Analysis of The Woman at the Washtub
The Woman at the Washtub,
She works till fall of night;
With soap and suds and soda
Her hands are wrinkled white.
Her diamonds are the sparkles
The copper-fire supplies;
Her opals are the bubbles
That from the suds arise.
The Woman at the Washtub
Has lost the charm of youth;
Her hair is rough and homely,
Her figure is uncouth;
Her temper is like thunder,
With no one she agrees -
The children of the alley
They cling around her knees.
The Woman at the Washtub,
She too had her romance;
There was a time when lightly
Her feet flew in the dance.
Her feet were silver swallows,
Her lips were flowers of fire;
Then she was Bright and Early,
The Blossom of Desire.
0 Woman at the Washtub,
And do you ever dream
Of all your days gone by in
Your aureole of steam?
From birth till we are dying
You wash our sordid duds,
0 Woman of the Washtub!
0 Sister of the Suds!
One night I saw a vision
That filled my soul with dread,
I saw a Woman washing
The grave-clothes of the dead;
The dead were all the living,
And dry were lakes and meres,
The Woman at the Washtub
She washed them with her tears.
I saw a line with banners
Hung forth in proud array -
The banners of all battles
From Cam to judgment Day.
And they were stiff with slaughter
And blood, from hem to hem,
And they were red with glory,
And she was washing them.
'Who comes forth to the judgment,
And who will doubt my plan?'
'I come forth to the judgment
And for the Race of Man.
I rocked him in his cradle,
I washed him for his tomb,
I claim his soul and body,
And I will share his doom.'
Scheme | Abxbcdcd Aefeghfh Aifixgfg ajxjklal xmkmkcAx xncngofopqpqxrfr |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010101 111111 1101010 011101 0101010 0101001 011010 110101 010101 110111 0111010 010111 0101110 111101 0101010 110101 010101 111001 1101110 011001 0101010 01010110 1111010 0101010 10101 011101 1111110 110011 1111110 1110101 10101 10101 1111010 111111 1101010 011101 0101010 010101 010101 111101 1101110 110101 0101110 111101 0101110 011111 0101110 011101 1111010 011111 1111010 010111 1110110 111111 1111010 011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,577 |
Words | 309 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 16 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 198 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 51 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:32 min read
- 81 Views
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"The Woman at the Washtub" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37549/the-woman-at-the-washtub>.
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