"To a Daughter Leaving Home" By Linda Pastan

Linda Pastan lived a very normal life; she went to school where the main focus of the curriculum was ethics. Her knowledge of ethics later showed in her pieces of work. Pastan started a family and stopped writing for a while, but then in 1960 picked up writing again, publishing some of her best works.

In this poem, Linda Pastan writes about a small piece of a story in which the speaker is narrating. We know from lines one and two that the person who is being referred to by the speaker was much younger in the story being told. The situation of this poem is a speaker, probably a mother, speaking to her daughter about leaving and moving on with her life. The daughter acts as the direct audience of this poem, being the focus of the mother's concern. The poet creates a tone that shows a sense of longing or despair, causing the poem to create an effect that portrays a mother caring for her daughter and remembering a time in which the daughter was portraying a time of growth in her life. The significance within the context of this poem is the idea of remembering and sending someone off to a new chapter of their life. The mother demonstrates acts of care and concern for her daughter, that in my view point, seems to be leaving for college or moving out of the house for a specific reason. This poem reflects more situation than setting in its context, but based on the situation the setting would be several years ago, outside somewhere.

"Hanging Fire" By Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde considered herself a "black feminist lesbian mother poet" who wrote poetry to simply communicate with others. She expresses pride, love, anger, fear and personal survival in her work and has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant.

This poem is focused primarily on the troubling emotions of a teenage girl. The speaker, whom could be either the author or just a character who is speaking, describes a roller coaster of emotions she is experiencing in her life. By reading this poem, we can conclude the speaker is unhappy with herself and is going through troubling times. She feels "not good enough" for the people in her life and for herself. The author adds descriptive images for the speaker to talk about and use as support for why she is so angry and sad and confused. After reading about the author, it fits well with the poem that the speaker is most likely the poet, but the poet could also be writing about an actual experience she has witnessed. The speaker of the poem uses depressing language and even the verb "die" more than once, portraying the idea of suicide. It is clear in this poem, the speaker, whether it is the poet or a character, is going through or went through a rough patch of their life. The repeated line "and momma's in the bedroom, with the door closed.", represents both the fear the speaker is feeling and also the trapped emotions she is dealing with.