POEM Woman in Kitchen EAVAN BOLAND

Question 1

Repetition showing woman feels emptiness

Answer 1

“White surfaces retract. White (enjambment) Sideboards light the white of walls.
Cups wink white in their saucers”

Question 2

Caesura breaking up sentence showing her life is broken by her lifestyle

Answer 2

“On cups and sideboards. She could use (en) The room to tap if she lost her sight”

Question 3

Imagery is very colourful and positive, portraying her desires, contrasting the ‘White’ of the kitchen.

Answer 3

“The tropic of the dryer… lunar window… The kettle in the toaster is a kingfisher…trout among the river’s mirror”

Question 4

Fast pace through enjambment and commas showing her fast lifestyle pace and rhythm to it
Contrasting to when she stops housework: her only life is when she’s busy in kitchen otherwise she’s dead.

Answer 4

‘The wash done, the kettle boiled, the sheets (en) Spun and clean, the dryer stops dead.
The silence is death. It starts to bury the room in white spaces”

Question 5

Death and silence portraying her life

Answer 5

In a room as quiet as a mortuary

Question 6

Third person showing feels consumed by lifestyle

And compares herself to kitchen

Answer 6

“She watches the machines go fast and slow”

“She stands among them as they shake the house”