Poem Presentation

Woman Work by Maya Angelou

The Poem I've got the children to tendThe clothes to mendThe floor to mopThe food to shopThen the chicken to fryThe baby to dryI got company to feedThe garden to weedI've got shirts to pressThe tots to dressThe cane to be cutI gotta clean up this hutThen see about the sickAnd the cotton to pick.

Shine on me, sunshineRain on me, rainFall softly, dewdropsAnd cool my brow again.

Storm, blow me from hereWith your fiercest windLet me float across the sky'Til I can rest again.

Fall gently, snowflakesCover me with whiteCold icy kisses andLet me rest tonight.

Sun, rain, curving skyMountain, oceans, leaf and stoneStar shine, moon glowYou're all that I can call my own.

Character and Setting

- The character in this poetry is a housewife

-The setting is in her own house in America in 1960’s to 1970’s

Analysis of Poem

Title From the title, I believe that the poem is about a woman’s daily work as in doing chores and every other thing

Paraphrase

I've got the children to tendThe clothes to mendThe floor to mopThe food to shop

In this stanza, Maya mentions her exhausted,

domestic activities those are common for every

domestic woman. As she tells that she has to prepare

the children for going to school. She has to mend the

term close. After these jobs, she will clean the floor

and get the food from shop, so that meal can be

prepared.

Then the chicken to fryThe baby to dryI got company to feedThe garden to weedI've got shirts to pressThe tots to dressThe cane to be cutI gotta clean up this hutThen see about the sickAnd the cotton to pick.

Maya describes further about her domestic activities.

These activities shows that any woman, really excuse

with her domestic works. As she is to do a lot of work

in a day. She is to fry chicken, give bath to baby, cook

food for guests, weed the grass of garden, press the

shirts, dress the babies, cut the cane and to clean up

the whole house.


Maya calls the elements of nature as she thinks then

her true companion. She address the sunshine to shine

on her, address the rain to rain on her, address the dew

drops to falls softly on her, and cool her brow so that

she may feel calmness in her own self.


In this stanza the poet calls the storm as to below her

from her home with its fiercest wind. Maya wants to

contact every element of nature and she wants to give

importance even then to the storm. She thinks that

storm would float her across the sky at she can take

rest form there.

Fall gently, snowflakesCover me with whiteCold icy kisses andLet me rest tonight

Maya calls every element of nature for her health. In

fact she feels and conceives every kind of

environment. In this stanza she calls the snowflakes

to fall on her gently.Certainly she is well aware of the

beauty and calmness in such atmosphere. She wants

that snowflakes to cover her with cold icy kisses. In

this way she may rest for a night.


This stanza shows that she is closely attached to the

nature. She thinks nature her true companion, that’s

why she calls every element of nature. She claims

that these elements always remain beside her as life

giving friends. She finds a soothing effect from

them.That’s why she trusts in the elements of nature.

- The rhyme scheme for the poem is not constant

- The first stanza consist of seven pairs of rhymed lines in the pattern AABB

- The next stanzas are written in free verse

Rhyme -I've got the children to tendThe clothes to mendThe floor to mopThe food to shopThen the chicken to fryThe baby to dryI got company to feedThe garden to weedI've got shirts to pressThe tots to dressThe cane to be cutI gotta clean up this hutThen see about the sickAnd the cotton to pick.

ConnotationStanza 1

Repetition-Repetition occurs when poets repeat words,phrases,or lines

in a poem

-I've got the children to tendThe clothes to mendThe floor to mopThe food to shopThen the chicken to fryThe baby to dryI got company to feedThe garden to weedI've got shirts to pressThe tots to dressThe cane to be cutI gotta clean up this hutThen see about the sickAnd the cotton to pick.

Connotation

Repetition of the word ‘the’

Stanza 1

Imagery

Kinesthetic

I've got the children to tendThe clothes to mendThe floor to mopThe food to shopThen the chicken to fryThe baby to dryI got company to feedThe garden to weedI've got shirts to pressThe tots to dressThe cane to be cutI gotta clean up this hutThen see about the sickAnd the cotton to pick.

-describes the

activities of a housewife

Imagery

Auditory

-build the imagination in sensing the nature



Fall gently, snowflakesCover me with whiteCold icy kisses andLet me rest tonight.


Figures of Speech Personification

- Fall softly , dewdrops

And cool my brow again

(Stanza 2)

Storm,blow me from hereWith your fiercest wind

Let me float across the sky ‘Till I can rest again (Stanza

3)

Figures of Speech

Hyperbole

- Let me float across the sky (Stanza 3)

Attitude

- The tone of the poem during the first stanza is tense , as if the poet is constantly reminding herself of how much she has to do in the day

and listing the chores

-In contrast , the tone in the other four stanzas is more relaxed.

Shift I've got the children to

tend

The clothes to mend

The floor to mop

The food to shop

Then the chicken to fry

The baby to dry

I got company to feed

The garden to weed

I've got shirts to press

The tots to dress

The cane to be cut

I gotta clean up this hut

Then see about the sick

And the cotton to pick.

Shine on me, sunshine

Rain on me, rain

Fall softly, dewdrops

And cool my brow again.

Storm, blow me from here

With your fiercest wind

Let me float across the sky

'Til I can rest again.

Fall gently, snowflakes

Cover me with white

Cold icy kisses and

Let me rest tonight.

Sun, rain, curving sky

Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone

Star shine, moon glow

You're all that I can call my own.

This change in the tone of the poem from the first to the subsequent stanzas is further emphasized by the diverse use of a rhetorical device known as consonance.

The first stanza has hard consonance sounds like the “T” sound in “gotta”, “tots” and “cotton”,

The hard “G” sound in “garden”, and the hard “C” sound in “clothes”, “company”, “cane”, and “cotton”.

In contrast, the following stanzas have fewer hard consonance sounds and more soft consonances.

The recognizable examples are the soft “S” sound in “shine”, “softly”, “storm”, “sky”, and “rest”, and the soft “F” sound in “fall”, “float”, “fiercest”, “snowflakes”, and “leaf”.

Title

-“Woman Work” is a poem the typical routine life of a woman who performs her daily chores effectively and then yearns for a fantastic break amidst the elements of nature to give her strength and comfort.

Theme

The main theme in ‘Woman Work’ is work. We know this because of the long list of household jobs she’s got to do in the first stanza. Another theme in the poem is loneliness. We can see this by the fact that she only mentions her children and not her partner/husband, if she has one. The message that the poet is trying to get through to the reader is that life can be horrible, and you have to do anything to survive.

Author’s Purpose

The way that Maya Angelou has written this poem is on purpose. The first stanza makes the reader feel as though the woman is over-worked because of the long list of chores. Note that the poet has not used any commas in the first stanza. This makes the pace intense and arouses a feeling of breathlessness and exhaustion in the reader. The lines being short and quick also add to this. We know that this woman is from the U.S.A. because she uses a southern dialect ‘gotta’, ‘cane’, ‘cotton to pick’, ‘chicken to fry’. This capture’s the woman’s voice, so it’s as if she is talking to us. The next four stanzas are four lined stanzas. This slows the pace right down. The purpose of this is so that it reflects what the woman is actually saying

‘Fall gently, snowflakesCover me with white,Cold icy kisses andLet me rest tonight.’

The use of the comma is here to slow it down. ‘Fall gently’ is something that makes it feel more relaxed and calm. The four lined stanzas have a regular rhythm, which conveys comfort and security. The title ‘Woman Work’ is chosen because that is what the whole poem is about.She wants the wind to blow her away from all the stress and work, and the snowflakes to cool her down with their ‘kisses’ and make her feel relaxed. The poet evokes a strong feeling of desperation in this poet. The poet also creates a lonely atmosphere in the poem.

Why did I choose this poem?

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