Colleen J. McElroy’s poem, “Military Woman: Evolution,” is a poem that describes the changes a woman experiences while spending a career in the military. It is written from the point of view of the woman herself. McElroy makes use of several poetic devices including speaker, voice, structure, tone, imagery, and repetition to demonstrate to readers that the evolution this military woman experiences is an evolution of not only her view of woman in the military, but also her self as a woman and as a military woman.
McElroy’s choice to write this poem from a first person point of view and to write it from the point of view of the military woman herself offers an important personal perspective to readers. This first person view allows the reader to understand why this unnamed woman chose to sign up for the military and how her perspective on herself, the military, and her womanhood changed over time. The speaker is now older, a “senior non-com old school in white glove uniform” recounting the days when she first saw any woman in military uniform to where she is now as a military woman herself (25). This point of view gives the changes the woman experiences greater depth and authenticity. If it had been written from a second-person point of view, it would not allow the personal reflection the poem’s theme depends upon. Second person outside observation would only be able to speculate on the changes the woman experiences and not to assert them. An omnipotent view could provide the woman’s internal thoughts, but the first person view serves the poem’s theme much more powerfully because it makes them direct and strong, qualities the woman is striving for herself.
The voice of them poem, that of the woman, is frank and straightforward, leaving no mystery to the reader about why she made the choices she did and what the changes are that happened in the military and to her. This straightforward voice, along with the first person view, gives the speaker a sense of honesty that makes the woman’s choices and experiences believable to readers. Her voice is personal; she begins by saying, “she says truth was the uniform caught my eye first time I saw them walking so proud and tall” (1). Later, the reader realizes that the “she” the speaker is talking about is her mother. By beginning the poem with this personal voice, it gives the reader a sense that this is someone known and trusted. Through the voice of the woman, McElroy develops the woman’s character as well as the reader’s investment in caring about and understanding this aspect of her life, her career in the military and development of self.
There is a secondary voice in McElroy’s poem that comes through the speaker, the voice of her mother, which help her focus her perspective on her experiences. The observations her mother has made about her daughter and military woman are in the lines where McElroy writes, “she says” (1-2, 7, 12, 19). It is obvious from these lines that the reasons the woman made her choices and her history have been a topic of conversation between her mother and her. The point of view of her mother is very important to the woman. Beginning the poem with, “she says truth was” gives the reader the idea that the mother is a trustworthy third person observer, and that the speaker of them poem looks not only within, but also outside herself to understand her own evolution (1).
The structure of the poem is important in developing the “evolution” aspect of the piece. It is written in one long piece rather than in verses. It is punctuated not to signify the beginning and end of sentences, but more to reflect the pattern and rate of the spoken word. The continuous speech of the poem and its form make it first appear like prose, but the punctuation makes the reader realize this is not prose. Without verses, the form of the poem emphasizes the continual nature of change and evolution that the woman experiences. The form demonstrates that change is a constant and that continual change has helped to build the woman as she is today. It also shows that the military woman is still connected intimately to her past, and has used every experience and realization to get to where she is today.
The tone of the poem reflects the voice of the poem; it is conversational and straightforward. At the beginning, there is a tone of amazement when the speaker says, “seem like that uniform left them more/ man than woman anyhow” and “first time/ I saw them parading like that I nearly bust out laughing” (5-6, 7-8). Inexperienced, the speaker feels amazement that these women could choose to do what they do, act the way that they do, and “walk on any side of the street/ they’d choose” (9-10). The middle part of the poem has a tone of defiance. The woman experienced the men’s attitude about military women; when she says they “thought one woman could put a platoon at risk the men/ rushing in to save her sorry ass and I re-upped to prove them wrong” she expresses a new reason she has developed for remaining in the military (14-15). She has something to prove to others. The third and final part of the poem has a tone of pride. The speaker has seen changes in herself and the military itself, saying, “grunts got it different these days” (23). Her pride shows in her words, “it’s not the uniform what makes me proud but what’s in it” (26). The different tones of the poem show her evolution from a woman who is confused and amazed to one who is strong and proud. It shows her evolution from a woman who relies on the opinion and proving things to others to one who can prove things to herself.
The imagery of the poem makes the woman’s observations, experiences, and changes real to the reader. As she watches a pair of other military women “walking so proud and tall/ could have been that uniform stood up by itself” the image marks her first impression of a military woman (1-2). The uniform gives the military woman a mystique and mythical nature, something the speaker reflects on when she describes how “the wives whispered ‘hard woman’ whispered ‘hold her own against any man’” (6-7). It seems unimaginable that women could choose to be so apparently unfeminine but also desirable that these women appear to be strong and to do what they want to do. The image of those women is contrasted with her own image toward the end of the poem as she describes herself saying, “I’m senior non-com old school in white glove uniform time in grade slashed on my/ sleeve” (25-26). Readers have journeyed with the speaker from the time she saw only the outside impression of the uniform until the time she fills it herself at the end of the poem, and the mystery of what it is to be a woman in the uniform is replaced with the personal pride of a woman in uniform. This pride is not just because she did what she wanted to do, prove to a doubting world that she could make a career for herself in the military as a woman, but also in learning to value herself , her own thoughts, skills, and personality.
Repetition plays a very important role in establishing the woman’s personal evolution as a woman in the military and as her personal self. In the first part of the poem, the speaker says, “she says” several times, which describes her mother’s point of view of her when she was younger. The repetition of this phrase shows that when the speaker was younger, she was looking for answers outside of herself about herself, about what being a woman is, and about what it means to be a woman in the military. She observes the military women, hears the words of the wives, hears the disbelief of the men, and begins forming her opinion and beliefs from these things. A vital transition point comes when she says, “but like my mama used to say,” when the speaker moves from the past to the present (21). “I’m the one,” she repeats (24, 27). No longer is it there hearsay of “she says” or “wives whispered,” but an assertive woman punctuating her experience, change, and self with the phrase “I’m the one.” This is now a woman who doesn’t need to prove anything about herself to others and has learned to prove the important things to herself.
McElroy’s poem provides an intriguing view that helps to demystify the experience of a woman in the military. Through the use of the poetic devices speaker, voice, structure, tone, imagery, and repetition, she provides a powerful view of the changing, evolving selfhood of a woman who went from outside observer of the military woman to becoming one herself, and gained pride, confidence, and a sense of self by her accomplishments.
Works Cited
McElroy, Colleen J. “Military Woman: Evolution.” Here I Throw Down My Heart. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012.
.
