How this essay will be approached is by first giving a general interpretation of the poem "What Every Woman Should Carry" by Maura Dooley. This will be followed by, with the use of stylistic features, a more thorough interpretation. The stylistic features that will be used are deviation, parallelism as well as cohesion and foregrounding. This will be done by taking a closer look at the only stanza contained in the entire poem which consists of 12 lines. This particular poem could be broken into two parts. Lines one to six appears to deal with the past and six to twelve might specify the present; this will be explained in more depth during the course of the essay.

The content of the poem tells "What Every Woman Should Carry" in her handbag. The poem begins with a feeling of optimism but ends quite pessimistically. This is because its subject...