Poem Outline - Chapter 7 - "Sorting Laundry" by Elisavietta Ritchie

In "Sorting Laundry" by Elisavietta Ritchie, a woman is folding laundry while thinking about her relationship, using each piece to talk about another aspect of the relationship.


The metaphors and similes in the poem express the relationship of the speaker and her partner and the uncertainty starts to build.

• "Folding clothes, / I think of folding you / into my life" (1-3)

The speaker compares folding clothes with starting a relationship. Folding means not only folding on top of one another like with clothes but it also means to mix gently with another ingredient. When she says "folding you / into my life" the you is her partner, and she is speaking about having to learn to mix her life with her partners.

• "Our king-sized sheets / like tablecloths / for the banquets of giants" (4-5)

The idea that the sheets are "king-sized" represents the fact that a relationship is something bigger than just one person, it needs two people. In this simile, if the sheets are tablecloths, the bed would be the table. The giants would be looking down at them, which could represent judgement. This starts a motif of using the bed as a symbol.

• "Myriad uncoupled socks / which went paired into the foam / like those creatures from the ark" (22-24)

The idea that the socks "went paired into the foam" but came out "uncoupled" represents how relationships break up when there are tough times. "Myriad" emphasizes just how many relationships have this outcome. Comparing the socks to "creatures from the ark" seems contradictory since the animals were able to stay together, but the socks became separated.



The symbolism digs into the deeper feelings of the relationship.

• "Pillowcases, despite so many / washings, seams still / holding our dreams" (7-9)

The pillowcases represent the hardiness of the relationship. They hold up "despite so many / washings" and the seams have not broken. The pillows hold "dreams", which relates to the act of dreaming and the goals of a relationship. This is another example of the bed motif.

• "Well-washed dollars, legal tender / for all debts public and private, / intact despite agitation" (34-36)

The dollars represent relationships in general. The idea that they are "legal tender" explains that they are all viable for success. Relationships are both "public and private" like money is. The idea that the money is still "intact despite agitation" even after being "well-washed" displays that relationships can get through rough patches sometimes and even after many instances of rough patches they can still be strong.

• "The strangely tailored shirt / left by a former lover" (41-42)

The shirt represents the unsure feelings that the speaker holds towards her partner. She isn't sure exactly where the shirt came from, which is unsettling. The fact that the shirt is "strangely tailored" also adds to its obscurity in the speaker's eyes.




The overstatement at the end of the poem wraps up the idea of how devastated the speaker would be if she was left by her partner.

• "If you were to leave me [...] / a mountain of unsorted wash / could not fill / the empty side of the bed" (43-51)

The poem's length, which is quite long, supports this overstatement. The speaker seems to be folding many pieces of clothing, many of them belonging to her partner, so if those were gone there would not be enough clothes. The "empty side of the bed" is not only the literal bedside being empty, but it also acts as the empty space that her partner leaving would cause in her life.