Wednesday, February 26, 2014


Woman Work

I've got the children to tend
The clothes to mend
The floor to mop
The food to shop
Then the chicken to fry
The baby to dry
I got company to feed
The garden to weed
I've got shirts to press
The tots to dress
The can to be cut
I gotta clean up this hut
Then see about the sick
And the cotton to pick.

Shine on me, sunshine
Rain on me, rain
Fall softly, dewdrops
And cool my brow again.

Storm, blow me from here
With your fiercest wind
Let me float across the sky
'Til I can rest again.

Fall gently, snowflakes
Cover me with white
Cold icy kisses and
Let me rest tonight.

Sun, rain, curving sky
Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone
Star shine, moon glow
You're all that I can call my own. 

Woman Work” is a very domestic poem depicting the typical routine life of a woman who performs her daily chores effectively and then yearns for a fantastic break a midst the elements of nature to give her strength and comfort.
As a housewife, she has to perform many chores. She has to tend her children, mend their clothes, mop the floor and do some shopping for their meals. Then she has to fry chicken, dry the baby, feed her animals, weed off her garden, press the shirts, dress her tots, cut the canes and clean up her whole house to make it beautiful and appealing.
This is the drudgery of her routine, which makes her life so monotonous and prosaic; but the woman in the poem is an idealist and wants to go in the lap of nature to give her relief and comfort. She calls forth the sun, the moon, the mountains, cold ice, and the curving sky to take her away into the space so that she can fly there, forget her neck-breaking routine, and feel the freshness of natural elements to stimulate her body and soul to once again perform the next day’s chores.


No comments:

Post a Comment