Throughout my essay I am going to compare "Woman work" and "Overheard in County Sligo". I am going to write about the differences and the similarities backing up my points with evidence
Poem comparison of “Woman Work” and
“Overheard in County Sligo”
Throughout my essay I am going to compare “Woman work” and “Overheard in County Sligo”. I am going to write about the differences and the similarities backing up my points with evidence.
“Woman Work” is about a very unhappy woman who doesn’t have anything of her own, she uses the weather to describe how she would like to get herself away from her mundane life, for example “Storm, blow me from here with your fiercest wind”. She thinks that the only thing she can call her own is the different weathers. Whereas in “Overheard in County Sligo” which is also about a woman, however, this woman is unhappy for different reasons, she has a nice house, lovely husband and a good life, but although she has a good life she wants some stardom in her life and she dreams of something more. An example of this is “to see my thought on the printed page”. The similarities between both the poems are that both women want freedom from their present life. The differences between the two poems are that in “Woman Work” all she has to comfort her is what nature can provide whereas in “Overheard in County Sligo” she already has a fine life but she craves fame. They both want different lives to the ones they are living at the moment.
The theme of the poem “Woman Work” is that she is a very busy, lonely woman, probably a slave, who just wants something which she can call her own even if it is some time to herself. I think the sub-text of the poem is that all she wants is some happiness and to be able to rest occasionally in her life because she feels she does the same routine of work everyday. Evidence of this is in the line “Til I can rest again.” In “Overheard in County Sligo” the sub-text of the poem is that although she has a relatively easy life, she has something missing in her life and it is making her extremely unhappy, not appreciating the fine things she already has. Evidence of this is “I ought to feel I’m a happy woman for I lie in he lap of the land.” I think she feels she is isolated from the rest of world, “and I live in the back of beyond” also, I don’t think she was born in County Sligo because she takes the beauty of the land for granted. Loneliness is presented in “Woman Work” by the fact that she talks of doing everything herself and she mentions “I” all the time. In “Overheard in County Sligo” she implies that she lives a quiet life away from civilisation. This can also imply that both women feel isolated.
