By Harper Minor, Jordan Mason, and Lauren White
Biography
Anna Lætitia Barbauld (née Aikin), was born in 1743 in Leicestershire, England. She was schooled at home by her mother, and quickly became proficient in reading and writing. In addition to the artistic inspiration from the Priestleys, Anna’s brother John also encouraged her to write poetry. In 1773, Anna and her brother collaborated to write one of their first collections, Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose (A Celebration of Women Writers). Her later poems found success, and she went on to publish hundreds of poems and twenty hymns.
In 1774, Anna Lætitia married Rochemont Barbauld, a Presbyterian minister. They initially enjoyed a happy and fulfilling marriage, as some of her poems describe the success the couple felt they had achieved in their marriage (Poetry Foundation). They began a boarding school together, and although they had no children together, they adopted Anna’s brother’s two year old son in 1777. Anna’s experiences raising the child influenced her early poetry.
Anna’s later poetry marked a shift from descriptions of her experiences with children into addressing the social and political issues of her time period. Specifically, Anna was a passionate advocate of religious freedom and deeply protested the institution of slavery (A Celebration of Women). Anna became increasingly involved within the political climate of her community, and was an outspoken activist of her period (Poetry Foundation).
As Anna’s political endeavors consumed more of her time, her life outside of politics began to suffer. Her husband was diagnosed with varying mental illnesses in 1808, and there are some accounts of his temperament becoming increasingly violent (A Celebration of Women Writers). They separated that year, as Anna became concerned for her safety. Later that year, her husband committed suicide by jumping into the New River. Anna was devastated by this act, and some of her poems following the tragedy describe her grief over his death.
Anna Lætitia’s poetry was met with acclaim during her lifetime. She was celebrated by other poets of the period, including Oliver Goldsmith and William Wordsworth (A Celebration of Women Writers).
In the following poem, the speaker describes a routine washing day and comments on the experience from a child’s perspective.
Washing Day
The Muses are turned gossips; they have lost
The buskined step, and clear high-sounding phrase,
Language of gods. Come, then, domestic Muse,
In slip-shod measure loosely prattling on,
Of farm or orchard, pleasant curds and cream,
Or droning flies, or shoes lost in the mire
By little whimpering boy, with rueful face —
Come, Muse, and sing the dreaded washing day.
Ye who beneath the yoke of wedlock bend,
With bowed soul, full well ye ken the day
Which week, smooth sliding after week, brings on
Too soon; for to that day nor peace belongs,
Nor comfort; ere the first grey streak of dawn,
The red-armed washers come and chase repose.
Nor pleasant smile, nor quaint device of mirth,
Ere visited that day; the very cat,
From the wet kitchen scared, and reeking hearth,
Visits the parlour, an unwonted guest.
The silent breakfast meal is soon despatched,
Uninterrupted, save by anxious looks
Cast at the louring, if sky should lour.
From that last evil, oh preserve us, heavens!
For should the skies pour down, adieu to all
Remains of quiet; then expect to hear
Of sad disasters — dirt and gravel stains
Hard to efface, and loaded lines at once
Snapped short, and linen-horse by dog thrown down,
And all the petty miseries of life.
Saints have been calm while stretched upon the rack,
And Montezuma smiled on burning coals;
But never yet did housewife notable
Greet with a smile a rainy washing day.
But grant the welkin fair, require not thou
Who callest thyself, perchance, the master there,
Or study swept, or nicely dusted coat,
Or usual ’tendence; ask not, indiscreet,
Thy stockings mended, though the yawning rents
Gape wide as Erebus; nor hope to find
Some snug recess impervious. Shouldst thou try
The ’customed garden walks, thine eye shall rue
The budding fragrance of thy tender shrubs,
Myrtle or rose, all crushed beneath the weight
Of coarse-checked apron, with impatient hand
Twitched off when showers impend; or crossing lines
Shall mar thy musings, as the wet cold sheet
Flaps in thy face abrupt. Woe to the friend
Whose evil stars have urged him forth to claim
On such a dav the hospitable rites;
Looks blank at best, and stinted courtesy
Shall he receive; vainly he feeds his hopes
With dinner of roast chicken, savoury pie,
Or tart or pudding; pudding he nor tart
That day shall eat; nor, though the husband try —
Mending what can’t be helped — to kindle mirth
From cheer deficient, shall his consort’s brow
Clear up propitious; the unlucky guest
In silence dines, and early slinks away.
I well remember, when a child, the awe
This day struck into me; for then the maids,
I scarce knew why, looked cross, and drove me from them;
Nor soft caress could I obtain, nor hope
Usual indulgencies; jelly or creams,
Relic of costly suppers, and set by
For me their petted one; or buttered toast,
When butter was forbid; or thrilling tale
Of ghost, or witch, or murder. So I went
And sheltered me beside the parlour fire;
There my dear grandmother, eldest of forms,
Tended the little ones, and watched from harm;
Anxiously fond, though oft her spectacles
With elfin cunning hid, and oft the pins
Drawn from her ravelled stocking, might have soured
One less indulgent.
At intervals my mother’s voice was heard,
Urging dispatch; briskly the work went on,
All hands employed to wash, to rinse, to wring,
Or fold, and starch, and clap, and iron, and plait.
Then would I sit me down, and ponder much
Why washings were; sometimes through hollow hole
Of pipe amused we blew, and sent aloft
The floating bubbles; little dreaming then
To see, Montgolfier, thy silken ball
Ride buoyant through the clouds, so near approach
The sports of children and the toils of men.
Earth, air, and sky, and ocean hath its bubbles,
And verse is one of them — this most of all.
Analysis
Anna Lætitia Barbauld’s “Washing Day” illustrates one of the routine days in the life of a woman in the late 1700’s. This day is the “washing day,” a day when all the women in a community gather together to do their laundry. This rite is described from a young girl’s point of view to give the reader a different insight into the routine. By writing from this point of view, Barbauld shows readers a glimpse of the innocence and wonder that a child possesses while watching an otherwise monotonous ritual, and subtly compares the feats of man to women’s everyday triumphs.
The speaker begins the poem by describing the way the women of the community regard the washing day. The child refers to the women as “Muses … turned gossips; [and] they have lost the buskined step” (1-2). This description shows the reader that the child can tell the women do not enjoy their work, and that the day has turned her mother into a complaining mope. The child continues to notice instances of the women’s dread, from the women’s seemingly “bowed soul[s]” (10) to the “silent breakfast” (19), they eat before the day’s work begins. The child sees that the women are not looking forward to washing day, saying “never yet did housewife notable Greet with a smile a rainy washing day” (31-32). The child even sees that the maid is cross on washing day (69-70). However, in spite of the child’s perceptions of the women’s emotions regarding washing day, the child describes it from her perspective in a new light.
The girl perceives the washing day as a break from the monotony of her life, as opposed to her mother’s dread of the routine. She recalls “the awe This day struck into [her]” (58-59) and illustrates her own routine on the washing day. In fact, when the maids will not entertain her with stories “Of ghost, or witch, or murder” (67), her verse shifts as she begins to make her own experience seem “thrilling” (66). As S. T. Kareem points out, “As if in compensation for the lack [of entertainment], a fantastical literary mood infuses the lines that follow” (92)This “infusion” continues to set the awe-filled tone the girl [j3] uses to describe the washing day. She vividly describes sitting by the parlor fire with her grandmother, who watched the washerwomen thoughtfully as she kept the children (65-69). To the child, the washing day is not the terrible day her mother see it as. This showcases the child’s innocence and joy when juxtaposed with the women’s dread and hatred of the day.
The child’s joy and innocence is further explored when she describes the “bubbles” (76) of the day with vivid imagery, even going so far as to compare them to hot air balloons only recently invented by the Montgolfier brothers. This description of the bubbles also attests to Barbauld’s common theme of feminism throughout her poetry. Donna Landry speculates that from the child’s perspective “such male escapades as the Montgolfier brothers’ experiments in ballooning are shown to be no greater imaginative achievements than the whimsy represented by women’s domestic duties” (273). Barbauld utilizes her choice of speaker to highlight the underrated duties of women that allowed feats such as Montgolfiers’ to occur. This INSERT choice highlights what Elizabeth Kraft calls Barbauld’s “recognition that women … share the common plight of cultural expression.” (26) The washing day is a ritual that all women must bear, a common point of friction that could possibly ignite a spark inside themselves. Kraft also speaks on how Barbauld “invoke[s] a duality of other opposed values, … between domesticity and creativity” (26). This duality accentuates how the speaker is naive and has not been exposed to the sexist viewpoints of her time. She sees the domestic duties of the women with the same wonder that she sees the hot air balloon.
Barbauld’s choice of narrator is crucial to identifying her motivations behind her verse. Through the use of a child as the speaker of the poem, readers are introduced to the idea that what adults see is not always reality. Barbauld also slyly refutes the idea that the so called “great” work of men is any better than the routine toils of the domestic women of her time. “Washing Day” remains consistent with Barbauld’s previous poetic motivations, and remains relevant in feminist conversation today.
Works Cited
“Anna Lætitia Aikin Barbauld (1743-1825).” A Celebration of Women Writers digital.library.upenn.edu/women/barbauld/biography.html#biography.
“Anna Lætitia Barbauld.” Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/anna-laetitia-barbauld
Barbauld, Anna Lætitia. “Washing Day.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York, 2000.
Kareem, S. T. “Enlightenment Bubbles, Romantic Worlds.” The Eighteenth Century, vol. 56 no.1, 2015, pp. 85-104.
Kraft, Elizabeth. “Anna Letitia Barbauld’s ‘Washing Day’ and the Montgolfier Balloon.” Literature and History, vol. 4, no. 2, 1995, pp. 25-27.
Landry, Donna. The Muses of Resistance : Laboring-Class Women’s Poetry in Britain, 1739-1796. Cambridge University Press, 1990, p273.
Stewart, William. “Barbauld, Anna Lætitia”. British and Irish Poets – A Biographical Dictionary. McFarland and Company, 2014, p. 22.
Millet, Jean-Francois. “Les Lavandiers,” WikiArt, www.wikiart.org/en/jean-franccois-millet/the-washerwomen
British Literature 