Enclosure, closure and female poetic tradition

This study uses the major premise of Virginia Woolf\u27s essay A Room of One\u27s Own as a departure point for exploring the works and lives of three women poets of different cultures and ages: Sappho, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz and Christina Rossetti. These women cultivated rooms of their own within masculine cultures. Their respective cultures provided them with liminal space in which they could develop as artists; this autonomous area within patriarchy was created through various kinds of enclosure. Although the results produced by enclosure are different for each poet, one constant does emerge. The three poets were all able to define themselves as subjects in ages that defined women as objects