The woman in this poem might not be totally alone in her life. I know this because in the first stanza, line 7 she says,
“I got company to feed”
This suggests that she has had guests over. Therefore she is not alone. But there is always the chance that the company was her husbands or her owners.
The woman sounds like she gets absolutely no pleasure from her work at all. She seems really bored with it. Maybe she just wants to get something new from her work. To get a bit of fun out of it, instead of her life being a repeated circle that never ends, like some kind of vortex. Her life is just so monotonous its like get up, work all day and most of the night, hour or so sleep and then all over again. Every single day. It seems unfair and unjust.
Still in stanza one you can see that the woman in the poem is black. This is because you can picture her through the things that are written. The language that is used. For example,
“I gotta clean this hut”
“I got company to feed”
You can see a vocabulary out that isn’t of a regular American citizen. It is the vocabulary of a black person in America. The dialect only seems to come out in stanza one, this could be because she needs to write it in a hurry to get on with her work. So that she misses words out and abbreviates things. Just to help her to write it much quicker.
When ever she says a line with the letter ‘C’ in it, it sounds aggressive.
“The clothes the mend”
“Then the chicken to fry”
“I got company to feed”
“The cane to be cut”
“…clean up this hut”
“…the cotton to pick”
She repeats things beginning with ‘C’ many times. It seems that she could be saying it with her teeth gritted together to show her rage. She is angry that she has to do all this work. The harsh ‘C’ shows that she could be saying these quotes with anger and wants it to end.
Another very angry sounding letter is the letter ‘F’ which is also used a lot. It’s a very angry letter which sounds as if it needs forcing out.
“The floor to mop”
“The food to shop”
“Then the chicken to fry”
“I got company to feed”
These could be said with so much rage that when she says the word, she spits it out because she struggles to say and she has too force it out. The anger causes her to spit out these words, its like she doesn’t want to do what she is doing anymore, she wants to rest from it and stop working.
Stanza one is a completely different format to stanza two onwards. This is because stanza one has 14 lines, which every two lines rhyme. There are also no commas. Whereas stanza two onwards are all quatrains which is a four lined stanza where line two rhymes with line four. This stanza also has all the punctuation needed, commas and full stops where required.
From the second stanza she is so frustrated that she begins to beg nature to release her from this never ending circle she is trapped in. She wants to taste freedom. Feel the rain.
“Rain on me, rain”
She shouts that. She wants to feel the rain she wants to feel alive and get all the things the people who aren’t trapped in working the entire time feel. The release of happiness that you get from enjoying nature, she wants that. She craves for the dewdrops, which are water droplets condensed from the air, to drop on her brow to cool her down from the fast pace work she always has to do.
“Fall softly, dewdrops
And cool my brow again”
She wants and needs to be cooled down. She wants the sun to glow down on her gently, a friendly glow that will comfort her and allow her to feel full of glee and feel alive.
“Shine on me, sunshine.”
Repetition is used her, the word ‘Shine’ is repeated, this denotes how she wants some joy to shine into her life, she so do desperate for it that she repeats just so she knows that the sun can hear her.She is begging the sun to shine on her so that she can be covered with a warm love.
This whole stanza shows how she wants a cool down from all the work that she has been doing. It describes some of her deepest feelings, her deepest desires. This is to have a rest.
Stanza three shows a much more aggressive side to her hidden emotions. It uses an illustration in this stanza. The illustration is of her floating in the air. To get this illustration you must read line three of stanza three where it says,
“Let me float across the sky”
This makes me think, why she would want to float across the sky? Well, she is very stressed and needs to relax, and what is more relaxing than being able to watch the world go past you, as you would if you were in the air looking down. The aggressive side comes in the first two lines of stanza three.
“Storm, blow me from here
With your fiercest winds”
This is quite violent; it shows how strongly she feels towards this subject. She is so bored and frustrated by this that is making her aggressive. She wants the wind to b low her away from the lifestyle she has. She wants it to remove her from her situation. She is begging nature to do this for her because she cannot do it herself. She either doesn’t have the strength or it is not allowed in her culture. From this stanza we realise that all she wants is a rest. We know this because in line four it says
“’Til I can rest again”
This tells us that she doesn’t want to leave what she is doing; she only wants to have a rest. Maybe a holiday or something. I will elaborate further on this ‘rest’ when I go on to talk about the next stanza. This stanza shows that she wants to get away from it for a rest so she is asking nature to move her out of her situation.
Stanza four shows a much calmer side to her desires, this is the opposite of the desires in the previous stanza, maybe she has more than one desire that she wants to fulfil. The south of the USA is very hot, so working as hard as this woman does would be very tiring. So this stanza seems to be appealing to cool her down, similar to the dewdrops in stanza two. I know that she is appealing to nature to cool her down because it says,
“Fall gently, snowflakes
Cover me with white”
This shows that she wants to be cooled down by the snow. She wants to feel the cold on her cheek, in a hope to bring some joy now that she has cooled down. With the amount of work that this woman does she will be very hot. Snow is cold and would be perfect when it comes to cooling her down. This stanza goes on further to say,
“Cold icy kisses”
This shows that she wants to be touched by the snow. To cool her down. The word cold is used in this line, which shows that she knows that it’s cold and will cool her down. She seems to hate being hot so she is begging nature to cool her down. The line that follows also suggests that the intense heat that she gets is preventing her from sleeping. I know this because it says,
“Let me rest tonight”
She just wants one nights rest. There are so many things that are preventing her from sleeping. These are heat, working late and possibly the children keeping her awake. The lists of things that are keeping her awake are endless. She doesn’t enjoy it. The poor woman is exhausted and is struggling to go on especially with the amount of work she actually has to do. She is begging nature to help her have this one night’s rest that she so desires and needs. This stanza shows that she wants to cool down so that she can have at least one night sleep.
The final stanza is different, it lists all the natural elements, and it says it like this,
“Sun, rain, curving sky
Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone
Star shine, mood glow”
This shows that she is acknowledging all the things that she wants to help her through her situation. She hates being stuck in the repetitive life, where she doesn’t get any rest. Nobody likes that and nor does she. The last line of this stanza reads,
“You’re all that I can call my own”
This is really interesting, because how can you own an element. You can’t. I think this means all she has to hang on to, to own, is the support and motivation she gets off nature. She does this so that she can feel secure that one day she will get her life back and not be all alone. The last four stanzas suggest that she is living in a fantasy. That when she was writing the poem she got lost in it and put all the correct punctuation in because that’s how she pictures it in her mind.
The second poem we studied was called ‘Overheard in County Sligo’. This title immediately suggests that if it’s overheard then all the facts won’t be in there. It would be like a simple game of Chinese Whispers. The message changes every time it reaches somebody new, due to people forgetting things, or people mishearing things or people just changing things. So this gives an immediate impression of an unclear, misleading and ambiguous poem.
Like I did with ‘Woman Work’ I am going to write about plot of ‘Overheard in County Sligo’ in a nutshell. This is probably a conversation about between a woman and her friend, telling the friend about her life. It could also be a soliloquy which is A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener, so she might have just been writing or saying her thoughts out loud. So this woman married a man from County Roscommon, which is in Ireland along with County Sligo. She lives on the farm. She wants to feel happy for what she has but she thinks she could have achieved much more.
I know that this woman lives in Ireland because Count Sligo and Count Roscommon are mentioned which are both in Ireland. She live at the back of beyond and married a man from Roscommon I know this because the poem says,
“I married a man from County Roscommon
and I live in the back and beyond”
At the moment this means absolutely nothing. It won’t mean anything until I elaborate further on the significance of the marriage later in the essay. The back and beyond, is a very secluded area, its very picturesque. This poem suggests that she lives on a farm, its suggests this by saying in line three and four of stanza one,
“with a field of cows and a yard of hens
and six white geese on the pond”
This shows that she lives on a farm; there is no evidence in the poem that she does any work on the farm. It does not mention if she does or doesn’t. It may just be her husband that works on the farm and not her. At this point she has not shown any evidence that she is not happy with her life, it just acts as a bit of background information on what is currently going on in her life.
The first two lines of stanza two don’t give much away either, they just mention that outside the door is the corn, which can be harvested for food and money. Again there is no evidence in the poem that she does any work with the corn. The third and fourth lines are very interesting though. They read,
“and the road runs down through the open gate
and freedom’s there for the taking”
This suggests that she is slightly unhappy and has considered leaving, because it is so easy. The gate to freedom is at the bottom of the road, a short walk and she will be away from the life that she has. But this makes me think why? Why doesn’t she just leave? I think she stays because she thinks that if she leaves she might not get anywhere, or she might regret leaving all the things she already has. This stanza is an early look of how she is feeling deep down, she is wondering, is that lifestyle right for her or is there something else.
Stanza three focuses on her ambitions, what she wanted to be, before she married this man from Roscommon. Her first ambition was to work in a well know theatre in Dublin called the Abbey. I know this because she says,
“I had thought to work on the Abbey stage”
She wanted to be famous. She wanted a rich and fabulous life. She wanted to still a crowd with a look. I know this because on line four in stanza three she says,
“or still the crowd with a look”
She wanted to make people look at her and think Wow. She wanted to be the centre of attention and have all eyes on her whilst she is on stage. She had an artistic ambition but she didn’t follow it, instead she married a man from Roscommon. Her other ambition was to have her name in a book, which is another artistic ambition, to be a novelist. She wanted to write stories that would stun people and make them think she was such a talented writer. I know this because she says,
“or have my name in a book,
to see my name on printed page,”
She really wanted to be famous; unfortunately she married a man from Roscommon and had to give up these aspirations. She seems to mourn over this fact. She married someone who prevented her from fulfilling her dreams.
Stanza four shows us that she has a very boring life that is mundane. She cleans up, folds the breakfast cloth polishes and dusts. That’s basically what the first three lines says, its line for that give us another large clue of how she is really feeling inside herself. It says,
“…find my face in the glass”
This suggests that she is lost; and not happy about that fact either. She needs to find herself, but she doesn’t think she can find herself in her current environment. To find who you really are, many people have to leave their environment and go elsewhere to find out what really drives them in life. This woman is lost and doesn’t have anything to empower her to do what she wants with her life. The alliteration in this is in there for a reason
“…find my face in the glass”
That is there so you don’t forget it, finding my face. It sticks in your head, because it is such a key line to the poem, she wants to find herself which is the main story of this poem, she is lost and very unhappy and she wants to find herself before it too late but she can’t do it because she has committed to this man from County Roscommon. Her identity is lost and she wants to find it, this alone highlights her unhappiness.
The final stanza of this poem is very interesting. It starts off with her admitting that she should be a happy person I know this because she says,
“I ought to feel I’m a happy woman”
She isn’t a happy woman though, but she knows that she should be. That shows how unhappy she is. She is so unhappy she knows that she should be happy, but she also knows that she isn’t capable of being happy in her current situation and environment.
Then the last two lines are the same as the first two lines which is very interesting.
“I married a man from County Roscommon
and I live in the back and beyond”
This suggests that she is trying to reassure herself that she is ok and she is capable of being happy when she can’t where she is. Other people would be content with her lifestyle. But she isn’t, this isn’t fair on her either. This poem portrays a woman who is trapped in a life she doesn’t want, and its like she cannot get out. I think that there is a hidden meaning to this poem and I think the meaning is this : “Don’t get into anything that won’t make you happy because in the long term you will be the one getting hurt”. That is like the woman in the poem, she got married and it isn’t making her happy, she is hurting inside.
I’m going to finish up the essay now by looking for the similarities and the differences between the two poems and what I think of these. I will start with the similarities.
The main protagonists in each poem are women; both women are upset and need something.
I noticed that both of these women are burdened with all the house hold chores. This annoys both the women and makes them both very bored.
Both of the women dislike doing these chores. This is for different reasons though, which I will expand on in the differences.
They both seem to live in a scarcely populated area, one living in a village and another living on the back of beyond.
They both seem to be day dreamers, the woman in ‘Woman Work’ dreams about being released by nature, whereas the woman in ‘Overheard in County Sligo” is day dreaming about what she could have done with her life. There is a difference about this day dreaming that I will get to on the differences.
They both seem to be alone, in ‘Woman Work’ she only has children and the occasional company around, and in ‘Overheard in County Sligo” she only has her husband and some animals.
Both of these women are from countries that are outside the UK, one from USA and one from Ireland. They both have very similar social mannerisms. The woman from ‘Woman Work’ seems to live for work and is committed and loyal and will do anything for her husband or owner. She seems to be a hard worker and she seems to do it to please. Whereas the woman in ‘Overheard in County Sligo’ seems to be more sociable, more outgoing, I can tell this through her ambitions, to be an actress, to be an actress you must address a lot of people, and you must be polite and have social skills.
These similarities show that they have a lot in common, but some of these similarities come with difference attached. I will expand on these in a paragraphs time. These similarities show how people can be in totally different situations, different cultures but can still be having the same feelings, they both feel disheartened by their situation and that shows how much they have in common their hearts are feeling very similar emotions. Although these emotions are abstract, because they do not have the exact same feeling and no body in world has the exact same feeling. So these are abstract emotions but they are so similar. They are saddened, tired, bored, annoyed, and frustrated. The list goes on. That is basically what I noticed about the similarities of these two very different but strangely very similar poems. I think that the two woman are both equally unhappy, its just for different reasons, the reasons will be expanded on in the next paragraph, but there doesn’t seem to be much difference in unhappiness, it seems to be quite similar.
Now I am going to talk about the differences that I noticed.
In ‘Woman Work’ the woman merely wants a rest, whereas in ‘Overheard in County Sligo she wants to be an actress. This seems to be quite a self centred ambition, because in other parts of the world people can’t marry and have brutally horrible lives and all she can think about is possible leaving, when she can. In ‘Overheard in County Sligo’ the woman says,
“I had thought to work on the Abbey stage
or have my name in a book,
to see my thought on the printed page,
or still the crowd with a look.”
This shows that she has previous ambitions. When she was younger she could have done these things. She wanted to be the centre of attention, not stuck in the middle of nowhere. She is saying she had previous ambitions that she could have fulfilled. But she didn’t act on that and due to the culture of Ireland, the Catholics in Ireland are very strict and divorce is not an acceptable option she may have also been pressured into marrying young and if she did leave she would receive nothing. Now at her age she probably would not get to work in the Abbey or become a famous author.
In similarities, I mentioned about how they both dislike doing chores, I said I would expand on the differences of that. In ‘Woman Work’ the woman dislikes the chores because they tire her out and she struggles to do them all when she is so tired. In ‘Overheard in County Sligo’ she doesn’t like them because they are boring; she wants to do something with her life. She seems to be a very self centred woman does the one in ‘Overheard in County Sligo’.
They day dream, but, in ‘Woman Work’ she dreams of a release by nature, setting her free so that she can have the night’s rest, when in ‘Overheard in County Sligo’ she dreams of being famous. Once again that seems very self centred.
The final difference is that in ‘Woman Work’ she is from the USA and in ‘Overheard from County Sligo’ she is from Ireland. These cultures are different; this means the woman from ‘Overheard in County Sligo’ could easily leave whereas the woman in ‘Woman Work’ cannot leave, this is due to the culture.
Having these differences is a good thing, because it gives you things to look out for in the poem, these things can then move on to other things etc. So these differences how that the poems may be similar but they are still very different.
