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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
DOMESTIC WORK, 1937, by NATASHA TRETHEWEY Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: All week she's cleaned Subject(s): African Americans - Women; Housekeeping | |||
All week she's cleaned someone else's house, stared down her own face in the shine of copper- bottomed pots, polished wood, toilets she'd pull the lid to-that look saying Let's make a change, girl. But Sunday mornings are hers- church clothes starched and hanging, a record spinning on the console, the whole house dancing. She raises the shades, washes the rooms in light, buckets of water, Octagon soap. Cleanliness is next to godliness ... Windows and doors flung wide, curtains two-stepping forward and back, neck bones bumping in the pot, a choir of clothes clapping on the line. Nearer my God to Thee ... She beats time on the rugs, blows dust from the broom like dandelion spores, each one a wish for something better. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE EMPRESS HOTEL POEMS by ANSELM HOLLO COLLECTION DAY by NATASHA TRETHEWEY ACCOUNTING by NATASHA TRETHEWEY AMATEUR FIGHTER by NATASHA TRETHEWEY AT THE OWL CLUB, NORTH GULFPORT, MISSISSIPPI, 1950 by NATASHA TRETHEWEY AT THE STATION by NATASHA TRETHEWEY CARPENTER BEE by NATASHA TRETHEWEY DRAPERY FACTORY, GULFPORT, MISSISSIPPI, 1956 by NATASHA TRETHEWEY INTERRACIAL by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON AN APPEAL TO CATS IN THE BUSINESS OF LOVE; SONG by THOMAS FLATMAN |
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