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. 

Maya Angelou

       

Summary of the Poem: 

"Woman Work" by Maya Angelou is about a woman's chores and jobs throughout the day. The poem relates to Maya and her life as a young single mother. The first stanza begins with a list of the chores. The list is written in a fast pace and overwhelming sense of busyness and stress. The first stanza shows that the speaker and her family are poor and do not own much. The second, third, fourth, and fifth stanzas slow down to show a resting period in the woman's day. The woman shows that nature is important to her because it is the only thing that she owns. Nature is the only thing in her life that does not add any stress and is an outlet for her busy day. 

 

Analysis:

The first stanza is in an AABB format and the words rhyme. This stanza consists of 14 lines and they all describe what the woman has to do. The way it is written without any punctuation, it gives us the feeling of exhaustion as we see that there are no breaks in the writing. This leads to the reader running out of breath trying to say it all without taking any pauses. This stanza is almost all imagery as the reader can imagine the mother running around doing all the things she has to do. Based on how it is written, we can interpret the fact that just like the reader, the woman has no time to pause in between her chores. It also seems as if she is an only parent, She is doing all the chores by herself and no one is helping her. Even with a baby, she does everything that she has to do. 

In the other stanzas, it seems like it is a free verse poem. The tone of the poem during the first stanza is tense, as if the woman is constantly reminding herself of how much she has to do in the day, and listing the chores in her head so that she doesn’t forget to do any of them. It seems that she is stressed out by her daily routine. In contrast, the tone in the other four stanzas is more relaxed. The woman seems more at peace, and grateful to be done with all her chores. The woman also endows the elements of nature with human qualities in an attempt to feel less lonely. In the absence of human company, it is the sun, the rain, the snow, dewdrops, the wind, the sky, mountains, oceans, leaves, stones, “star shine” and “moon glow” that are her friends.

   

 

Theme:

The theme of this poem is work and loneliness. The theme of work is portrayed in the first stanza through listing all the work she has to do/does everyday. Work causes the woman stress. Loneliness is the other theme in this poem. The speaker mentions her children three times, but never brings up any husband, which is the reason for her loneliness. The woman's loneliness digs a hole inside her soul, but she fills it with her work and nature. Loneliness is also seen when the woman has nothing but the nature to befriend and says that they're all she can call hers. 

  

 

Literacy Devices continued: 

Many examples of imagery can be found in this poem. The first example of imagery is in the woman's work. The poem describes her chores for the day from baking, weeding, mending clothes, and tiding her home. The next imagery that the speaker uses creates a calm picture of nature using different seasonal examples. She uses sunshine, rain, storms, wind, and snowflakes. Mountains, the sky, oceans, stars, and moons are also examples of environmental imagery in this poem. This imagery in the poem slows down the tempo, creating a more relaxing ending for a busy start. 

    

Personal Response:

I can interpret the fact that she is an only mother as she says "You're all that i can call my own". I imagine the mother to be very tired after doing all her work and then she sits down for a while to rest and she seems to be talking to the nature about how nature is all that she has. We can feel the lack of a partner, and it seems that the kids are not able to help out with the chores since the mother is doing all of them herself. I can interpret that the kids are young and cannot help since they still have to be dressed by the woman. The poet writes in a way such that the reader feels empathy for the woman because she is talking to the wind about taking her away and wanting to rest. It makes us feel bad for the mother since she has to be doing all of this work without any help from her kids or someone else. 

  

I can relate to this as i see my mother working all the time. As soon as she comes home, she prepares a small snack for all of us to eat, and since its summer right now, i help her with the dishes. During the school year, she would be doing it. The once the snack is done, she goes up and changes into comfortable clothes for the rest of the day. She then comes back and watches tv for a max. time of 20 mins and starts to prepare the things needed for dinner.She finishes around 7 and we all sit down to eat. Once done, she washes the dishes and comes up to see how much homework we've done and how much is left. Around 8:30 we go for a 30 min walk. and once we come home, it is 9/9:30 if we go for a walk with friends and family. She then goes to sleep because she has to be up at 5 the next day to prepare a small snack and pack our lunches. This is just a slow day, the one's where my sister and i have classes are even more hectic than this. 

     

It seems that we can never thank our mothers enough for doing all the work. Unfortunately, the ones that don't go out to work are commonly asked the question "you didn't do anything so why are you tired". what they don't know is that the house is only clean because they have been working. They mop the floors, clean the dishes, organize the things around the house, make food etc. We need to appreciate the work they do not only on mother's day but everyday of the year.