Good Example Of Reflections On The Poem I Wash The Shirt Essay

A Polish poetess Anna Swir, whose full name is Anna Świrszczyńska, was born and lived in Poland in the 20th century. She lived in poverty with her father who was an artist, and fully experienced the burdens of World wars. But unlike many other writings of that time, her poetry is very tender and family-oriented. The poem “I wash the shirt”, which will be analyzed in this essay, deeply expresses her feelings toward her father.
The message of this poem is in expression of love and sorrow, it is the cry of a girl who has lost her dad and has practically nothing left to remind her of him. Usually children differently show their emotions about their parents’ death. This poem describes a girl’s grief and sadness in the act of washing a shirt. Swir depicts the scene of an actual act of washing her father’s shirt in water, and through this visual insight she expresses the sorrow of losing her beloved dad. The words “for the last time”, “destroy”, “forever” particularly show the pain of the loss and emphasize the fact after his death life is not the same anymore as the shirt will not be the same after the washing.
She uses the sense of smell as a key element in the poem. It is true that smells can stay longer in human’s brain and memory than pictures. The smells of sweat and oil are two smells which remind a poor daughter of her father. It is not the smell of flowers or delicious food, but a strong and probably not pleasant smell of her dad’s sweat. Still for her it is a sweet memory. I can grasp the meaning that their life together was not easy, but it was spent in harmony and mutual help. It is known, that she lived with her dad in his atelier. The little details how she used to wash her dad’s clothes and underwear suggest that they lived in poverty without any luxuries. Although he is dead already, the smell on his shirt is a reminder of the daily life and routine. She tells how usually she washed his underwear and dried on an iron stove. She remembers it to a little detail, adding that her dad never ironed his underwear: I dried them at an iron stove in the workshop, he would put them on unironed”.We do not know more from their life but we can assume that they were very close and used to living together. She does not tell how exactly her father died and was he wearing this shirt of another clothes at that moment but this shirt becomes a symbol for her, it connects her life and her father’s death.
She is speaking of her dad with deep attachment and love. She mourns the death of her father and disappearance of the last physical sign of him – the sweat on his shirt. She emphasizes how special was her dad for her in these words: “from among all bodies in the world, animal, human, only one exuded that sweat”. The girl can distinguish the smell of her dad from any other smells ass one can recognize a familiar face.
At the same time it is not clear why the shirt has to be washed after her father’s death as it will not be used again. Maybe the author wants to point that those who stay alive have to leave their past behind and move on washing the memories away. Also the reason could be that a washed shirt would not be such a painful reminder for her later if it is washed or maybe she will wear this shirt herself. Another possibility is that she will put this shirt on her dead father in a coffin. We do not know this but those facts are less important than her strong conviction than losing a smell of her dad’s sweat equals losing him in her life.
The poem is very expressive and rich in colors. If I close my eyes I can imagine a little girl washing men’s shirt and watering it with her own tears. She is crying over the shirt and looking at the paintings made by her dad. Now they are going to be her only reminders. The new smell of oil mentioned in the last line of the poem creates a new picture of a girl watching paintings of her dad and thinking of her childhood spent in an atelier.
Although the poem is very sad, the final lines of it are optimistic. She says that “paintings survive him” meaning that he will be always in his works, and she will always keep them as a memory of her dad. This cheerful note adds tint for the poem and help a reader to create a good visual picture and suggests that life continues in various colors and smells.