A Work Of Artifice Analysis

The bonsai tree

in the attractive pot

could have grown eighty feet tall

on the side of a mountain

till split by lightning.

But a gardener

carefully pruned it.

It is nine inches high.

Every day as he

whittles back the branches

the gardener croons,

It is your nature

to be small and cozy,

domestic and weak;

how lucky, little tree,

to have a pot to grow in.

With living creatures

one must begin very early

to dwarf their growth:

the bound feet,

the crippled brain,

the hair in curlers,

the hands you

love to touch.

.: :.

i am very confused about the line \"dwarf their growth\" can someone elaborate for me on that?

| Posted on 2010-09-02 | by a guest

.: :.

I think it is saying that women were born to be wild until broken down and molded into obedient creatures by the males surrounding them (father and later husband.)They are told it is their nature to be under a man's control. The last few lines are describing how they are supposed to appear; "the hands you long to touch" signifying how soft a woman's hands are since she doesn't perform any hard labor.

| Posted on 2010-01-02 | by a guest

.: :.

I disagree with popular statement that the author is blaming men for womens oppression. In the fourth line she explains that the tree would have grown immensely "till split by lightning." To me this indicates that the author is portraying women's fate as being controlled by a higher power.

| Posted on 2009-11-27 | by a guest

.: :.

i am reading this poem for school trying to find the STILTS in it. It is complicated by very deep poeam.

| Posted on 2009-01-30 | by a guest

.: :.

This is such a good comment. They convey hidden meaning people always look through in real life.
I love the way Piercy speaks through her poem.

| Posted on 2008-12-06 | by a guest

.: generilization :.

This poem pushes the issue of women’s rights and provides vivid imagery to create an understanding for the issue as a whole. She does push the fact of woman’s rights and tries to lay the entire blame upon males, which to me is a generalization. What Piercy lacks to acknowledge is that woman let themselves get torn apart by others and to be less then they really can be. They never use all of their abilities or potential, they let others conform them. We are born as liberated people. We have freedom of choice and action bestowed upon us by our creator. So why is it that woman choose to act subordinate when truly they have all the opportunity which can be easily attained if effort is put forth. There you go Marge Piercy, that’s some food for thought.


| Posted on 2007-09-21 | by a guest

.: :.

This poem pushes the issue of women’s rights and provides vivid imagery to create an understanding for the issue as a whole. It is food for thought as it entails an opened minded discussion to draw your own conclusions. But sadly, Piercy’s statements lead me to my own conclusions. She does push the fact of woman’s rights and tries to lay the entire blame upon males, which to me is a generalization. What Piercy lacks to acknowledge is that woman let themselves get torn apart by others and to be less then they really can be. They never use all of their abilities or potential, they let others conform them. We are born as liberated people. We have freedom of choice and action bestowed upon us by our creator. So why is it that woman choose to act subordinate when truly they have all the opportunity which can be easily attained if effort is put forth. There you go Marge Piercy, that’s some food for thought.

| Posted on 2007-05-04 | by a guest

.: Hands :.

This poem seems to work even for todays society. I am a little curious though about the last two line. "The hands you love to touch" Is she talking about how women are willing to allow themselves to be "groomed" because women enjoy the companionship of men?

| Posted on 2007-03-15 | by a guest

.: China :.

The poem directly refers to Chinese culture. The Bonsai tree comparison to women is very comparative to the views of women in Chinese culture. It was customary to bind the feet of women from a small age. The upper class would do this along with limiting learning, constricting of exercise and the process of beautification. Lower class mothers would bind the feet of their daughters in the hopes that they would become rich and beautiful. When they didn't, the mothers would bind feet further to the point that the daughters could walk no more. They were then considered useless because they could perform no housework. They were cast out. The reference in the second line to an "attractive pot" shows that beauty preceded all other things in women. The pot was not described as sturdy, strong, durable, just as women in China were. The gardener represents society, society's opinions, tradition, and mothers' beliefs. The line, "it is your nature" assigns a duty to the women to be beautiful. Nature, in this case refers to stereotypes or standards. The verb "croons" seems to make it seem like a lecture. As if the gardener was saying, "you must be," or, "You have to be."

| Posted on 2007-03-14 | by a guest

.: The Suppression of Women :.

The Suppression of Women in “A Work of Artifice
Marge Piercy is an American feminist poet who wrote “A Work of Artifice” during the mid-twentieth century, a time when women were covertly suppressed in achieving their goals in life. Personally experiencing such problems in life, Mrs.Piercy ignored the fact that she was not fit for the expectations of women in society and took upon the profession of writing feminist books and poems that portrayed the real trickery of men played on women. Piercy lived an invisible life as a writer in Chicago because she couldn’t get any of her books published. Most publishers tried to give her a hard time and said that her poems and stories were not good enough to be published, but the real reason they didn’t publish her stories is because she was a women. The only way she could get books published is if they were concerning a political or social issue. Thus, she took up an oath to write feminist poems like “A Work of Artifice” to show how men used the “artifice” of saying that the women are the angels of the house to shorten their potential to becoming something big in life. Through stereotypical toys for young girls that represent their future place at home and through obstacles created in a women’s path to success, men suppress women and lure them into thinking that it is their place to be at home and not something big in life.
Girls form a young age are given stereotypical toys like the Barbie, Mini-Ovens and toy-babies that shows how men “dwarf” the “growth”(19) of women’s aim in life and lightens the path towards a low yet “bound” (20) future. These toys cripple a girls mind into thinking that doing house work is her only aim in life (21). Men generally like to be the one who is running the family and thus want their wives to be “small and cozy” (13). Due to this some mothers of young girls pressure their daughters to be “domestic and weak” (14) so that their daughters would find a good man. On top of this, men want their wives to feel happy and “lucky” (15) that they are safe and sound in a house. “The hair in curlers” (22) and “the hands you / love to touch” represents how girls try to wear things that are uncomfortable only in order to impress the man she likes. All these things are caused by the pressure inserted into a woman by a man so that she could end up being weaker while the man rules the family.
Women, or “the bonsai tree” (1), could have the chance of reaching high aims and dreams in life if they were free like a tree “growing eighty feet tall / on the side of a mountain” (3&4) until they naturally died, or were “split by lightning (5). But, men control and suppress women like a “gardener” (6) who “carefully prunes” (7) a small tree “in an attractive pot” (2), which represents the low yet attractive state of women. By creating obstacles in a woman’s path towards success like making it harder for women to get a job, men expunge women’s future of becoming something high and great in society. Though such acts to
All these artifices of men are referred to the acts of a gardener because such artifices in real life are so covert that people can’t even notice it. This is the same way how the gardener himself can’t notice that he is doing something wrong when he is pruning a bonsai tree in a pot, which could have grown about eighty feet on the top of an open mountain.


| Posted on 2007-01-29 | by a guest

.: :.

All women have the potential to be giants of the spirit to flourish, to live to grow to struggle to thrive. however men contain women into the small cramped roles. They know what they want women to be and they little by little make sure that the woman is contained in the smallness of their preconceptions. the sad part is the "gardener" believes this is how women are supposed to be. The pot, like a fish's aqaurium, is safe, but although more dangerous, it is no compare to the freedom of the ocean, or in the poem's case, the mountain.

| Posted on 2006-03-15 | by Approved Guest

.: :.

Piercy starts the poem with the ideal. The bonsai tree (an obvious parallel to women) has the chance to reach great length and to test the outer limits with no bounds until their time on earth is up(God strikes with lightning). However, the gardner(man) is very quick to contain the tree. Piercy is emphasizing the daily things men do to contol women, things that often go undetected because it is has come to be expected. Like a gardener's job is to whittle away the trees, so it is a man's job to carve the woman into an ultimate example of the quaint feminine role they must always fit into. They then excuse their actions by tricking women into believing they should be grateful to man for giving them a home and a position in this world. The title comes into mind, as "artifice" mean sly trickery. Of course, it is related to the common phrase "A Work of Art" which exemplifies the qualities men want in a woman; someone to sit quietly and be observed by others for their beauty. Women are taught all of this very early in life. From a young age, their mothers teach them the "art" of attracting men. If you are small physically, the male will not be intimidated by you; thus, they will be drawn to you, and the ultimate goal of having a husband to serve will be attained. The lengths women go to are obscene and only serve to smother their intellect and objectify bodies that are capable of a much greater purpose.

| Posted on 2005-03-20 | by Approved Guest

.: :.

this poem remindes me of someone that lets others hold them back. they let people cut them up just so that they can be like everyone else. esspecialy girls like how it says when "the hair in curlers". the thinkgs that girls do to fit in. chinesse women also like to have small feet and to look small and cozy. women let themselfs get crippled brains from men telling them that the women needs him. they let themselves get torn apart by others and to be less then they really can be. they never use all of their ablities they let others conform them.

| Posted on 2005-03-18 | by Approved Guest