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Allusions In Washing Day

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The tone of lines 1-12 in Barbauld's "Washing Day" can be described as melancholic or resigned. The speaker describes the setting of the poem as "unblest" and "gloomy," with "dullness" and "sadness" pervading the air. The use of words such as "weary," "heavy," and "drear" creates a sense of desolation and weariness. The speaker seems to be preparing the reader for a day of drudgery and hard work, which contributes to the somber tone of the opening lines. In line 22 of Barbauld's "Washing Day," the speaker refers to "last evil" in the context of describing the chaos and disorder that accompanies the washing day. The "last evil" refers to the final task of washing day, which is the ironing of the clothes. Ironing requires a great deal of time and effort, and it is the last step in a long and tiring process. The speaker suggests that ironing is particularly difficult because it requires attention to detail and patience. The phrase "last evil" implies that the speaker sees this final task as a particularly onerous burden, adding to the overall sense of exhaustion and frustration conveyed in the poem. …show more content…

These allusions serve to deepen the meaning of the poem and to connect the struggles of the washerwomen with larger cultural and historical narratives. For example, in lines 51-52, the speaker references "that great flood" which refers to the biblical story of Noah's Ark. The allusion highlights the overwhelming nature of the task at hand, likening the sheer quantity of laundry to the deluge that Noah

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At the beginning of the poem, the speaker has a tone that demonstrates aggravation and shame towards her mother. During the description of the mother, Hogan worded it in a way the reader could interpret as a negative connotation, which was later made clearer when Hogan pronounced the Grandmother’s hatred toward the white settlers. The speaker’s father, uncle, Grandfather, and Grandmother were all Native Americans, who were constantly removed from their land, where their farms and homes were destroyed by the prospective oil dreamers. “It was the brown stain that covered my white skirt, my whiteness a shame” (28) By inserting this line into the poem, Hogan was able to show what the speaker was really thinking. A lesser author would have put that line at the beginning of the poem, leaving no imagination for the reader.

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In this last stanza most of the speaker’s extended family is mentioned, the audience is now aware that the speaker takes pride in her ancestry and heritage. These values are what keep the quilt together, those are the stitches, the foundation of the quilt. The poem is structured to

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I’m not sure why, but poems have always caused me a great deal of confusion. It took several reads for me to even begin to understand the message of this poem, and several more to develop a full analysis. But, now that I have that full analysis, I love this poem. I think it is an excellent example of women’s working-class writing. First and foremost, this poem is assumingly from the perspective of a female, who has a sewing job.

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In Stanza 1, she uses the word "slighted" to imply the history Olds had of insulting and downplaying dirt which then states how wrong she was forever making less than dirt. In addition, she uses the word "intricate" to describe

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The home responsibilities placed on African American women prevent them from participating in the possibilities and freedoms others take for granted. Lines 1-4 of the poem describe the woman's daily tasks: "I've got the children to tend to/ The clothes to mend/The floor to mop/The food to shop. " I've got" is used often, highlighting how monotonous and arduous her responsibilities are. The usage of the word "got" further emphasizes that these tasks are not a choice but a hardship.

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In the poem “To be of Use” Marge Piercy uses figurative language to show the readers how she feels about hardworks. The figurative language helps compare the water buffalo to the hard workers. In line 9 and 10, Piercy uses a simile when she says “Who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience/ who strain in the mud and muck to move things forward.” By comparing the water buffalo to hard workers it shows that when hard workers have to push through tough obstacles or things that might prevent them from getting the job done, they still find a way to overcome the problem and finish the job. In addition, Piercy uses metaphors to explain how hard they work.

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For example, the poem reads, “Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore” (Thayer 34). This is told from the third person perspective. Overall, I believe that the purpose of this poem was to tell a timeless story of something that almost every American can relate to:

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Poetry Analysis Essay If you read the title,There Will Come Soft Rains, someone can only infer that the poem has something to do with nature. The theme of the poem is saying is, that if there is war and humans vanish nature will go on. The animals will not know, weather will not know, nature will not know that humans are no more. There are literary devices used in There Will Come Soft Rains including imagery, alliteration, personification, and rhyme.

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Eventually the Washwoman left and never came back, for she had finished her life. Although her death was unfortunate, she lived an inspiring life. She inspired the family she washed for to persevere through hard times and to finish a task given to you. The Washwoman proved that a loss does not have to sadden others, but instead can inspire and build others

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The diction creates the sounds of the poem, which consists of slant rhymes, alliteration. The slant rhyming such as groundling and elephantine, ocean and can, shadow and I pull, wherever and alters, wrings and this, moon and ground symbolizes how the speaker and auditor were close but not a match. The only rhymes in the poem is fabric titanic which emphasizes how his love is love is destined to be sunk and wheels and heels which emphasize how the speaker is being left behind. The alliteration of dirigible devotion emphasizes how he is not the one in control and how devoted he is to the auditor. the alliteration of wrings whimpers emphasizes not only how strong the love is but his own expression of discontent.

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The narrator immediately incorporates symbolism insinuating the emphasis on struggle in the first stanza. Symbolizing adversity, she tells the reader “I think by now the river must be thick with salmon. Late August,

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The poem begins with the speaker looking at a photograph of herself on a beach where the “sun cuts the rippling Gulf in flashes with each tidal rush” (Trethewey l. 5-7). The beach is an area where two separate elements meet, earth and water, which can represent the separation of the different races that is described during the time that her grandmother was alive and it can also represent the two races that are able to live in harmony in the present day. The clothing that the two women wear not only represent how people dressed during the different time periods, but in both the photographs of the speaker and her grandmother, they are seen standing in a superman-like pose with their hands on “flowered hips” (Trethewey l. 3,16). The flowers on the “bright bikini” (Trethewey l. 4) are used to represent the death of segregation, similar to how one would put flowers on a loved one’s grave, and on the “cotton meal sack dress” (Trethewey l. 17) it is used to symbolize love and peace in a troubled society.

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This whole poem could simply be a metaphor that was related to Louise Erdrich’s biographical background. In her biography, it says, “As the daughter of a Chippewa Indian mother and a German-American father, Erdrich explores Native American themes in her works…” (“Louise Erdrich” 1). The flood

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