A Work of Artifice by Marge Piercy
A Work of Artifice by Marge Piercy 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. A Work of Artifice by Marge Piercy — Line-by-Line Explanation This poem uses the image of a bonsai tree to discuss how society, especially men in positions of power, often limit the growth and potential of women. The title A Work of Artifice means something artificial, deliberately created, or manipulated, suggesting that women's limitations are not natural but imposed by society. The bonsai tree Explanation: The poem begins...