A Short Poem About Freedom: The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper poem is inspired by the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I wrote this poem as a class assignment, and just like the short story, this poem is very close to my heart.

The Yellow Wallpaper Plot

Before moving on to the poem, let me share the plot of the short story.

The story is a first-person account of a woman suffering from postpartum depression. Her husband is a physician and prescribes a “rest cure,” caging her to a room in their rented summer home and prohibiting her from writing or engaging in any practice that would need mental struggle. Lonely and bored, she becomes obsessed with the room’s vibrant yellow wallpaper, pinpointing patterns and figures trapped within it. With the passage of time, her mental state deteriorates, and she starts believing that a woman lives in that wallpaper who is trying to escape. Towards the end of the story, she tears down the wallpaper in an attempt to liberate the imagined figure, fully immersing herself in delusions. The story ends with her husband fainting at this sight, underscoring the extreme results of isolation, oppression, and the lack of healthy communication and understanding of women’s mental health.

Like “The Yellow Wallpaper” short story, this poem explores the theme of delusions, power imbalance, and freedom.

The Yellow Wallpaper- A Poem

Living in a colonial mansion,
The four walls speak to me!
Or do I hear the voices of my shattered self?
John warns me to save myself from my own curse
But I know that he means: save yourself from me!

When I tell him that writing gifts me pleasure,
He smiles, but his eyes are full of pity:
“O, my little Girl!”
He assumes I can’t read his subtle face:
How foolish of him, of course!
So I write, to rebel or to let him know of his errors.
Or maybe, I write to preach my power.

So like always, it begins with
Cold air coming from the window that
That invites me to go outside,
But the yellow wallpaper hinders me.
How can I leave the room?
When the yellow wallpaper lures me
Yellow color:
Vibrant, full of life and charisma.

She calls me from the inside
Begs for freedom from the chains
Yet I do not see any chains
Or perhaps
I do not want to see it.

I laugh, she begs, and I say
“O, my little Girl! bless your little heart for asking more than what you already have!”
So, I let her suffer just as John lets me suffer
I watch her suffer every day and every night
Until she dies and

a shadow appears
Where she used to breathe or tried to breathe
And looking at the shadow,
I am unable to decide
Is it me?
Or is it John?

If you enjoyed reading this poem, you can also enjoy:
A Short Poem About Mental Health: A Hay of Ties
Best Short Poem on Life and Death: On a Dusky June
The Best Short Poem About Luck: The Symphony of Luck