The text is entitled Vespertina Cognitio, written by Natasha Trethewey, an American poet. In this case, we can see that the speaker discovers that she is overqualified for employment as a maid. This can be seen in the following lines:
<em>All the while I kept thinking</em>
<em>my plain English and good writing would secure</em>
<em>for me some modest position.</em>
It means that knowing plain English and good writing are more than the required to be hired as a maid.
Iambic Pentameter. It's written in Iambs (sets of one strong followed by one weak syllable), and there are five of these per line (hence pentameter). It's most commonly associated with Shakespeare.
