It is clear that Collier's “The Woman's Labour” is written as a response to Duck's “The Thresher's Labour.” We talked in class about Duck's tone of both bitterness and pride in the thresher's work, but what is his tone towards women? What specific lines in Duck's poem do you think spurred Collier on to write her poem as a response, and what lines in Collier seem to you to specifically address Duck's portrayal of women?
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Collier seems most irritated at Duck's omission of the difficult life that working-class women shared with men. Duck does not talk much of the woman's role in agricultural labor, save for one particularly negative portrayal in lines 162-165 of "The Thresher's Labor," where he describes women as "prattling" creatures who work only while their master is watching but quickly revert to "play" when he is not. Collier takes issue with this portrayal of women in "The Woman's Labor," in which she repeats throughout the poem that, not only do women perform many of the man's tasks, but also keep house as well. One feels her bitterness toward Duck in her rampant use of sarcasm and accusatory tone (such as found in lines 135-142).
Duck implies in "Thresher's Labour" that women are more concerned with gossip and sitting around than work: "Ah! were their hands so active as their tongues / How nimbly then would move the rakes and prongs" (168-9). He then describes the manner in which they talk with each other: "All talk at once...So loud's their speech, and so confused their noise..." (176, 180); after discussing how difficult the daily labor is for men, all he has to say about the women is how much they sit around. Though only "little labour serves to make hay" (199), the ladies don't even do that much, and once it starts to rain they scatter away like a flock of sparrows who "fly for shelter to the thickest bush" (196).
Collier calls Duck out for supposing that women are less diligent in their work: "But ne'er could see, what you have lately found, / Our wages paid for sitting on the ground" (51-2). She then responds to Duck's passage about allowing for time to dine despite having done so little work, bitterly reminding him that men, too, must eat sometime: "As well as you, we have a time to dine. / I hope, that since we freely toil and sweat / To earn our bread, you'll give us time to eat" (56-8).
Collier also refers to a kind of work Duck completely overlooks: "...for when we home are come, / Alas! we find our work but just begun..." (105-6). While Duck suggests that women sleep comfortably, doing more in their dreams than while awake, Collier assures him that "Our toil and labour's daily so extreme, / That we have hardly ever time to dream" (134-5).
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