“A Fine a Private place” is a masterpiece poem that creatively explores the power that the woman possesses by and large with regard to sex, Ackerman portrays women as the masters of sex, and she brings them out in such a way to praise their prowess in winning the man to her ways. This, she neatly coins it in poetic jargon that only the wise with an ear keen on literature can understand. Apparently, she uses the imagery of the sea to refer to a more subtle and sensitive issue of politics. In her literary genius, she quickly creates an erotic image that if not critically analyzed, erotically subdues one to the land of Adam and Eve. A “Play- By- Play” on the other hand is a poem that has massive elements of celebrating the women folk and female sexuality in a more dignified manner as compared to the former to an extent that the poet juxtaposes older women to young men in an effort to bring out the salient issues about their (women’s) sexuality.
Female sexuality should be greatly celebrated since it is the urn of a society’s true definition, the necessary voice to political change. Ackerman’s “A Fine a Private Place” succeeds in putting the woman at the helm of a controversial issue that is sex, this she uses imagery to describe how vital human sexuality is in controlling the society. However, she portrays women as sexual tools considering the fact that in this poem, the man is the one in charge of the entire voyage on the sea with the woman: consider the fact that in the 1st stanza, it is the man who asks the woman out by talking her under the blue horizon, it is the same man who asks twice before the woman understands the reason why he was stroking her hands, the poet further writes that “When panting ebbed, and he signaled Okay?” implies that it was this signal that eventually made the man “lead her to safety”. In comparison, however, Play- By – Play is a poem that celebrates human sexuality through bringing out women as important factors to societal change, Murray portrays the women as important entities in bringing change in the society. According to Murray, female sexuality is an asset, this is evident in the fact that the persona asks “Would it distract the young men—if they realized that three women laughing…are moving beside them on the field?”.If not so, why then would the persona ask if it would distract the young men? Secondly, A Fine A Private Place puts women in limbo considering the fact that the poet has deliberately chosen to sell the female sexuality cheap in order to please the man, this poem has a tranquil mood that facilitates the man to take over the entire game. Female sexuality gets another blow when the poet creatively brings out the issue of penetration. Ackerman emphasizes this when she alludes to the imagery of “letting seawater drive it through petals…to the dark purpose of a conch-shaped womb”. She again depicts women as mere sexual tools whose purpose is to satisfy the man in the name of love. We can not afford to divorce Ackerman’s meaning in using the sea imagery, according to Ackerman, unlike the traditional portrayal of women, she compares the political arena to a voyage on the sea wherein as much as the man in this poem leads the way, she is the one who eventually decides the next cause of action as depicted in the last stanza, the imagery of eating the peach.
