Examine the details in Lucille Clifton's "There is a Girl Inside" from a feminist point of view.

The most concise and effective way to do this feminist analysis is to look at two of the more prominent feminist symbols in the poem. So let's begin. 

"There is a girl inside.

She is randy as a wolf."

Clifton starts off her poem by pointing her language right at one of the most pervasive anti-feminist myths in society: the myth of female anti-sexuality. Men enjoy sex, goes the myth, and women simply endure it. 

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The most concise and effective way to do this feminist analysis is to look at two of the more prominent feminist symbols in the poem. So let's begin. 

"There is a girl inside.

She is randy as a wolf."

Clifton starts off her poem by pointing her language right at one of the most pervasive anti-feminist myths in society: the myth of female anti-sexuality. Men enjoy sex, goes the myth, and women simply endure it. 

Clifton combats this myth by claiming that the girl inside is "randy" or sexually aroused. She is empowering the girl inside to embrace her own sexuality. (Not included here is a discussion of how the comparison to a "wolf" is masculine in nature. Clifton reverses that.)

"She is a green tree in a forest of kindling."

For the girl inside to be a "green tree in a forest of kindling" is a metaphor that speaks of impending doom. That young tree, we feel, must eventually be made into kindling, cut down and burned up. But for now it is a sort of symbol of resistance, a growing and perfect thing not yet destroyed. 

In terms of feminist language, this speaks strongly to the female body in contemporary society. Surrounded by a culture that seeks to objectify and sexualize women, the girl inside is still a pure and perfect thing. How long will that last?