An Explication of Washing Day :: Washing Day

An Explication of Washing Day   One Source Cited     The poem Washing Day by Anna Letitia Barbauld illustrates deuce different points of view of the events that ar happening on washing day. The first view is how the people surrounding the author observe towards the chores to be done that day. The split second is the view from the author when she was a child, observing all that is happening. The idea of the poem is to bring to the readers attention the joy and innocence of childhood, while at the same metre noting the importance of the events of the day. The author accomplishes this by her choice of words used to describe the various tasks.   As soon as the poem begins, the reader detects a contact of melancholy. The opening argument The Muses are turned gossips immediately creates a negative tone. Muses (inspirations) are usually thought of as being good and uplifting, here they are being turned into something that is generally thought of a s being bad. As the poem continues, a sense of sarcasm can be detected at the end of the authors reference to this day. She details the way the women (domestic Muse) come from where they live in a most woeful way prattling on and tone ending by mud where there are drowning flies and an old shoe. Then she ends this section by saying, Come, Muse and sing the dreaded Washing-Day. If something is dreaded, a person is not discharge to be singing about it, even though the men would probably like to see that. The description of marriage in the next line is interestingly negative. Beneath the yoke of wedlock bend,... a yoke is put on an ox which is a beast of burden I suppose the women feel exactly this way because they seem to have no choice in the matter.   As the women are getting ready the sky looks as though it is going to rain, which makes the task even worse. Barbaulds description of the attitude at the breakfast table continues the melancholy. She uses the word s ilent and dispatched to depict breakfast, words that are not associated with an enjoyable repast (line 19). The next few lines illustrate the effect of the rain on such a day.