Rita Dove was born in Ohio in 1952. Their family was neither rich nor poor and had four children. Rita’s father had a master’s degree and worked as a chemist for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron. When she finished school she was put on the list of Miami University in Ohio. In 1973 Rita graduated the highest of three designations for above-average achievement in examinations. Four years later she reached Master of Fine Arts at the University of Iowa. Today Rita Dove is a former American poet laureate because of her international poetic vision. Rita Dove describes the events in the present and past from the historical and personal sides. She can skillfully combine mythological figures, biblical characters, and members of her own family in one literary work. Her works transcend gender and race as well as place and time. That’s why she was glorified as an expressive African American female voice. The language of her poems often resembles the form of redemption. Later on, Rita Dove wrote a series of poems about her grandparents’ courtly behavior, marriage, and their following life in Akron. In 1987 the poetess was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for “Thomas and Beulah”.
One of Rita Dove’s famous poems is “Daystar”. It belongs to the series of poems “Thomas and Beulah”. The title of the poem can have different meanings according to its context. It can show an indirect comparison between the star and the woman. As well as the star distributes energy and light up in the sky, the woman also increases her energy. The main character of the poem is a woman, who is a wife and a mother at the same time. She’s exhausted from her daily routine and doesn’t have time to relax. The poem “Daystar” represents the double nature of a mother’s life. On the one hand, the author describes motherhood, on the other, she depicts the mother’s effort to find some free time to have a rest after busy days. The woman is looking forward to the peaceful break, while her children take their naps. The readers understand that the woman enjoys not only physical rest but also moral ease. She finally gets some time for her own needs without anybody. During this time she doesn’t want to pay attention to her husband or kids.
Reading the first line of the poem “she wanted a little room for thinking” we understand that the woman doesn’t even have the room for her private thoughts. She’s always very busy and every minute she must accomplish some tasks. She must use energy to shine like a star, but to shine during the day. Here the poetess compares the mother with the sun, which rises every day and supports our life. Like our earth depends upon the sun, her children and her husband depend upon her. The second line of the “Daystar” shows us that the mother has washed diapers and is waiting for them to dry. We understand that the woman is taking care of at least one baby. The third line tells us about “a doll slumped behind the door”. Maybe the woman also takes care of a toddler. The author parallels the image of a doll, slumping behind the door and the woman, lugging a chair behind the garage. It is obvious that such a break behind the garage, while children are sleeping, is a usual routine for the mother. In the line “sometimes there were things to watch” the word “sometimes” has the underline meaning of “always or usually”. So, she regularly spends time like this.
Besides, we can see that this short comfort is much valuable for the main character. That proves the line when Liza comes and asks her: “And just what was mother doing out back with the field mice?”. Liza suddenly interrupts her with the question, while the mother is looking at a floating maple leaf at ease or relaxing with closed eyes. The poetess stresses the word “what” here. It means that by her question Liza demands to know her mother’s recent activity. It seems that the daughter owns her mother and wants to pay attention to herself immediately. The woman’s phrase “why building a palace” can be considered from two sides. Her situation is quite ironic. It is funny to imagine an old chair behind the garage as being a palace. Besides, the woman is occupied with children and washing diapers. At the same time, such temporary rest is like a royal treasure for her. There she has a special place for her own thoughts. The real value of the palace is not visible to the eye, but it is seen in the peaceful break during the busy day full of numerous tasks. That imaginary palace is enough for the mother because she can simply observe the falling and gentle gliding of a maple leaf.
It also seems that Thomas owns his wife. The line from the poem proves it: “Later that night when Thomas rolled over and lurched into her”. With the help of the word “lurch,” Dove let us understand, that the woman is not enjoying the moment. She just allows her husband to do what he wants. He feels indifferent to his wife and only demands necessary time from her. He doesn’t pay her enough attention and doesn’t care how his wife feels about it. In her thoughts, the woman comes back to the time, when she can relax by herself in the middle of the day, even if her husband is upon her. The hour of rest is the biggest treasure for the woman because this time is her own. Rita Dove says: “She would open her eyes and think of the peace that was hers for an hour”. Only during this time the mother doesn’t do anything for anyone in her family, she doesn’t need to enlarge her energy for the sake of others. It is the hour when she is free from the constant demands of the members of her family.
Rita Dove shows the contrast between the two episodes in the poem. The first one is when she closed her eyes “she’d see only her own vivid blood”. The “vivid blood” means that the woman is full of life, desire to live, and the ability to do everything. But later the mother comes back to the place “where she is nothing”. Her hour of relaxation can be understood here like the act of disappearance and escape. The author repeats the words “pure nothing” to strengthen the meaning of disappearance. The poetess compares the mother with “the pinched armor of a vanished cricket” or “a floating maple leaf”. She declares the woman’s rest to be a meditative ritual that entails the simplicity of nature. The woman is a part of nature, that’s why she has the right to take off the roles of wife and mother for being alone for a moment and enjoy the time without any obligations. Besides, Rita Dove parallels the woman and the image of the actress. During all busy days, the woman changes the roles of mother, wife, friend, babysitter, cooker, washer, tailor, and many others. But the readers can see the underlined irony in such comparison. The real star or actress usually leads a glamorous and bright life, but the woman is only taking care of her children and is washing diapers.
The poem “Daystar” describes the monotonous routine of the average mother. That’s why it is true to life and realistic. Any woman with many children can certainly understand her exhaustion and the necessity for relaxation. Being surrounded by children all day long can be very isolating, just like a star in the sky is isolated. Her imaginary palace is the happiest and the brightest spot of her weary afternoons.
The poem “Daystar” can serve to proclaim the uniqueness of being female in the twentieth century. Rita Dove disputes the historical stereotype of a patriarchal society that has been used to label kinds of women. The only and definite way out to lessen the female difficulties are humor and repetitive behavior or so-called “ritual”, which all women experience during pregnancy and motherhood. The poem shows how women all over the world are tied up through their efforts to manage such thongs as pregnancy, motherhood, annoyance, and appearance. Rita Dove’s poem “Daystar” can be the twentieth-century statement made by women and for women.
Works Cited
Beaty, Jerome. The Norton Introduction to Literature: shorter eighth edition. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.