Abstract

Consider the Dove a Bird of Prey is a collection of lyric poems that explore a female speaker’s implication in misogynist systems and the damaging psychological outcomes of this implication. The speaker is aware of her complicity—how her social gains have come at the cost of her own subordination as well as the subjugation of others. The resulting ambiguity defines her existence, manifesting in her need to acquire male attention and material goods, and in her use of substances as a means of consolation. Ultimately, solace is found within the speaker’s private belief system, a faith that, as poet Rebecca Tamás expresses of the occult, “challenges what power and knowledge might be.” The speaker’s faith is like the faith of the deeply religious, a belief that an unnamed, divine something will intervene to lift her beyond worldly limitations. Faith is represented as a means of both defense and transcendence from the gendered systems of power that seek to contain and control female bodies. While most of the poems are semi-autobiographical—the speaker is a persona, but the experiences are based on my own—the final poem is a research-driven piece about the figure of the camp follower during Joan of Arc’s time. Camp followers were women who travelled with armies, providing nursing, laundering, cooking, and sexual services. The poem takes its name from a painting titled “Joan Drives Away the Camp Followers.”