A recurring idea that Loy develops to support her argument about patriarchy's influence in women's lives is death. She evokes this theme through the use of the words "decease," "infects," and "corpse." She uses "corpse" and "decease" in reference to the moon or the man in the moon, suggesting that patriarchy is a dying institution. Interestingly, however, she says that it is the moon's "decease" that "infects us with unendurable ease." Loy selects the word "decease" instead of "death" and joins it in the same stanza with the word "ease."