Woman Work by Maya Angelou (1994)

1       I've got the children to tend

2       The clothes to mend

3       The floor to mop

4       The food to shop

5       Then the chicken to fry

6       The baby to dry

7       I got company to feed

8       The garden to weed

9       I've got the shirts to press

10    The tots to dress

11    The cane to be cut

12    I gotta clean up this hut

13    Then see about the sick

14    And the cotton to pick.

15    Shine on me, sunshine

16    Rain on me, rain

17    Fall softly, dewdrops

18    And cool my brow again.

19    Storm, blow me from here

20    With your fiercest wind

21    Let me float across the sky

22    ‘Till I can rest again.

23    Fall gently, snowflakes

24    Cover me with white

25    Cold icy kisses and

26    Let me rest tonight.

27    Sun, rain, curving sky

28    Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone

29    Star shine, moon glow

30    You're all that I can call my own.

VOCABULARY

To tend = To... look after, care for, take care of, keep an eye on.

To mop = To ... clean, wipe, wash.

To weed = To... tidy, prepare.

Tot = Toddler, child, baby.

Dewdrop = Teardrop, tear, bead of moisture.

Fierce = Violent, ferocious, strong, powerful.

To curve = To... bend, turn.

Explain the poet's choice of the title "Woman Work"

The first idea a reader has of the poem, having a look at the layout, is that the composition is similar to a list.

 On the 1^st stanza, the author doesn't use punctuation and the rhythm is very quick and pressing. Each line matches with a statement and describes a  particular duty the speaking voice has to bring to an end. The speaker is a woman who has lots of housework to do. The list with whom the works are presented shows the frenzied lifestyle of the character that doesn't seem to have a still moment, and the necessity of doing the named tasks in order to keep the house clean and satisfy all the children (but not only theirs) needs.

From the 2^nd stanza on, there is a change in the contents and the syntax of the poem. After having listed her duty, the woman starts to invoke some natural elements. She asks them to hit and fall on her to make her have a bit of rest and refreshment. Contact with nature is the only relief that the woman has from her daily routine, and, as she says in the last line of the poetry, the untamed world is everything that she can call "her own", probably in opposition with home-life in which there's always somebody that comes out with a request and prevents her to take care of her own needs.

The choice of the title "woman work" seems, so, reading the poem, dictated by the poet's will to make the reader understand the great effort that dealing with housework needs. The great quantity of duties makes it almost become a real job that occupies entirely the daily routine of a woman. It is necessary, so, to have a rest from that routine; rest that the speaking character can only find staying in contact with nature and isolating herself from the rest of her family.