Charlotte O’Neil’s Song is about some one who does all the cleaning and cooking and then gets fed up of it and doesn’t do it any more. “You lay on a silken pillow.
I lay on an attic cot.
That’s the way it should be, you said.
That’s the poor girl’s lot.
You dined at eight and slept till late.
I emptied your chamber pot.
The rich man earns his castle, you said.
The poor deserve the gate.
But I’ll never say ‘sir’
Or ‘thank you ma’am
And I’ll never curtsy more.
You can bake your bread
And make your bed
And answer your own front door.
This shows that the girl did everything and is not doing it any more.
In The Song Of The Old Mother the girl in that is working and isn’t stopping whereas in Charlotte O’Neil’s Song the girl was working but is not any more.
I think in The Song Of The Old Mother they are trying to tell you that you should work when you are old enough and in Charlotte O’Neil’s Song they are trying to tell you that you shouldn’t work at a young age and should wait until you are older. I think that the narrator is aiming the poems and young people but also it could be for older people trying to tell them not to make there children work or be a slave for them and telling them to go out and work instead.
In The Song of the Old Mother the poet wanted us to think about how it would feel if we were them and how it feels looking through there eyes, and how it would feel to do the same thing over and over again.
In Charlotte O’Neil’s Song the poet also wanted us to think about how it would feel to be a slave all the time and then how it would feel to just put a stop to it all.
