Ole Kate
Ole Kate - meaning Summary
Working-class Domestic Life
The poem sketches a colloquial portrait of "Ole Kate," a working-class woman who labors constantly in a domestic setting. Its voice is conversational and dialectal, combining bemused affection and dark comedy as Kate dies at her work—falling into a coal pail—without concern for ideology or reward. The poem contrasts routine, physical toil and small comforts (a cat, a kiss) with the absence of political or philosophical reflection.
Read Complete AnalysesWhen I was only a youngster, Sing: toodle doodlede ootl Ole Kate would git her 'arf a pint And wouldn't' giv' a damn hoot. 'Them stairs! them stairs, them gordam stairs Will be the death of me/ I never heerd her say nothin' About the priv'lege of liberty. She'd come a sweatin' up with the coals An a-sloshin' round with 'er mop, Startin' in about 6 a.m. And didn't seem never to stop. She died on the job they tells me, Fell plump into her pail. Never got properly tanked as I saw, And never got took to jail, Just went on a sloshin' And totin' up scuttles of coal, And kissin9 her cat fer diversion, Cod rest her sloshin’ soul. ‘Gimme a kissy-cuddle' She'd say to her tibby-cat, But she never made no mention Of this here proletariat.
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