Reading Notes W2: De La Cruz Poems, Part B

Of the options within this reading section I was most drawn to Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz and the poems she's written. For extra context, I read the biography section and found her story inspiring and clever. While clearly religious, she used her ability to become a nun as a guise to reach her ultimate goals of expressing herself through writing/art through the safety of her job. Through her status, she used her writings to challenge the unfortunate status-quo of the male dominated landscape, commenting on equality and female rights. Here are some points that specifically jumped out at me while reading Poem 145 and Philosophical Satire: Poem 92.

Poem 145

• In Poem 145 de la Cruz creates her own art by dissecting another. Both meta and a great concept
• "this is an empty artifice of care,/a flower, fragile, set out in the wind," (9-10) I thoroughly enjoyed these lines. In essence these lines demonstrate the central themes of hollowness a person or piece of art can represent. Something so beautifully painted as a portrait actually not having much depth when viewed through a vain, wider spectrum.

 Poem 92

• My favorite of all the poems, hypocrisy and conflict are perfectly imagined in this piece, with the unfair expectations of women being demonstrated
• A definite damned if you do, damned if you don't reality is portrayed and frustration seeps from every stanza. "You combat their firm resistance,/and then solemnly pronounce/that what you've won through diligence/is proof of women's flightiness" (9-12)
• The imagery illustrated to express Men's hand in creating unattainable expectations is beautifully expressed in the following stanza "Whose behavior can be odder/than that of a stubborn man/who himself breathes on the mirror,/and then laments it is not clear" (21-24)

de la Cruz, Sor Juana Ines. "Poem 145, Poem 92". Norton Anthology of World Literature Volume D. 262-263