"Daystar" by Rita Dove

Rita Dove
Born in the 1950s, Rita Dove was a gifted poet. She had an impressive academic performance, and eventually attended the University of Virginia to continue her career. SHe was named Poet Laureate of the United States in 1993, and even after retiring continued to write not only poetry but short stories as well.

"Daystar" by Rita Dove
"She wanted a little room for thinking:
but she saw diapers steaming on the line,
a doll slumped behind the door.
So she lugged a chair behind the garage
to sit out the children's naps.
Sometimes there were things to watch-
the pinched armor of a vanished cricket,
a floating maple leaf. Other days
she starred until she was assured
when she closed her eyes
she'd see only her own vivid blood.
She had a hour at best before Liza appeared
pouting from the top of the stairs.
And just what was mother doing
out back with the field mice? Why,
building a palace. Later
that night when Thomas rolled over and
lurched into her, she would open her eyes
and think of the place that was hers
for an hour-where
she was nothing,
pure nothing, in the middle of the day."


Daystar is a free verse poem, organized into three different stanzas. There are rhetorical questions and hyphens throughout the poem that add to the true meaning and help convey the theme of the poem. The setting is set in a calm country home; a mother taking care of her children. The temporal setting is in the middle of the day; a time when the sun is shining and no harm can be done. A mother decides to take an hour break from her children in the backyard, thinking of her happy place. The poem tells a story of how a mother is consumed with her children. She feeds them, changes their diapers and tends to them when they cry. Ironically, the father is nowhere to be found during these tasks. Instead, the father is mentioned "lurched into her later that night." This can convey the traditional theme of the father goes to work, the mother stays home with the children and later that night the mother is expected to please the father with sex as she is told to do. She says when he lurches into her she will think of the palace she created in that hour break she had earlier, she will find a happy place to escape from her nightmare of a reality.

This poem was written in the 1980s, when women were held to certain stereotypes. This poem conveys the message from the woman's side of the story, and helps tell a rare perspective that offers insight to how the woman feels and how she deals with her struggles.