A Poem by Thomas Hood (1799-1845) A Study Guide | |||||||||||||||||
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Study Guide Prepared by Michael J. Cummings..© 2011 Type of Work and Year Written .......Thomas Hood's "The Song of the Shirt" is a protest poem centering on the inhumane working conditions and meager pay of London's lower-class workers. Punch magazine published it in its 1843 Christmas issue. Since then, numerous collections and anthologies have published the poem. .......Hood based his poem on a real incident involving a London widow who sewed men's garments in her home from materials provided by her employer. She worked long hours but received a meager wage of seven shillings a week. On one occasion, she pawned the employer's sewing materials so she could buy food for her starving children. A London police court charged her with a crime. .......The
theme of the poem is the unjust treatment of laborers by niggardly employers.
Hood develops this theme by focusing on an overworked woman who sews men's
shirts and pants. She is the poem's speaker.
Text of the Poem
With fingers weary and
worn, "Work! work! work! "Work workwork, "Oh, Men, with Sisters
dear! "But why do I talk of
Death? "Workworkwork! "Workworkwork! "Workworkwork, "Oh! but to breathe
the breath "Oh! but for one short
hour! With fingers weary and
worn, barbarous Turk: The
speaker considers the Turks barbarous because they are not Christians.
.......The tone of the poem is despairingor, as line 87 suggests, dolorous. .......Alternating lines of end rhyme occur in all the stanzas. But all the stanzas except the second contain two to four unrhyming lines. Here are examples. Stanza 1 With fingers weary and
worn, Stanza 8 "Work work work, Stanza 10 "Oh! but for one short
hour! .......The poem also contains rhymes within the lines of verse. Here are examples. And a wall so blank, my shadow I thank (line 47)Verse Format .......The poem consists mainly of iambs and anapests in lines of varying lengths. Following are the metric formats of the first three lines.
....iamb..................iamb......................anapest With FING..|..ers WEAR..|..y and WORN.........................................(trimeter) ......1...............2.................
3
......1...............2.............
3..................
4
.......Alliteration is the repetition of a consonant sound. It occurs frequently in the poem to enhance its appeal to the ear. With fingers weary and worn (line 1)Anaphora .......Anaphora is the repetition of a word or group of words at the beginning of a phrase, clause, or sentence. Anaphora occurs throughout "November" with the repetition of no at the beginning of each line, as well as within some lines. With fingers weary and worn,Metaphor .......A metaphor is a comparison between unlike things without the use of as, like, or than. Here are examples. "But why do I talk of Death?Paradox .......A paradox is a contradictory statement that contains truth. "But why do I talk of Death?Conclusion: A Plea .......In the last stanza, the speaker expresses a plea for help from the wealthy citizens of Londonsome of whom, ironically, are the very ones who oppress her. This plea appears in line 88. And still with a voice of dolorous pitch,Study Questions and Writing Topics
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