In the poems, `The Almond Tree' by Jon Stallworthy and `An Abortion' by Liz Lochhead both poets deal with the theme of birth and death and regeneration. Both poets are writing from their own experiences but there is a significant difference between the two poems. Lochhead is writing from a women's point of view, and focuses on the pain women feel when they lose their children, and the poem could be considered a feminist poem, whilst Stallworthy is writing from a masculine perspective and focuses on the pain he, as a father, felt when his baby son was diagnosed with Downs syndrome.

In `An Abortion' Lochhead is clearly drawing on an event she has witnessed and therefore we can assume that the `voice' of the poem is the poet's own. The poem is about the aborted birth of a calf and the terrible distress that the cow experiences...