"I lived in the first century of world wars" is the opening line of "Poem" by Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980) <span>an American poet and political activist. Her best-known poems are about social justice, equality and feminism. Her choice of words establishes her anti-war theme and her efforts to oppose war through her poetry: </span>"Slowly I would get to pen and paper, Make my poems for others unseen and unborn. In the day I would be reminded of those men and women, Brave, setting up signals across vast distances, Considering a nameless way of living, of almost unimagined values." She felt her poetry, which would outlive her, would be a message to those "unseen and unborn" who could work to promote peace and justice. "We would try by any means To reach the limits of ourselves, to reach beyond ourselves, To let go the means, to wake." Here Rukeyser was passing on the baton, as it were, to the generations "beyond ourselves" in the hope that they would be more purposeful peacemakers.
Muriel Rukeyser was an American poet. She also dedicated many years of her work to activism and this could be seen in her writing. She was born in New York City and her main topics were feminism and social justice, among others.
Poem is, as the title says, a poem written in free verse. In the text, the speaker talks about a few things, mainly about how to create something and keep pushing above and beyond one's limits. Also, the tone of the text os mostly related to uncertainty or the fact of not knowing anything or a little about the future. The speaker selects specific words across the complete poem in order to accomplish this feeling: at the very beginning, we find the verse "Most morning I would be more or less insane". All the descriptions mentioned by the speaker are related to this semantic field. We can see words like "careless" (verse 3) and "unseen" (verse 5). The speaker also mentions that she would make her poems for others like her (unseen and unborn). Finally, the text also talks about the limits in the verse before last when she says we should try "To reach the limits of ourselves, to reach beyond ourselves."
