Woman Work

The title makes the reader understand that the sonnet is about woman. But what kind of woman? I think that the sonnet is referred to very busy woman in particular housewives. The sonnet consists of five stanzas: the first one consists of 14 lines and the last four ones are quatrains.

 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 cane to be cut
I gotta clean up this hut
Then see about the sick
And the cotton to pick.

 In the first stanza the writer is making a list of woman’s tasks.There is no punctuation and the rhythm is very fluent and quick, therefore that highlights that she hasn’t a pause,a break in her life. The ryhme scheme is AABBCCDDEEFFGG. The poet begins by using the word “I” to underline that she has to do these works and that is very heavy.  There are some alliterations to emphatize the heaviness of these works. Therefore, there is a repetition of strong sounds like d and t to convey the effort and the hard work. The poet chooses to use the infinitive form of the verbs to underline “ the eternity of these works” ; they seem to have not an end.

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

In these lines the woman appeals to nature. She wants to feel relaxed and have a pause as a matter of the fact she says “Fall softly, dewdrops
And cool my brow again.” That means that she wants to regenerate herself, to have a break. The semantic field of words is nature ; the poet speaks about sun, rain, dewdrops. These lines convey a sense of sweetness because of the repetition of sound s that recalls the silence and sound w that recalls the calmness.

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

In this stanza the nature is in the forefront too; the woman talks about the storm that seems to be her salvation. She wants to go away from her work, she wants to relax, have a pause. She wants to “float across the sky”. Using this statement the poet wants to claim her freedom that she has lost.

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

In this stanza reign the sweetness that is conveyed by the use of the adjective gently. Therefore she talks about snowflakes that is one of the sweetest things in this world. The repetition of sounds w, f, s convey a sense of calmness and peace that is what that housewife wants.

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

In This final stanza reigns the nature too. The poet talks about sun, sky, rain but also about the universe (stars, moon). There is contrapposition between high- low; Mountains-leaf and oceans-stone.the final line reasserts the necessity of finding some respite from her tiring tasks.