A Kitchen Poem
A Kitchen Poem
Now the land shawls itself in gloom.
The mountain puts enchantment on.
I sit in this plain-spoken room, and soon the cares of day are gone:
crows, starlings, eelworm, codlin moth, all nature's murderous hosts are sweeping from thought upon night's tide like froth.
Now tired with light my son is sleeping.
Too great with child to sit at ease beside the window stands my wife dreaming herself away from these four walls to scintillating life,
where brats and all thier fierce demands don't happen. Brains are put to use.
Where tongues are cool with wit, and hands unnstained by work or walnut-juice.
Dear wife, let keen bluestockings grieve over their academic wrongs; astringent lady poets leave the real world for nreal songs;
career-made women reaffirm their stnad against male dominance elegant busybodies worm scandal from every careless glance.
Used to each other as to air we do not speak. But over all my ripening fields and orchards where
Orion leads a waterfall
of stars, and dying summer's led to fruitfulness, your beauty lies.
Children and work and daily bread are rich beneath your royal skies.
In the Kitchen Poem, a farmer is speaking to his wife about the farm life. His wife wants a city life and he is trying to show her the true reality of the city life and how the farm life was truly the good life. It also talks about how the farmer connects with nature.
The title of the poem is important because the kitchen was arguably the most important room in the house for farmers. The kitchen was where the food was made and food was a key part of farming life. It was where the family would eat and connect.
Notes:
Husband's perspective to women's rights movements
Themes: Nature, oppression, love
Progression: first two stanzas- introduce farmers and gives a sense of atmosphere and setting. Simple diction when male is talking about himself in contrast to the diction used in the next stanzas when talking
Now the land shawls itself in gloom.
The mountain puts enchantment on.
I sit in this plain-spoken room, and soon the cares of day are gone:
crows, starlings, eelworm, codlin moth, all nature's murderous hosts are sweeping from thought upon night's tide like froth.
Now tired with light my son is sleeping.
Too great with child to sit at ease beside the window stands my wife dreaming herself away from these four walls to scintillating life,
where brats and all thier fierce demands don't happen. Brains are put to use.
Where tongues are cool with wit, and hands unnstained by work or walnut-juice.
Dear wife, let keen bluestockings grieve over their academic wrongs; astringent lady poets leave the real world for nreal songs;
career-made women reaffirm their stnad against male dominance elegant busybodies worm scandal from every careless glance.
Used to each other as to air we do not speak. But over all my ripening fields and orchards where
Orion leads a waterfall
of stars, and dying summer's led to fruitfulness, your beauty lies.
Children and work and daily bread are rich beneath your royal skies.
In the Kitchen Poem, a farmer is speaking to his wife about the farm life. His wife wants a city life and he is trying to show her the true reality of the city life and how the farm life was truly the good life. It also talks about how the farmer connects with nature.
The title of the poem is important because the kitchen was arguably the most important room in the house for farmers. The kitchen was where the food was made and food was a key part of farming life. It was where the family would eat and connect.
Notes:
Husband's perspective to women's rights movements
Themes: Nature, oppression, love
Progression: first two stanzas- introduce farmers and gives a sense of atmosphere and setting. Simple diction when male is talking about himself in contrast to the diction used in the next stanzas when talking