For most women of the eighteenth century, independence was nothing more than a dream, but for a very few it was seen as a possibility. The poem, “To a Little Invisible Being Who is Expected Soon to Become Visible” by Anna Letitia Barbauld, is about a relationship between a mother and her child. The poem expresses a mothers’ feeling of excitement, anxiety, and hope for her child who will soon enter into the world. Barbauld connects theses same feeling of excitement, anxiety, and hope and connects it to a desire for women’s independence. Similarly, Barbauld also expresses a desire for women’s independence in another of her poems called “Washing Day.” In “Washing Day” Barbauld uses female consciousness to explain the events that are happening on washing day. In This poem Barbauld is empowering women to refute domestic gender norms by showing them the power of female subjectivity. Although these two poems convey the same meaning of women independence, the tones for which they are interpreted are completely different. In “To a Little Invisible Being Who is Expected Soon to Become Visible” the tone is positive and hopeful, as for “Washing Day” the tone is negative and full of complaints. The tone is different because the motives are different, one is meant to inspire and the other is meant to rally. In “To a Little Invisible Being Who is Expected Soon to Become Visible,” Barbauld uses the birth of a child emerging into the world as a metaphor for women to emerge and claim their independence. There is always excitement and anticipation with the birth of a newborn child. Parents are excited because the child is full of potential and have the ability to accomplish so much in life. Barbauld connects this excitement and anticipation with female independence. Line five in the poem says, “what powers lie folded in they curious frame.” On the surface Barbauld is referring to an unborn child but underneath, wi