Funeral Blues by WH Auden and Washing-Day by Anna Laetitia Barbauld - Essay Example

Prof’s Poetry can serve many purposes, but one of them tends to be an exploration of the life of the poet. Two poems, “Funeral Blues” by WH Auden and Washing-Day by Anna Laetitia Barbauld both express social struggles that the authors would have been familiar with throughout their life. Funeral Blues touches on social struggles only in a tangential way – its main focus is on death, and the destruction that the death of a loved one can bring on someone’s life, but throughout these it also has tones of socials struggle, especially a classed analysis of the way that death is treated very differently based on the status of the dead. Barbauld’s poem is more directly related to social struggle. It speaks quite directly about the plight of women, who must take on menial and thankless tasks essentially as slaves to the men and children in their lives. This poem thus focuses more gendered social struggle then on the class issues that are more central to Auden’s work. Class does, however, enter into this poem through the use of “high” or aureate language, noting the assumption that someone who uses such language can probably avoid the work mentioned by having servants or someone else do it. These two poems thus focus on social struggles as they relate to class and gender, using a variety of literary techniques to explore these issues. The level of language, contrast between the imagined life of the characters and their real life, as well as _______ all create a sense of the social struggles that the authors had to endure throughout their lives. Language plays a central role in the way that both works express their views on social struggle. In Washing-Day, it is immediately apparent that the speaker is an educated person who can use high language to great effect. This language comes in a variety of forms: one is the use of “thy” and “thou” (Barbauld 1797, l. 32), which even at the time of the poem’s composition were growing to be archaic, having been replaced largely by the more formal “you” and “your.” This gives this poem, even when its era is taken into account, something of an archaic flavor, which smacks of high language. Furthermore, the poem makes frequent allusion to ancient literature and things of that sort: it even opens with a reference to the “muses,” minor gods who were supposed to inspire artists according to ancient Greek traditions. Barbauld’s incredibly high language contrasts, however, with the action described of the poem, a Washing-Day, which is described as a horrible day of toil and sweat, which causes physical and spiritual harm to the person doing it. Even the cat, the poem says, is able to escape the horridness of this day to which a woman is subjected. This aureate language’s contrast to the action of the poem accomplishes two things. Firstly, the contrast between the language and the action highlight the horridness of the action, almost like using poetic language to describe a garbage dump. Secondly, It subtly reminds the reader that a person who can speak in such language is probably exempt from this action: it clearly describes the life of the ordinary wife, not a woman of means or status. “Funeral Blues” by WH Auden is also very careful to maintain a particular level of language throughout its entire length, but this language is not aureate, rather, it is very plain language that can be readily understood. Probably the most advanced word in the entire poem is the word “prevent” (Auden 1976, l. 2), which could theoretically be replaced by a more simple word like “stop” if the author wanted it to – but clearly Auden was not attempting to hit a low level of language, but rather a middle one that would be readily understandable for anyone who would care to read it. This simplicity even extends to the rhyme scheme, which is a simple “AA/BB” scheme that adds to the overall air of simplicity that occurs throughout this poem. This simplicity contrasts interestingly with the scenes depicted. Everything in this poem seems to be on an extremely large scale: the author wants the death to be marked by sky writing (Auden 1976, l. 5-6), the whole city to go into morning by releasing white doves and the police force going into morning by wearing “black cotton gloves” (Auden 1976, l. 8), and even the complete dismantling of the solar system (Auden 1976, l. 13-16). The contrast between the high and even cosmic scale of the events described and the language that the mourner uses seems to reinforce that there is very little chance of any of those things actually occurring: this will be an ordinary funeral for the death of an ordinary man. But this causes the reader to question why class should cause such difference in treatment in death? Is not a life a life, and a death a death? Bout Auden and Barbauld, like all poets, are incredibly conscious of their use of language. They go, however, in incredibly different directions when using language, with Auden choosing incredibly high language for her poem, and Auden choosing very ordinary language for his. What is similar in both is that the language draws a contrast to the action described: in Auden’s case the high language drawing attention to the menial nature of the tasks that women are set to, highlighting how incredibly menial those tasks are, while Auden’s case the ordinary language draws a stark contrast to the action described in the poem, which is presumably imaginary in nature. His ordinary language makes the reader understand that the action described is hoped for or imagined: it is what is occurring in the speaker’s head, not what is actually occurring in the real world. Presumably the actual funeral events are quite small and subdued, showing that the class of the person being mourned is not very high. Auden and Barbauld both use the level of their language, which ranges from aureate to ordinary, to demonstrate social struggles based on wealth and gender, respectively. Figurative language or imagery also plays a prominent role in both works. In Barbauld’s “Washing-Day,” figurative language occurs from the very beginning of the work, highlighting the fact that women have very little control over their own lives. This figurative language occurs in many places, but none is so apparent than in the twelfth line, in which women doing the washing work are described as those “who beneath the yoke of wedlock bend” (Barauld 1797). This figurative language makes it very clear that these women have no control over their life – a yoke is something used to fix a team of oxen or horses for daily work such as ploughing, and these oxen or horses clearly have no control over their own lives. Furthermore, the poem frequently makes use of the image of a saint being strung up and happily going to their death – contrasting this image with that of the cross housewives doing their own work, who are, like the saint, were “crushed” beneath a great weight. But the poem makes it clear that these women are not bravely sacrificing themselves for some better aim, but merely slaves to their roles in society. Imagery likewise plays a significant role in Wystan Hugh Auden’s “Funeral Blues” uses imagery to great effect to demonstrate the foolishness of attempts to distance one’s self through class or other means in life, as it will all come down to the same thing in death. The opening line of the poem, which begins “stop all the clocks,” works in several ways (Auden 1976, l. 1). The first is superficial and clear in the poem: the mourner wants everything to stop so that he can have time to mourn. But a closer analysis reveals a more productive image: that of a clock stopping, of time stopping, as occurs to everyone at death. This actually brings a level of equality into the poem, reminding everyone that regardless of status they are subject to the same natural processes, the same mortality as their peers. This serves as a powerful argument for equality in society, by reminding the reader that everyone is, at the most fundamental level, the same, a single life that will result in a single death. The cosmic scope of this poem, which refers to the four winds, the scope of space in the sun and the moon and the stars and so forth all further emphasize the fundamental equality of all men by showing them to be so small compared to the scope of the universe. These images thus make even the wealthiest person, or the highest class, someone for whom the police men would actually wear black gloves, seem small compared to cosmic scope of life and death. He thus makes it apparent that there should not be huge class, wealth or status disparities, as everyone is, on the whole, fundamentally the same: human. Both Barbauld and Auden use imagery to great effect in their poems, but they use very different images to very different effects. Barbauld’s images are all down to earth, understandable and immediate: people can immediately conjure the image of people working in the yoke of slavery, or people suffering through great tortures as martyrs. These images thus play fairly simple roles in the poem: they serve as other ways of describing the plight of women in more powerful or meaningful terms than would otherwise be available. Having to wash up does not sound so awful, until one realizes that the reason they have to do such grueling work is because of enslavement in the yoke of matrimony, and that they go through these slave-like motions with less willingness than a martyr being led to his death. In contrast to Barbauld’s down to earth imagery, Auden’s is positively cosmic. He conjures the four winds, the sun and the moon and basically any other force of nature. This grandiose scale serves a very different purpose in terms of social struggle. Rather than showing a social struggle explicitly, as Barbauld does, Auden demonstrates the futility of social rank and structures in the first place, and thus mocks those who seek to attain them, by showing them how small such achievements are in the grand scheme. This demonstrates that social structures based on rank or wealth are, in the end, meaningless, as everyone will eventually suffer death, the great equalizer. Finally, both authors draw explicit attention to the differences in classed life and this different qualities of life and expectations that results from these classed differences. Barbauld shows some empathy with the washing women in her poem, yet through several details makes it clear that the speaker of her poem has not experienced them first hand. The first way is through a demonstration of education that, as mentioned earlier, probably meant that the speaker was of a class that would not be expected to do the washing. This is made more explicit later in the poem, when the speaker confesses that “as a child” (Barbauld 1797 l. 67), she could not understand why her maids were so cross on the washing days, and why she could not get treats from them. A girl who grew up in such luxury could scarcely be expected to do washing herself when she grows up, and it is explicitly stated that others in her family were also exempt from such duties as well. The grandmother would sit with her daughter while the washing was occurring, while the mother would give commands for the work to go faster (Barbauld 1797, l. 68-74). Thus the speaker shows directly that the class of a woman can allow her to escape, at least in part, from the horrible torments described earlier in the poem: the slavery of matrimony is not so harsh, nor the tasks as heavy when a woman has means. Auden also makes explicit reference to class and the expectations that come from it. In this, poem, class is referenced more obliquely, especially notable in the line “my working week and my Sunday rest,” in reference to how completely the speaker’s mourned friend was everything in his friend’s life (Auden 1976, l. 10). This, however, does directly comment on the life of someone of a working class: they can expect to work very hard, and only get one day of rest off, if that. Furthermore, the connection between class and death in this poem reminds the readers of other realities associated with being of a working class: when someone else might have time to absorb a shocking blow of a death, might actually have time to let the world stop, as the speaker wants it to, someone of a working class does not have that luxury. Work is central to their life, as is demonstrated by this explicit reference to work in thoughts of death of a companion, when one’s thoughts are cut down to their smallest and most essential forms. Auden thus demonstrates through explicit reference to class expectations of life the vast differences in life expectations of the wealthy – who would not have to have such considerations, and the rest, who must think about work even during the contemplation of a close and dear friend’s death. Barbauld and Auden both make direct reference to the lifestyle of people of working class. Barbauld’s approach highlights the struggles of that class, by directly referencing them and the contrasting them of women who do not have to struggle in the same way because of their class privilege. This direct comparison makes a distinct qualifier to the idea that women are subjugated by men and must struggle based on gender, by demonstrating that some women are able to leads lives of relative privilege because of class, and that thus class and gendered struggle must intertwine. Auden’s work is less explicit about class, and makes a slightly subtler, but still very direct, reference to it in a line relating death to work. He, through this line, shows that work is part of a central thought process and psyche to those who are working class, demonstrating that even in extreme circumstances, such as contemplating the death of a friend, work will be present in the mind. This is in implicit contrast to the wealthy, who might actually be allowed to have the world stand still, at least as far as they are concerned, when a death occurs. Barbauld makes her connection to the struggle of working class women very clear: she sympathises with them, but cannot directly relate to their experience, being of a class that does not have to actually suffer through the same kind of experiences. She can thus be a sister in gendered struggle, but a bit distant in class struggle. Auden makes it clear that he is simply talking about the life of ordinary people, who must struggle until their death: this shows that he had a very clear understanding of the psyche of working-class people who had to do everything they could to simply get by, and who, even in death, are treated differently than the wealthy, even though they should perhaps not be. Works Cited Auden, WH (1976). “Funeral Blues” in Collected Poems. Penguin: New York. Barbauld, AL (1797). “Washing-Day” in The works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld” London: Longman. Read More