The Young Housewife

Throughout the poem, the speaker focuses on tangible and intangible barriers. These appear in the form of objects like the house’s “wooden walls” (Line 3) and the curb to which the young housewife comes and stands. The curb is a type of limit. It is the edge the young housewife reaches before she enters a world beyond her domestic life. The curb is the place to which the young housewife comes “to call the ice-man, fishman and stands” (Line 6), so it becomes the place where her domestic life and the outside world meet.

The curb is also where the young housewife appears at her most vulnerable. The speaker describes the young housewife as she stands on the curb, stating she is “shy, uncorseted, tucking in / stray ends of hair” (Lines 7-8). At the curb, the young housewife’s vulnerability is fully displayed, primarily to the men she calls to and the speaker. After the young housewife’s vulnerability is revealed at the curb, the curb becomes a place of transformation. The transformation, however, is not literal. The transformation is figurative and occurs because the speaker states, “I compare her / to a fallen leaf” (Lines 8-9). Here, the speaker continues objectifying the young housewife, and the word “fallen” (Line 9) implies a sinful nature.