The Steam Loom Weaver:This poem was poking fun at the Industrial era. When this poem was written the Industrial age was just beginning and people were missing the Romantic period. They missed the days when they were out in the country, walking by a stream, or weaving in their own house. Now they were being forced to work in harsh conditions, and if they were not working then they were not providing money for their home. The way this poem compares working with love is funny. It takes what would be your typical love story, and turns it into a man and a woman conversing about having to hurry up and get to work. This is not something that would have been heard of in the Romantic period.
In the first stanza we see how different a “love story” is during the Industrial period. The speaker says “Two lovers walking in their bloom/ The lassie was a steam loom weaver/ The lad an engine driver keen” 4-6. One difference to point out is that in the Romantic period it would have been unheard of for a woman to be working outside of the home. This was another hot topic of the Industrial Period because people felt that by women having to work outside of the house that they were putting the “home life” in jeopardy.
In the second stanza we see an almost impatient woman. She says “So work away without delay,/ And quickly muster up the steam” 15-16. She would have been impatient because she would have had a very demanding boss who would have only been concerned about her production.
The man in this poem seems to be a little more laid back than the woman. He says to her “I said fair maid you seem determined/ No longer for idle be..” 17-18. I suppose being a steam engine driver maybe he did not have as strict of a boss as the woman. However, another possibility is that during this period they were very hard on the women. I am sure that women were not treated as equals to the men.
Then in the next stanza the man almost takes on a boyfriend/husband role because he is telling the lady that he will provide for her. Even though in the poem he is talking about providing for her in a work environment this is representing in the sense of a relationship. This is funny and ironic because this is not traditional at all. Typically a man would go out and work and provide for his wife who would stay at home and do house chores or small jobs in the house. All of a sudden the man is having to provide for her in a factory.
The ending of the poem pretty much ends with the man having to hurry up and go off and work the rest of the day. He does not have time to stay and chat with the lady. In fact she says to him “But work away while yet it’s day” 43. In the Romantic period it seemed like time was never really an issue. I feel like in this poem it is much like modern day- as in rush rush to get as much work done as possible. When I say modern day I mean modern day United States. In the United States we rush and try to make the most out of every hour. We are a lot like the Industrial period, except we are not all working in factory jobs.
Another interesting story I found in this section was “London Labour and the London Poor- Watercress Girl. This short story written by Henry Mayhew was to point out the injustices of the children during the Industrial period. He talks to an eight year old girl and it is so sad to think that things like this went on during this time. I have a younger brother who is eleven and I could not imagine if he were walking the streets begging and selling. Also, this girl at the age of seven had been responsible for another child. As the speaker points out- “had entirely lost all childish ways, and was, indeed in thoughts and in manner a woman” p.508. Some critics say that we carry childhood to far in today’s society. We see this with college students who go off to college and do not want to grow up. Mainly we do not want to grow up because the majority of us live off of our parents, have no responsibility, and we like being children. In the Industrial society we see that there is no childhood. The parents go off to the factory to work, and the children must go out also and make money just to survive. We also see in this story that the girl is uneducated. We see this because of the way she speaks. All of the things happening to this girl are so sad, and so bad for the future generations following this Industrial period. What is going to happen is that this girl and all the children like her will not be able to do anything besides follow in their parent’s footsteps and work in a factory. This is one of the reasons that the rich got richer and the poor poorer during this period. Even though they were working very hard, they were not reaping the benefits.