literary terms
allusion - a casual reference to a something outside of the literary work
biblical allusion to Noah's ark - "Myriad uncoupled socks/which went paired into the foam/like those creatures in the ark" (22-4) - a well-known reference to which to compare
allusion to Goodwill - "And what's shrunk/is tough to discard/even for Goodwill" (25-8) - connects with the reader outside of the limitations of the poem
apostrophe - a direct address to a person or thing that is not present
The entire poem is an apostrophe addressed to the narrator's significant other:
"I think of folding you/into my life" (2-3)
"broken necklace of good gold/you brought from Kuwait" (39-40)
"If you were to leave me" (43)
caesura - a pause or break in a line of poetry
"pillow cases, despite so many" (7)
"recycling week after week, head over heels" (17)
"to be smoothed, or else/ignored, they're in style" (20-1)
"In pockets, surprises" (28)
"paper clips, whatever they held" (31)
"well-washed dollars, legal tender" (34)
cataloguing - creation of long lists for poetic/rhetorical effect
"Sorting Laundry" contains first a list of many of the things people intend to wash, from sheets to towels to clothes
The poem then lists items that accidentally wind up in the wash such as matches, screws, paper clips, money, and jewelry
For reemphasis of the clothing the narrator would have to wash on her own, Ritchie describes "blouses, panties, stockings, [and] bras/[turning] upon themselves" (47-8)
conceit - an extended metaphor
The entire poem is an extended metaphor. Folding clothes is a metaphor for folding the two people's lives together. The fanciful imagery perpetuates the conceit.
enjambment - a line continues onto the next line with no pause or end punctuation but with uninterrupted grammatical meaning
Ritchie uses enjambment throughout the poem:
"Our king-sized sheets/like table cloths/for the banquets of giants" (4-6)
"pillow cases, despite so many/washings seams still/holding our dreams" (7-9)
"So many shirts and skirts and pants/recycling week after week, head over heels/recapitulating themselves" (16-8)
"All those wrinkles/to be smoothed, or else/ignored, they're in style" (19-21)
"Myriad uncoupled socks/which went paired into the foam/like those creatures in the ark" (22-4)
"And what's shrunk/is tough to discard/even for Goodwill" (25-7)
"paper clips, whatever they held/between shiny jaws, now/dissolved or clogging the drain" (31-3)
"well-washed dollars, legal tender/for all debts public and private" (34-5)
"broken necklace of good gold/you brought from Kuwait" (39-40)
"the strangely tailored shirt/left by a former lover..." (41-2)
"If I were to fold/only my own clothes" (44-5)
"the convexes and concaves/of my blouses, panties, stockings, bras/turned upon themselves" (46-8)
"a mountain of usorted wash/could not fill/the empty side of the bed" (49-51)
free verse - verse that has neither regular rhyme nor regular meter
"Sorting Laundry" is written in free verse, which Ritchie says quickly fell into tercets.
hyperbole - overstatement or exaggeration
"Our king-sized sheets/like table cloths/for the banquets of giants" (4-6)
"a mountain of unsorted wash/could not fill/the empty side of the bed" (49-51)
Hyperbole takes the daily and ordinary activitiy of sorting laundry and magnifies it; focusing on the ordinary represents something much bigger - the relationship.
imagery - all references to sensory perceptions, intended to evoke mental images
"Our king-sized sheets/like table cloths/for the banquets of giants" (4-6)
"pillow cases, despite so many/washings seams still holding our dream" (7-9)
"Towels patterned orange and green,/flowered pink and lavender,/gaudy, bought on sale" (10-2)
"Myriad uncoupled socks/which went paired into the foam/like those creatures in the ark" (22-4)
"and, gleaming in the maelstrom,/one bright dime,/broken necklace of good gold" (37-9)
"a mountain of unsorted wash" (49)
metaphor - an implied comparison achieved through a figurative use of words
Metaphors run throughout the entire poem. Folding clothes is a metaphor for folding/incorporating each person into the other's life.
"All those wrinkles/to be smoothed, or else/ignored, they're in style" (19-21) - the wrinkles are metaphors for the obstacles and issues that the people involved in a relationship are forced to deal with. Some issues can and should be smoothed over and worked out, but a good couple also knows when to ignore a small issue.
personification - attribution of human qualities to something inanimate
"Towels patterned orange and green,/flowered pink and lavender,/gaudy, bought on sale,/reserved, we said, for the beach,/refusing, even after years/to bleach into respectability" (10-5)
simile - a comparison between two things linked with either "like" or "as"
"Our king-sized sheets/like table cloths/for the banquets of giants" (4-6)
tone - attitude of the work
The tone of the poem is pensive, reflective, and characterized by a certain sense of longing. There are two tone shifts in the poem. The first nine stanzas have a tone of melancholy and reflection on everyday life. It is also more fanciful: "pillow cases, despite so many/washings seams still/holding our dreams" (7-9). Stanzas 10-14 cover more material concerns. They are more active, tangible, and real as opposed to illusive. The section describes the pressures and rigors of living. Finally, the last three stanzas are contemplative, hypothesizing about the loss of the narrator's significant other.
