E212: British Literature since 1760

Anna Barbauld Study Questions

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Assigned: "Washing-Day" and "Life" (29ff).

"Washing-Day"

1. How does this poem make fun of the usual way of treating pastoral subjects in poetry?

2. What connections does the speaker make between writing verse and doing the laundry?

3. What recollections of her mother and grandmother does the speaker pass along?

"Life"

4. What philosophical questions does the speaker raise in the first two stanzas?

5. How does the speaker resolve the philosophical questions she has been posing?

Edition: Abrams, M.H. et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 2A. Seventh edition. New York: Norton, 2000.