Hill is the author of a poetry collection, has published widely in literary journals, and is an editor for a university publications department. In the following essay, Hill examines the various comparisons of women to children in Piercy's poem and contends that these associations make up the core of the poem's celebratory spirit.

Claiming a link between women and children is as old as motherhood itself and usually entails the natural physical bond between mother and child, as well as centuries of social mores that have assigned child care to the female gender. Poems addressing the ties between women and children are also commonplace and often sentimental and tender, not contentious and controversial. Piercy's "Apple sauce for Eve" is not a typical mother-and-child poem; there is not even a typical "mother" or typical "child" in it. Instead, the link here lies in the childlike innocence, curiosity, and...