Anna Letitia Barbauld's Washing Day
In "Washing Day" Anna Letitia Barbauld has done what Romantic poets can do best. She writes of an event that occurs periodically in every-day life, but she elevates the washing day chore to a challenge of epic proportions. Barbauld views the experience of wash day from the perspective of the woman she is and the child she was. At all times she is the poet who relates the Muses' song as a medieval minstrel might. Her skillful use of irony and hyperbole allows this poem to convey to contemporary readers the same humor and insight that an eighteenth-century audience would have appreciated.
Barbauld uses classical references and a few archaic words to give the poem an epic feeling. However, since the subject is a rather mundane one, the poem has an ironic mood throughout. The muses of literature and art are now absorbed in the domestic gossip of housewives at work. All the petty subjects of daily life, the delights as well as the annoyances, are replacing the tragedies of the Greek Pantheon. She has the muses trade their bus...
The guillotine made people die a lot faster. Before there was even a guillotine, people would be executed in numerous, horrible ways. In the 5th century with the Romans, “Death was often cruel and included
Throughout history, the story of womankind has evolved from struggles to achievements, while some aspects of the lives of women have never changed. Poet Dorianne Laux writes about the female condition, and women’s desire to be married and to have a home and children. She also seems to identify through her poetry with the idea that women tend to idealize the concept of marriage and settling down and she uses her poetry to reach out to the reader who may have similar idyllic views of marriage or the married lifestyle. Though Dorianne Laux’s poem “Bird” reads very simply, it is actually a metaphor for an aspect of this female condition.
The poem starts with the line, “This girlchild was born as usual,” which suggests that as soon as a girl is born, society already expects her to learn the role she will soon play in when she hits puberty (1). Thus, showing why we are given dolls as little girls to illustrate how we should act and appear according to society. After we learn all the roles we will soon take part in, “the magic of puberty,” hits and girls immediately begin applying the ideals to their own lives (5). As if this attempt to conform is not enough we have other people telling us we are not to perfect. “You have a great big nose and fat legs,” says a classmate to the girl (6). This type of pressure can slowly but surely destroy even the little confidence women do have in themselves.
The influential roles of women in the story also have important effects on the whole poem. It is them that press the senses of love, family care, devotion, and other ethical attitudes on the progression of the story. In this poem the Poet has created a sort of “catalogue of women” in which he accurately creates and disting...
...late 17th century, and beginning of the 18th century, transportation was favored by American society so much, the wealthier would hire chauffer’s to take people places. So not only did the motor produce a better and more efficient life style, it also created a huge business industry, as we know it today called, “valeting”. The actual motor worked like this. “Two cups filled with mercury would contain a magnet and a wire with one being fixed and the other free to move. Whenever a current was passed through the wire, the free moving magnet or wire would revolve around its fixed partner due to the electromagnet forces being produced.” (History of Innovation). This first motor was a prime example of the fact that movement could be created by electricity and electricity could be created by friction. This motor was the most useful and applicable invention in the 1800’s.
‘The woman’ of the poem has no specific identity and this helps us even further see the situation in which the woman is experiencing, the lost of one’s identity. Questions start to be raised and we wonder if Harwood uses this character to portray her views of every woman which goes into the stage of motherhood, where much sacrifice is needed one being the identity that was present in society prior to children.
In all, the misogyny presented in these two poems is not restricted to the time period they were written. Just as in medieval literature, it is still common for today's woman to be recognized only for her physical attributes. I believe that in order to have equality of the sexes and to help overcome the objectifying of women, it is necessary for women not to use the misogynistic views placed against them to their advantage.
She tells the girl to “walk like a lady” (320), “hem a dress when you see the hem coming down”, and “behave in front of boys you don’t know very well” (321), so as not to “become the slut you are so bent on becoming” (320). The repetition of the word “slut” and the multitude of rules that must be obeyed so as not to be perceived as such, indicates that the suppression of sexual desire is a particularly important aspect of being a proper woman in a patriarchal society. The young girl in this poem must deny her sexual desires, a quality intrinsic to human nature, or she will be reprimanded for being a loose woman. These restrictions do not allow her to experience the freedom that her male counterparts
At first glance Edna St. Vincent Millay's first recognized poem, Renascence, seems to be easy to understand and follow. However, as this sing-songy poem is dissected, the reader embarks upon a world full of emotion, religion, confusion, pain and sin. This poem is split up into six sections or stanzas which separate the action of the poem into easy to understand parts. I have chosen to discuss the first section of the poem for my close reading.
The bascule was invented later on through the revolution. Due to the fact it was found to be easier then forcing a struggling prisoner up a flight of steps. With the bascule a prisoner could just be bound to it then tipped over and moved into position to be guillotined. The bascule was made of wood and shaped like a plank. A prisoner would be strapped to it by their feet, ankles and waist.
Calkins, Carol C., The Story Of America The Reader’s Digest Assn., Inc.: Pleasantville, New York, 1975.
As the poem goes on, the speaker and reader alike grow more empathetic toward the woman because the idea that she is unappreciated by her husband becomes more apparent. First, it is unusual that she is still clad in sleepwear, possibly lingerie, so late in the...
Edgar Allan Poe’s 1849 poem, “Annabel Lee”, explores the common themes of romance and death found in many of Poe’s works. The poem tells the story of a beautiful young maiden named Annabel Lee who resides by the sea. The maiden and the narrator of the poem are deeply in love, however the maiden falls ill and dies, leaving the narrator without his beloved Annabel Lee. Contrary to what many might expect from a poem by Poe and yet still depressing, the poem ends with the narrator accepting Annabel’s death and remains confident that they will forever be together despite her parting.
"Prose and Verse Criticism of Poetry." Representative Poetry On-line: Version 3.0. Ed. D. F. Theall. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2009. .
Fibonacci was born in approximately 1175 AD with the birth name of Leonardo in Pisa, Italy. During his life he went by many names, but Leonardo was the one constant. Very little is known of his early life, and what is known is only found through his works. Leonardo’s history begins with his father’s reassignment to North Africa, and that is where Fibonacci’s mathematical journey begins. His father, Guilielmo, was an Italian man who worked as a secretary for the Republic of Pisa. When reassigned to Algeria in about 1192, he took his son Leonardo with him. This is where Leonardo first learned of arithmetic, and was interested in the “Hindu-Arabic” numerical style (St. Andrews, Biography). In 1200 Leonardo ended his travels around the Mediterranean and returned to Pisa. Two years later he published his first book. Liber Abaci, meaning “The Book of Calculations”.