Art and the Artist, Degas's Laundresses, Walt Finch

“The artist speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives, to our sense of pity and beauty, and pain.” –Joseph Conrad

In the poem,  Degas's Laundresses, the poet, Evan Boland is writing based off of the piece of artwork called The Laundresses.  Both the poem and the artwork capture the sense of pity the creator had for the subjects, as well as the pain these people felt.  The painting shoes the lady yawning, looking exhausted.  It also shows another woman ironing a shirt, hunched over, like she is pushing as hard as she can and has nothing left to give.  The poem also reflects this, by starting off with you rise in line one.  Generally saying rise you think more of just get out of bed, you don't truly wake up, maybe you were never truly asleep.  It also talks about how they rolled up their sleeves, which is common for laborers.  This creates a sense of pity for them because they're working so hard.  The second stanza and the third stanza start each line in a group of sounds.  Like the W sound in the second, or the Y sound in the beginning of the second, and the s sound in the third.  This works to create a sense of repetition, maybe it is to stress the repetitiveness of the main character of the poem's life?  Get up and work all day, then bed, then repeat?  The poem also talks about more of life at that time, by talking about how the woman is almost afraid of the man.  She refuses to look at him, sounds almost as of fear.

This reflects the social conditions of the time, with women as second class citizens to the men.  It is commenting on the patriarchy of the time.  It is also talking about the miserable life these women live by just working all day every day so hard.  It also goes onto talk about how the man is using "her winding sheet".  Is this literally her sheet? Or what is the connection to it?  Either way it helps to create a feeling of being taken advantage of for the main character, the women, or I guess you since he says you.  The use of you makes it more personal.

This clearly documents the sense of pity and pain the artist had for these women, who were laborers.  He isn't trying to just make something beautiful for the sake of it.  He is trying to tell their story, and capture the emotion of it.  I guess this is a noble cause, still not a big art fan though.