Anorexic Poem

The group, Team Cycle, the members of this group are Jayeda, Michelle, Jada and Jennifer. One part of their presentation, Team Cycle, memorized and acted a poem called “Anorexic” by Eavan Boland. In “Anorexic” the author discusses the influence her sexual identity has on her self-image. The poem Anorexic shows us one of the situations that women experience, and that is really threatening to the life of someone. Although, many people might think that the main point of this poem was suicide. But, those that might think the suicide is the central point of this poem are extremely wrong, there is more about this poem than most people can understand.

In Anorexic, the girl own body is personified, referred to as a “witch” the speaker is “burning”.

The speaker speaks of “vomiting her hungers”. The personification of the speaker's own body creates considerable distance between the speaker and her faults. This distance created room for more criticism and degradation. The poem starts with a tone of violence, portraying the intense internal struggle gone through by the speaker. The tone, however turns into one of vulnerability as the poem progresses, with the speaker turning in her sleep, her dreams “probe a claustrophobia, a sensuous enclosure.” In order to gain affection and approval, the female speaker changes herself, and makes herself forget the “fall into forked dark, into python needs”, she tries to forget that she is unhappy. Boland here expresses her own opinions on the vulnerability of the female identity.
I truly enjoyed this presentation because from the beginning to the very end they kept the audience entertained. I fell in love with the poem because, women in the eyes of society, are assumed to have flawless, perfectly designed bodies with faces unblemished. Society value the character of a woman based on her demeanor and in the end shows how vulnerable women are to forces they cannot control. How low self-esteem forces women to feel worthless because she cannot demonstrate her sole purpose in life; which is beauty. This view was primarily constructed from society. This shows how judgmental humans can be.