The Richest Woman in the World

She chops into meat with a golden knife

And cooks it in a golden skillet.

For coal she has a golden hod.

There is always a plenty to fill it. 

She has some tongs made out of pearl

To poke the fire and make it burn.

She pours the milk in diamond crocks

And churns the cream in a silver churn.

And when she’s tired she has a stool;

It’s made of jade with pearls set in it. 

She sits down here and wipes her face

And gets her breath a minute.

On Saturday she stirs the cake

With gold, and when the water is hot,

She kills the hen with a golden axe

And scalds her in a golden pot. 

Poem Audio

EKU Photo Collection. "Kitchen with a gas stove, and a table with chair." Eastern Ky Review, Vol. 20, no. 2, (Nov. 1926):31. Image no. 0001-005-classes_home_economics-030. Eastern Kentucky University,  Special Collections & Archives. Used with permission from EKU Archives.

About this Poem

By Erin Gregory

In "The Richest Woman in the World", Roberts paints a picture of a woman doing manual labor with expensive and lavish tools. She seems to be cooking - from slaughtering her own chicken and heating a fire to baking a cake. Roberts intentionally describes all of her tools as being made of some kind of precious material, opening up an interesting conversation about class and consumption, the value of labor, and the role of women’s work.

Some of the tools Roberts describes are out of use by most in our current society, but during Robert’s time, they were probably a frequent part of everyday life, particularly for those in rural areas. A hod, for instance, is used to shovel coal, which was common in Kentucky households during the early 20th century as the coal industry grew. A crock is an earthenware jug used for storing liquids – as opposed to glass milk bottles, cartons, or the plastic jugs of today. A churn was used to turn milk into cream or butter, and required a lot of time and strength. So, Roberts is taking particular care to show this intensive, time consuming labor often associated with rural living and doing things the old-fashioned way – a cultural theme in Kentucky and Appalachia.

This poem could also be read as a critique of women’s work within the home. This kind of domestic labor was and remains an incredibly gendered part of Appalachian and southern American culture. The woman described is cooking, and her day-long labor is far from our electric ovens, InstaPots, and already-churned butter. It’s not far-fetched to say Roberts herself may have had familiarity with this kind of domestic work. This role is intensive, never-ending, and, again, gendered. Roberts could be saying that, regardless of how rich a woman becomes, she is still subject to this expected role of unpaid domestic laborer – always expected to provide a meal. 

The never-ending, repetitive nature of this work is emphasized by the order of the stanzas. The first stanza addresses cooking meat, while the last addresses killing the hen. While it makes more chronological sense for her to slaughter the hen, and then begin cooking it, ordering the stanzas in the way she has creates a sense of routine. This is something she does regularly, and there is no end to her labor. Moreover, instead of ending her poem with the third stanza, in which the character is finally having a moment of rest, Roberts ends it by beginning this cycle of labor once more.

Essay Audio