her thought of a “palace” implies some grandiosity and her longing for some personal time and space, as portrayed in lines 19-22 of “Daystar”- “and think of a palace that was hers/ for an hour-where she was nothing,/ pure nothing, in the middle of the day”.
Rita Dove, in her poem “Daystar”, enlightens readers on the wearisome and difficult, yet rewarding nature of motherhood. She establishes a tone of sympathy and enlightens readers on the persistent duties and responsibilities of a woman as a wife and a mother-a woman who does not enjoy any time of her own.