Sound and Sense Chapter Eleven: "Woman Work"

In the poem Woman Work, Maya Angelou writes about all that women have to do, and she expresses her need to escape through her end rhyme and description of the outdoors.

            Maya Angelou begins the poem with a fourteen line stanza. In these lines she practically lists all the chores that she has to accomplish, yet she still has an end rhyme. The first stanza is the longest in length, and when it is read it is exhausting and the lines appear to be a list of chores. The short lines and repetitiveness of the use of “The” makes it tiring to read just like the chores would. The last two lines of the stanza are not chores: “Then see about the sick And the cotton to pick” (Lines 13-14). Angelou illustrates that woman do get out of the house and do other important tasks. In the rest of the poem Angelou describes things that are outside for example sunshine, winds, snowflakes, and the sky. The sky is described twice, and the sky is the biggest out of all of the things. Her description illustrates her will to free and out of the house. In the last line of the poem she writes “You’re all that I can call my own” (Line 30), referring to the sky. The speaker views the sky as something that is entirely hers, unlike the other items she has. Nature invigorates her, and does not drain all of her energy, like the chores she has to complete in her household.