Analysis Of Jane Colman Turell's 'Lines Of Childbirth'

“Lines on Childbirth Jane Colman Turell was one of the many astound female poets and writers of her time. Turell, much like Anne Bradstreet, was known for her expression of religion and her wit in resisting conformity of typical behaviors of women (Levine 2012). Because of these characteristics, it is important to study Turell’s word choice and figurative language in her works. In the poem Lines of Childbirth, Turell uses her profound use of words to express the emotional, physical, psychological, and religious rollercoaster of the birth and death of her child by the careful selection of words and use of figurative language. Through a series of figurative language and word choice, Turell allows a deeper understanding about the lows of childbirth and the loss of her children. To better understand the emotional rollercoaster she endured during this time in her life, Turell cleverly describes the loss of her three prior pregnancies as “pleasing strife” (5). By using juxtaposition, I believe this allows her audience to further understand the confusion along with happiness and sadness of her loss. I suppose by saying “pleasing strife,” she is insinuation the happiness she felt while being pregnant and by …show more content…
Around the time of the baby’s death, Turell refers to death as the “King of Terror” (17). By using personification to describe death, it seems that Turell is expressing that death is much more powerful than she, and its an inescapable black cloud that has come into her life. It also shows the psychological toll death is taking on her. She continues to personify death by saying, “To pierce its bosom with his iron lance” (18). Here Turell’s specific word choice is literally saying death has come and stabbed her in the chest with its iron lance (18). Her words not only expresses the emotional heartbreak, it seems that she is implying that emotional heartbreak has a physical toll on her