At the start of the second verse the mood changes a lot. The tone is softer and you can visualize a lot. It is as if she is dreaming of what she wants to happen.
Fall softly, dewdrops
And cool my brow again.
It could be as if she is so warm doing all the work she does she wants to be taken off to another place to get away from all the stress.
There is a much slower pace at this point in the poem, the language is also gentler as you take time to imagine what the woman is doing such as:
Let me float across the sky
‘Til I can rest again.
Many people will get the picture of an African woman floating across the sky on a big white, fluffy cloud.
The second poem I will express is ‘Overheard in County Sligo’ . The structure of this poem is quite neat with an equal amount of lines in each verse. It is divided into four verses and they are the same length.
The first two lines of the first verse are telling us a bit about the woman. It could tell us of her earlier adult years and whom she married. In the first verse she seems like a quite rich lady.
And I live at the back of beyond
With a field of cows and a yard of hens
And six white geese on the pond.
It seems like she has a lot of spare time to tend to all the animals and the money to feed them. She must have a lot of space to keep them in.
In the second verse it could be a metaphor for the simple chores she has, but also the last line,
And freedom’s there for the taking
She tells us that there is freedom, but if she wants it why doesn’t she take it? It could be that she is trapped in her own house, but we don’t know by what.
The next verse tells us what she wanted to do, maybe her childhood dreams that she never fulfilled. I particularly like the line
Or still the crowd with a look
I think it is quite a weird dream to have, maybe she wanted to be outrageous but never had the chance to do it.
The first word ‘but’ of the next verse is very important because it marks the change of the mood of the poem. It tells of what she has made of her life, the tone seems dark maybe as if she is disappointed with her life and wishes she should have done more with it. The third line of the poem where it said ‘tumbled rooms’ it could show that she has children. The last verse of the poem shows us that she should feel happy and grateful for all the great stuff she has. The last lines are repeated maybe to emphasize what a great life she really has but it’s not they way she wants it to be.
I think the two women from both the poems are both satisfied with their lives but they both want something more. The woman in the second poem I think is a bit selfish because she has wonderful things and the woman from the first poem would be grateful for the life she has. Both of the poems managed to keep my interest throughout and it had many visual aspects.
