How do these poems re-imagine the experience of the biblical characters?
How do they relate to the biblical texts?
How do they compare to the midrashic re-imagining included in the anthology (63)?
Why do you think this genre of poetry became central for Jewish women poets writing in Hebrew (and other languages as well)?

Rahel
Rahel’s poems were immensely popular both during and after her lifetime. Until recently, her poems were interpreted as “light, simple, pleasant and unsophisticated.” (12). Contemporary critics are revising this judgment, understanding Rahel’s poems as subtle and sophisticated alternatives to the poetry of her male contemporaries. Many of these poets wrote dogmatically patriotic poems that explicitly supported the Zionist project. In addition to glorifying military heroism, their poetry often described the relationship between the human settler and the land as one of masculine subordination or domestication of a feminized landscape.

How do the poems, “To My Country,” and “[I have only known] treat the themes of the land, heroism and the national project?

In “A Way of Speaking,” Rahel states that she chooses a simple style of language over a more elaborate one.
How does she explain this choice in the poem?
How do you respond to the spareness of language in these poems?
What affect does the style have on you as a reader?

The poem ends with a reference to a mother and her breast? Do you see a connection between Rahel’s gender and her stylistic choice?

Lea Goldberg