WOMEN WORK

The poetry is structured into five stanzas. The first one is composed by 14 lines and the other four are quatrains.The text focuses on the heaviness of women’s duties and on the woman’s request for some peace to nature. In the first stanza the poet uses rhyming couplets to underline the heaviness of woman’s duties. The rhythm is quick and fluent because of the seven rhymes in the 14 lines. 

After the first stanza there are no more rhymes except for lines 24 and 26 in which the word “white” rhymes with the word “tonight” and in lines 29 and 30 (the last two lines) in which the word “glow” rhymes with “ my own”. In the second stanza there are many repetitions right from the fist line in which the word “shine” is repeated as, In the second line, the word “rain”. In the final line of the second stanza has been used the word “again” as in the ultimate line of the following stanza. In the third stanza the word “sky” is repeated in the fifth stanza.

In the first stanza the poet who is also probably the speaking voice makes a list of duties that women have to do. Since the title is “WOMAN WORK”  and the subject is “I” we can assume that the poet is a woman and that she is referring to her personal life. I believe that the speaking voice is probably an housewife although I think that this poetry can be read by modern woman, who most of the time are both housewife and workers.

In the following stanzas, the woman asks the nature for a break from her everyday’s duties. The woman evokes the nature to set her free. Nature becomes the main subject which gives also the poetry a sense of peace. From the first stanza, the atmosphere is changed, it’s more quiet and peaceful. The contrast between first stanza and the others is highlight from the word choices. As a matter of fact the words used in the first stanza belongs to the everyday life, although the words of the other four stanzas belongs to Nature.

To conclude In the last stanza the woman says that nature is all that she can call her own. This means that Nature gives her the quite she needs to survive from the everyday duties and struggles. Nature gives her salvation.