Obviously, Mary Collier's opinions differ from Duck's on any number of agricultural and gender-related matters. How, though, does she differ from him as a poet? Identify some significant formal or aesthetic difference between how she writes and how Duck writes and describe it here, with a relevant quote or two to illustrate what you mean.
Deadline: Wednesday (11/4), start of class.
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Mary Collier's poetic style is more straightforward and simple when compared to Duck's form. Unlike Duck, Collier fails to use literary devices such as personification, metaphors, similes and other artistic methods of representation. For example, Duck writes "But soon as Winter hides his hoary head, / And Nature's face is with beauty spread" (696). Duck’s use of literary devices makes the poem seem more sophisticated, but his use of these tools dies down as the poem progresses. Furthermore, Collier does not open her poem with the help of a Muse. Instead, she begins her poem with attacks directed towards Duck. However, both Collier and Duck refer to classical Greek mythology although Collier's knowledge of specific myths and Gods seem limited since she only refers to them occasionally.
Like Alonzo said, I think Collier's style is governed by the fact that her poem is a reaction to Duck's, and is more of an open letter response while Duck's stands alone as a dedication to the laboring class. Collier's got a bone to pick and her target is called out directly in the poem: "Were you, like, us, encumbered thus with care. / What you would have of us we do not know" (125-6). The "you" in these passages could be Duck, or it could be men in general - who merely "reap the gains" but "poorly recompense [the women's] toil and plans" (245-6).
Duck is far less aggressive (he has no need to be), and his observations on the female workers is merely meant to contrast the nature of their work and work habits to that of the men, albeit in a demeaning and perhaps uninformed (as Collier would angrily suggest) way.
Duck is like the husband who's had a few, rambling about how he's the one who works day in and day out to pay the bills. Collier's the pissed off wife who's got something of her own to say about it. One comes from an opportunity for self-praise, the other out of indignation.
Some very good points are brought up, and I think TKim saying that Mary Collier is responding to Mr. Stephen Duck is the main point here. In the poem, Mary goes into great detail of how hard she has to work. "Not only sweat, but blood runs trickling down Our wrists and fingers;" (185-186). She also hammers the point that their work never ends and is very hard to do day after day, especially since their work also includes caring for their children. "While we, alas! but little sleep can have, Because our froward children cry and rave; Yet, without fail, soon as day-light doth spring, We in the field again our work begin," (113-116)
From the first line the the aesthetic difference between the poets is readily available. Duck begins with a quite and peaceful laud of poets; "The grateful tribute of these rural lays" where as Collier uses quick diction and exceptional punctuation to lead off her poem with a powerful passionate image "Immortal bard! Thou favorite of the nine!". The very different poetic formation from the beginning of each work identifies that each style elucidates a different moral. Collier's work identifies itself as a biting retort: as the poem continues collier continues to use images from Duck's work but twists it to laud the female poet, where as Duck turned female poets into a mere object of a patron. Collier turns this on end in points out that the muses, or female poets are the powerful and immortal, not the patrons. As well she scathingly points out that even Duck had a patron "Caroline". Collier uses a much subtler style to create the satirical nature of her response to Duck, where as Duck seems to be writing from a purely traditional structure.
Collier has a much more direct poetic style. She addresses her point in a much more concise and direct manner. As some people above me have noted, this style may be specific to this poem since her poem is a response to Duck's. She is refuting the presentation of female laborers of Ducks poem and then using evidence to support her presentation of the female laborers' plight. This is seen in lines 105-113)
"We must make haste, for when we home are come, / Alas! we find our work has but begun....Our children put to bed with greatest care / we all things for you coming home prepare: / You sup, and go to bed without delay, / And rest yourselves til the ensuing day; / while we, alas! but little sleep can have"
Collier is very directly suggesting that Duck is incorrect in his assertion that men work harder. Because her poem is in many ways addressed to Duck, the style between the poems differ. Duck presents an argument using a variety of poetic devices, because he is creating an argument. Whereas Collier's primary objective is disputing Duck's argument, thus her poem is primarily focused on the message rather than an artistic form.
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