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Summary work analysis
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work poem analysis and annotations with context and historicism
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Work
To feed one, she worked from home,
took in washing, ironing, sewing.
One small mouth, a soup-filled spoon,
life was a dream.
The first stanza describes a woman with one child who finds life manageable. Note the syntax; the recipient of her care
is placed first, the pronoun “she” comes after this. The woman nurtures others before thinking of herself.
The list, the first of several asyndetic lists — that is, a concise list without conjunctions to suggest hurry — names tasks
that might be associated with the twentieth century. Women today don’t “take in” sewing, and washing machines
have eliminated the need for help with washing and ironing. This was when women’s aspirations didn’t include
professional careers. That “life was a dream” seems modest to today’s high-achieving females, but there was a time
when domesticity was a woman’s total purpose.
Some readers may relate this list of what makes a “worthy” woman to Proverbs 31-10.13.
The poem begins by focusing on the easy living that the woman has when only supporting ‘one’, herself. The
woman’s life is presented through the semantics of a ‘dream’, Duffy using this to represent the tranquil life a
person can lead when they are not supporting others. This could be painting a difference between men and
women, women traditionally having to take on the responsibilities of caring for children while men are free to
live their lives as normal.
The syntactical placement of ‘feed one, she’ places the action of nurturing before that of the self, ‘feed’ before
‘she’. In doing this, Duffy suggests that women are always ready to put caring for others before themselves,
using the syntax of her poem to represent this attribute of women.
The first tasks come quickly in this first stanza, Duffy using asyndeton to connect the three: ‘washing, ironing,
sewing’, task after task being completed by the woman. Yet, there is still room in this paragraph for other
activities, the woman seen as eating, ‘a soup-filled spoon’ and relaxing. This state of blissful rest is something
that is lost in the more hectic later stanzas, showing the woman’s descent into total caregiving.
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The number of recipients
increases within the stanza to
two and then four. The time
and scope change, moving to
pre-mechanised societies
when women took on
The neat enjambment and agricultural work. Today, in
rhyming of “corn” and “born” To feed two, developing countries with
move the stanza on quickly, she worked outside, sewed seeds, watered, agricultural economies,
suggesting the exhausting pace threshed, scythed, gathered barley, wheat, corn. women still take on this role.
of life that the women led. Twins were born. To feed four, This exhausting work would
have been in addition to their
domestic and child-care roles.
she grafted harder, second job in the alehouse,
food in the larder, food on the table,
she was game, able. Feeding ten
was a different kettle,
The focus moves away from agriculture. The “alehouse” places this in a historical context, perhaps nineteenth
century, though “grafted” is modern; the message is the same across the ages. The woman, an ageless
representative of her sisterhood, is working harder than ever. The neatly, internally rhymed “harder” and
“larder” shift the pace yet further, adding to the sense of hurry and exhaustion. The incomplete idiom “a
different kettle …” is an example of aposiopeses, suggesting the woman hasn’t the time even to finish a
sentence.
The noun “game” is used in two senses here, the first meaning ready or willing, the second referring to birds
that are shot for sport or food. The woman is little more than a provider of services and a prey animal that is
food for those she cares for.
The second and third stanzas cover agriculture and medieval life, looking at tasks that respectively touch on
those topics. The use of sibilance across ‘sewed seeds’ further speeds up the meter of the poem, the smooth
sound similarly propelling Work forward and on to the next task.
Asyndeton is used again in both of these stanzas, ‘watered, threshed, scythed… harder, second job in the
alehouse, food int he larder, food on the table’, to present the never-ending task list that the woman
completes. Duffy, although only focusing on one woman, is actually taking snapshots of women throughout
time and around the world, different women all contributing to the endless stream of tasks completed by
women.
The harsh internal rhyme between ‘harder’ and ‘larder’ suggests that in order to produce ‘food on the table’,
the women must continuously work longer and harder hours. There is an ever-increasing demand, shown by
the expanding number, ‘feed four… feeding ten’, that must be fulfilled by the tireless woman. Duffy is
displaying how women are overworked as providers and caregivers, the role of nurturing the many falling to
them.
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