Poems- "Sorting Laundry"

"Sorting Laundry"

By: Elisavietta Ritchie

"Folding clothes, I think of folding you into my life (Lines 1-3)." As the opening lines to the poem, this simple sentence establishes the theme and key literary technique used throughout the poem. For, this line reveals the metaphor of laundry and the speakers love. 

Within the poem, the key imagery is the laundry. Most importantly, though, is the white shirt which had belonged to the former lover. With the image of the shirt, the psychological association is formed as the speaker associates the clothes as connected with separation and fears that such separation will occur in the speaker's relationship. The length of the poem additionally stresses and illustrates this metaphor. For, the long length suggests an overstatement just as an overstatement is presented when describing the laundry as a "mountain."

By use of metaphor and imagery, the principle idea of sorting through one's emotions within a relationship is established. In sorting through these emotions, the speaker feels as though they are climbing a mountain of uncertainties and must constantly take the next step and try to make it to the top to ensure that the relationship does not separate. Thus, in the image of laundry is established the speakers love.