I chose Maya Angelou's poem, Woman Work, because it expresses the chores that some women have to go through everyday. Although some are not the same chores that woman in today's society perform, the meaning that the poem is conveying is still the same; woman work hard and at times, though they care deeply for what they have in life, they need a break every once in a while. Woman,although they may not work in a office or factory, are still working a full-time job. They're mother's, chefs, gardener's, the list goes on.
The poem, written in 1978, is composed of five stanzas that convey the way in which a woman feels throughout her day. The first stanza seems very rushed, long, and repetitive, seeming to be endless. "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 can to be cut/ I gotta clean up this hut/ Then see about the sick/ And the cotton to pick." It is a long to do list that seems to keep getting longer. She not only has to cook and tend to the children, but she also needs to buy food, and prepare for company. To add to this hectic schedule, she also has to tend to the sick and go out and pick cotton. It's a very long list that others may see as a life's worth of work. This is just an ordinary day to the speaker.
The second stanza is just the first in many that express her want, one may even say need, to get away from this hectic life. The speaker just wants a moment of peace from everything. "Shine on me, sunshine/ Rain on me, rain/ Fall softly, dewdrops/ And cool my brow again." the next stanza goes on to say, "Storm, blow me from here/ With your fiercest wind/ Let me float across the sky/ 'Til I can rest again." These two stanzas express her pleas with the world to take her from her hectic life. She wants peace, even for a moment, to get away. She could possibly be talking about death coming to take her away so that she can get peace. This can be seen in the third stanza, "Fall gently, snowflakes/ Cover me with white/ Cold icy kisses and / Let me rest tonight." She wants rest, she wants to be covered and hidden from the world so that she can get some peace.
The final stanza, "Sun, rain, curving sky/ Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone/ Star shine, moon glow/ You're all that I can call my own." expresses her need for this peace. The world is her's and that's the only thing she owns. Her death would be the only peace she has and it would be the only time that is her own. Her current day's consist of taking care of children and cooking and cleaning and taking care of the sick, this time is devoted to everyone else and she needs something to call her own. This something will be the time that she gets when she dies.
I like this poem because it not only conveys the life in a housewife, but also conveys the need for time to yourself. The way in which the stanza's and words are presented give the reader a sense of the way in which time seems to rush by. The first stanza is rushed and long, just like the speaker's day's of tending to everyone else's needs. Once the speaker begins to talk about nature and getting away, the stanza's become shorter and seem to be more peaceful, just like the peace that the speaker would like to feel.
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