SOURCE: '"What are Patterns For?': Anger and Polarization in Women's Poetry," in Feminist Studies, Vol. 10, No. 3, Fall, 1984, pp. 485-503.

Ostriker is an American poet and critic. In addition to poetry collections such as The Imaginary Lover (1986), Ostriker has published a number of analytical studies that apply feminist critical principles to the works of women writers. In the following excerpt, Ostriker addresses The George Washington Poems, exploring the way in which Wakoski uses the figure of Washington to critique the roles that men often assume in contemporary society. The critic also notes that while Washington is often portrayed as the antithesis of Wakoski's own persona in the poems, she also perceives him as "a necessary part of herself."

Man as hero is … examined in Diane Wakoski's The George Washington Poems, twenty-three deadpan surrealist farces woven like Maypole ribbons around the stiff figure of the father of our...