The Dolls' Wash Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDEEFFGGHHIJKKLL AAMMNO PPQQEERRSSTTIIUUVWWM MXXYYZZA2A2 BBBB2B2| Sally is the laundress and every Saturday | A |
| She sends our clean clothes up from the wash and Nurse puts them away | B |
| Sometimes Sally is very kind but sometimes she's as cross as a Turk | C |
| When she's good humoured we like to go and watch her at work | C |
| She has tubs and a copper in the wash house and a great big fire and plenty of soap | D |
| And outside is the drying ground with tall posts and pegs bought from the gipsies and long lines of rope | D |
| The laundry is indoors with another big fire and long tables and a lot of irons and a crimping machine | E |
| And horses not live ones with tails but clothes horses and the same starch that is used by the Queen | E |
| Sally wears pattens in the wash house and turns up her sleeves and splashes and rubs | F |
| And makes beautiful white lather which foams over the tops of the tubs | F |
| Like waves at the seaside dashing against the rocks only not so strong | G |
| If I were Sally I should sit and blow soap bubbles all the day long | G |
| Sally is angry sometimes because of the way we dirty our frocks | H |
| Making mud pies and rolling down the lawn and climbing trees and scrambling over the rocks | H |
| She says we do it on purpose and never try to take care | I |
| But if things have got to go to the wash what can it matter how dirty they are | J |
| Last week Mary and I got a lot of kingcups from the bog and I carried them home in my skirt | K |
| It was the end of the week and our frocks were done so we didn't mind about the dirt | K |
| But Sally was as cross as two sticks and won't wash our dolls' clothes any more so she said | L |
| But never mind for we'll ask Mamma if we may have a real Dolls' Wash of our own instead | L |
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| Mamma says we may on one condition to which we agree | A |
| We're to really wash the dolls' clothes and make them just what clean clothes should be | A |
| She says we must wash them thoroughly which of course we intend to do | M |
| We mean to rub wring dry mangle starch iron and air them too | M |
| A regular wash must be splendid fun and everybody knows | N |
| That any one in the world can wash out a few dirty clothes | O |
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| Well we've had the Dolls' Wash but it's only pretty good fun | P |
| We're glad we've had it you know but we're gladder still that it's done | P |
| As we wanted to have as big a wash as we could we collected everything we could muster | Q |
| From the dolls' bed dimity hangings to Victoria's dress which I'd used as a duster | Q |
| It was going to the wash and Mary and I were house maids fancy house maids I mean | E |
| And I took it to dust the bookshelf for I knew it would come back clean | E |
| Well we washed in the wash hand basin which holds a good deal as the things are small | R |
| We made a glorious lather and splashed half over the floor but the clothes weren't white after all | R |
| However we hung them out in our drying ground in the garden which we made with dahlia sticks and long strings | S |
| And then Dash went and knocked over one of the posts and down in the dirt went our things | S |
| So we washed them again and hung them on the towel horse and most of them came all right | T |
| But Victoria's muslin dress though I rinsed it again and again will never dry white | T |
| And the grease spots on Mary's doll's dress don't seem to come out and we can't think how they got there | I |
| Unless it was when we made that Macassar oil because she has real hair | I |
| I knew mine was going to the wash but I'm sorry I used it as a duster before it went | U |
| We think dirty clothes perhaps shouldn't be too dirty before they are sent | U |
| We had sad work in trying to make the starch I wonder what the Queen does with hers | V |
| I stirred mine up with a candle like Sally but it only made it worse | W |
| So we had to ask Mamma's leave to have ours made by Nurse | W |
| Nurse makes beautiful starch like water arrowroot when you're ill in a minute or two | M |
| It's a very odd thing that what looks so easy should be so difficult to do | M |
| Then Mary put the iron down to heat but as soon as she'd turned her back | X |
| A jet of gas came sputtering out of the coals and smoked it black | X |
| We dared not ask Sally for another for we knew she'd refuse it | Y |
| So we had to clean this one with sand and brown paper before we could use it | Y |
| It was very hard work but I rubbed till I made it shine | Z |
| Yet as soon as it got on a damped fine thing it left a brown line | Z |
| I rubbed it for a long long time before it would iron without a mark | A2 |
| But it did at last and we finished our Dolls' Wash just before dark | A2 |
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| Sally's very kind for she praised our wash and she has taken away | B |
| Victoria's dress to do it again and I really must say | B |
| She was right when she said You see young ladies a week's wash isn't all play | B |
| Our backs ache our faces are red our hands are all wrinkled and we've rubbed our fingers quite sore | B2 |
| We feel very sorry for Sally every week and we don't mean to dirty our dresses so much any more | B2 |
Juliana Horatia Ewing
(1)
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