The Thresher's Labour
"The Thresher's Labour" is one of three poems written by Stephen Duck in 1730. It describes Duck's struggles as an agricultural labourer, and the situation of the early eighteenth-century British working class in general. H. Gustav Klaus said it was the most accurate description of working life in verse, and praised Duck's recognition that work deserved a literary treatment. "The Thresher's Labour" became the voice, in a sense, for the rural labourers who were oppressed. It also became a model for other labouring-class artists, who began to write about their  own lives and daily experiences. It was the start of a new genre of literature developed by working-class people. History and background. Duck wrote "The Thresher's Labour" after a friend, Reverend Stanley, suggested that Duck write about his life. A pirated edition of the text was published in "Poems on Several Subjects" in 1730, and a revised and authorised version in "Poems on Several Occasions" in 1736. Themes. "The Thresher's Labour" gives details about the hard, tedious labour of an agricultural worker of the 18th century: His characterisation of the agricultural cycle as a destructive machine controlled  by "The Master" has been contrasted with the traditional depictions of pastoral scenes. Response to The Thresher's Labour. In "The Thresher's Labour," Stephen Duck could be seen to imply that women did not contribute much during the harvests, the hardest time of the year. Duck portrays the workers as strong men, covered in dust from their work, while mentioning that the women are at home taking care of the children. These statements provoked some readers, in particular Mary Collier, a washerwoman who knew that women often worked alongside the men. Collier wrote a poem called "The Woman's  Labour" as a direct response to Duck's "The Thresher's Labour." "The Woman's Labour" corrects and criticizes Duck's statements about women's contributions, at times point by point.