Sorting+Laundry

=**"Sorting Laundry" by Elisavietta Ritchie**=

Folding clothes, I think of folding you into my life.

Our king-sized sheets like tablecloths for the banquets of giants,

pillowcases, despite so many washings, seems still holding our dreams.

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.

So many shirts and skirts and pants recycling week after week, head over heels recapitulating themselves.

All those wrinkles To be smoothed, or else ignored; they're in style.

Myriad uncoupled socks which went paired into the foam like those creatures in the ark.

And what's shrunk is tough to discard even for Goodwill.

In pockets, surprises: forgotten matches, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5;">lost screws clinking the drain;

well-washed dollars, legal tender <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5;">for all debts public and private, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5;">intact despite agitation;

and, gleaming in the maelstrom, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5;">one bright dime, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5;">broken necklace of good gold

you brought from Kuwait, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5;">the strangely tailored shirt <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5;">left by a former lover…

If you were to leave me, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5;">if I were to fold <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5;">only my own clothes,

the convexes and concaves <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5;">of my blouses, panties, stockings, bras <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5;">turned upon themselves,

a mountain of unsorted wash <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5;">could not fill <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5;">the empty side of the bed. Elisavietta Ritchie was born in 1932 to Russian Immigrants. She began writing when she found old memoirs of her Russian grandmother, her first poem being short and simple, "Seagull, seagull, two by four, eating garbage off the floor". She studied in Paris, New York and California. She has been featured by various books, newspapers and organizations. Ritchie, besides her writing, makes a living by translating French and Russian texts. She is married to Clyde Farnsworth, who used to work for the New York Times. She wrote the poem "Sorting Laundry" whilst deciding whether or not to marry Farnsworth. She is still alive and lives in Maryland, working on her writing, both prose and poetry.
 * About Elisavietta Ritchie**


 * || Examples from Text || Explanation/Impact ||
 * Theme || * "Folding clothes, / I think of folding you/ into my life" (1-3)
 * "If you were to leave me [...] / a mountain of unsorted wash / could not fill / the empty side of the bed" (43-51) || * Even though sorting and folding laundry can be a tedious chore, it brings up fond memories and reminds one of the importance of his or her relationship.
 * "Unsorted wash", representative of memories, could never replace one's love for another. ||
 * Imagery || * visual imagery - "one bright dime, / broken necklace of good gold" (38-39)
 * Symbolism - "Pillowcases, despite so many / washings, seams still / holding our dreams" (7-9)


 * Metaphor - "All those wrinkles / to be smoothed, or else / ignored; they're in style" (19-21)
 * Overstatement/symbolism - "If you were to leave me [...] / a mountain of unsorted wash / could not fill / the empty side of the bed" (43-51) || * The useless junk found in the wash is emphasized to show its importance to the author's relationship.
 * The pillowcases represent the relationship as a whole because even though the lovers have been through so much, their relationship and included dreams still exist.
 * Compares the relationship to clothes that have become wrinkled. Even if they're are some troubles in relationships, some can be fixed and others tolerated.
 * The memories described throughout the poem are so important but could not fill an emotional emptiness if the author's lover left. ||
 * Meter || * Each stanza is short and of equal lines (3 lines each)

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"> Works Cited: Sound,and Sense. 9th Ed. Ed. Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006.
 * Each stanza talks about a specific piece of laundry. || * Represents the action of folding laundry. It is short, quick and easy.
 * Recognizes each memory and significance of each object. ||
 * Emotion || * "the strangely tailored shirt / left by a former lover..." (41-42)
 * "If you were to leave me [...] / a mountain of unsorted wash / could not fill / the empty side of the bed" (43-51)
 * " And what's shrunk / is tough to discard / even for Goodwill. (25-27) || * Uncertainty: The ellipse and diction indicate uncertainty of the relationship.
 * Love: The author is clearly in love with the other person, and knows that this relationship is important to her.
 * Nostalgia: Even worn out things are hard to get rid of because of their significance to the author. ||
 * "Sorting Laundry." Sorting Laundry. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
 * "Washington Writers Publishing House." Washington Writers Publishing House. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
 * Ritchie, Elisavietta. "Sorting Laundry." Perrine's Literature: Structure,