Homecoming: New and Collected Poems

This book addresses topics like war and the generational gap facing women through the context of housekeeping. It tackles the opposition of moments, not through anger or frustration but through the comedy of life. Alvarez hints to the excess of love in this world being focused on material possessions because of the before mentioned generational gap and the cynical views held by the previous generation. She expresses her belief in the allegiance to duty as being honorable. This book is a celebration of the "single minded labors/of the single women artist." And finally this collection of poems calls into question the hierarchy of values and the idea that as human beings, men or women, "What comes first?" Overall, these poems are a direct link to the struggles and happiness women face in society today that are not just brought on by the patriarchal, but the mothers and grandmothers that preceded them.