Antenatal Class

Day, Sarah

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poem

Annotated by:
Coulehan, Jack
  • Date of entry: Jan-31-2005

Summary

Voluptuousness rules begins this oval, oviparous, oracular poem about "whale women" lying around on cushions, practicing pushing the bodies of babies from their bodies into the body of the rest of the universe. Turkish music, undulant arms, bulging breasts, the rhythm of secrets, the beginning of being ready to give birth--this, my friends, is a succulent poem!

"Antenatal Class" ends not with the moralistic healthiness of the typical Lamaze class, but with the body breathing, "tasting, hearing, through armpits, hair / and speaking softly oh oh oh / in letters it shapes with its pelvis." [22 lines]

Commentary

If you need a poem about entering into the place of preparing to give birth, this is it. Sarah Day is one of the finest of today’s Tasmanian poets. See her poems Children’s Ward and Free Will annotated in this database.

Primary Source

The Ship

Publisher

Brandl & Schlesinger

Place Published

Blackheath, NSW, Australia

Edition

2004