AQA (A) Literature synoptic module
Most ‘love’ poems focus on sexual fantasy rather than on the children that are the ultimate product of such desire. But a number of canonical poets including Shelley, Coleridge, Tennyson and Hardy have all drawn on their own experience of becoming a father to write highly personal poems addressed to their infant children. Until recently, very few women writers have felt able to tackle the highly intimate and previously taboo subjects of pregnancy and childbirth. Sylvia Plath started writing about these topics in the 1950s and there has been a proliferation of voices since. In 2004, Picador published a collection by the poet Kate Clanchy entitled Newborn which charted the whole process, from conception through pregnancy, childbirth and childcare to trying for a second child. Now that men are often present during labour and childbirth and are more involved in the practical side of child-rearing, some male writers have also recorded their experience in a far more detailed and ‘confessional’ manner.
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