Woman Unborn

Anna Swir's poem, "Woman Unborn" is very intriguing. The main idea of the poem deals with an unborn life. In this unborn life, Swir imagines the different lifestyles women have been faced with in different time periods. This idea is best supported by lines 10-11 when Swir states, "I walk through my unbirth as a tunnel, with bizarre perspectives." In the poem, she slowly travels back into her unbirth; first five minutes, ten minutes, hours, then into her minus life where she seemingly travels into the Romantics period, the Renaissance, then the Middle Ages. In each time period she quickly notes the typical lifestyle she would expect, "...spinster," "...an ugly and unloved wife of an evil husband," or in the Middle Ages where she would have "...carried water in a tavern." I believe it is Swir's objective in this poem to highlight the progress of women and their social status throughout time. As she travels back into her unbirth she is able to recognize the struggles women dealt with in each time period.