Sorting Laundry

The imagery in this poem describes the many items that one must sort for the purpose of functioning in a household. The speaker talks normally about what she must launder and sort. It is the most normal part of any relationship but she speaks because her lover is gone. We know that from the "former love" at the end of the poem. Also with all the images of so many clothes we see the immense task of laundering and yet with all those examples it cannot fill "the empty side of the bed." The purpose of poem's imagery was to show the reader all that she folded for her lover. But when he is gone even the simplest task is not enough to cover up the profound effect he had in her life. She thinks of even the little things through clothes that are a huge part of any person's life.