Marginalia

Intros section it seems like Duck is making the workers descending on the field like heroes into battle, giving it the feeling of an epic poem.

It looks like here Duck is drawing a contrast between the work the Shepards do and the work that threshers do, making the Shepards job seem laid back and enjoyable with, “tell a merry tale” and “tune his voice and sing”

While Duck tries to pin genders against each other in his poem, Collier illustrates that everyone in the working class are equal in the eyes of the “sordid owners” (245) as slaves and dollar signs. Though either […]

Collier is referring to the unspoken expectations of women, an issue that is still prevalent today with issues around maternity leave and decreased pay rates. Women are never finished with work, despite leaving […]

Collier is referring to the difference in gender roles and expectations that are narrowly viewed through the male lens in Duck’s poem. Duck states, “Ah! were their hands so active as their tongues, / How nimbly […]

While the muse typically helps to inspire the artist, Duck is using the muse as a form of PTSD towards the fieldwork, taunting them in their dreams with visions of the work they are suffering through during the […]

Duck uses anaphora again, but to reveal the conflict of his efforts in remedying the pain he has suffered through the back breaking labour. The rhyming begins to fall apart too with lines ending in “get” (139) and […]

Duck is using anaphora to relate the necessity of man in providing for others, especially women, who as Duck refers later, are like birds who do better at chatting than working. Duck is establishing gender roles […]

Annotations for lines 276-281 I sense some irony and criticism in these lines. While the master invited the workers to feast with him, it feels like there is some mockery when the narrator says that “he, too […]

Annotations for lines 137-142 The use of repetition in these lines helps readers to understand what kind of sustenance is served to those working. This also helps to show that no matter how much (which isn’t […]

Annotation for lines43-48 The imagery in these lines helps the reader visualize the labor conditions people were forced to endure during this time. In line 43, “briny streams our sweat descends” is a vivid […]

My comment above is the [connect] comment

Here she’s saying that women work so hard but still end up poor. They do all this work and don’t really get much back for it. I think she’s showing how unfair it is.  

This shows how much work women have to do every day. They work in the fields and then still have to go home and take care of their kids and do more work. They barely get any time to rest.  

Collier is basically calling Duck out because he makes it seem like women don’t work as hard as men. She’s showing that women work just as hard and deserve credit too.  

In this part they talk about how the workers barely get any time to relax because they are always working. They get up early and go to bed late, and even their days off aren’t really free. I think it shows how […]

Throughout this part the workers are happy to be working outside instead of inside, but once it gets hot, they start getting really tired. I think it shows that even when they get to do something different, the […]

I noticed how hard the workers have to work and how the master is always pushing them to do more. Even when they are already tired, he still wants them to work faster. I think it shows how hard and unfair their lives were.  

What isn’t clear to me here is why Belinda is described as worshipping the “Cosmetic pow’rs” and beginning the “sacred rites of Pride.” I understand that she is getting ready in front of her mirror, but I’m not s […]

What isn’t clear to me here is what Ariel means when he says that spirits used to be enclosed in “Woman’s beauteous mould” before moving into “these of air.” Is he saying that the spirits were once women who died […]