Image: Adrienne Rich http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/adrienne-rich Photo by Neal Boenzi/New York Times Co./Getty Images
Adrienne Rich’s “Living in Sin”
Adrienne Rich’s “Living in Sin” is one of American literature’s finest poems in free verse. Its theme of disillusionment plays out in colorful sense imagery. This little drama remains one of this poet’s best efforts.
Introduction with Text of “Living in Sin”
Adrienne Rich’s “Living in Sin” features four distinctive movements. The poem focuses on sense awareness including visual imagery, such as “a pair of beetle-eyes would fix her own,” auditory as in “each separate stair would writhe / under the milkman’s tramp,” and olfactory with “last night’s cheese,” an image that superbly supports the theme of disillusionment.
An omniscient speaker reports the actions and details of the narrative. While the reader is admitted into the mind of the young woman in the poem, it is obvious that the young woman is not actually telling her own story.
This tactic is employed to make the revelations appear more objective and believable. If the woman in the poem were reporting the events and the feelings engendered by them, only confusion would ensue because the woman in the poem is, in fact, confused about her feelings.
The phrase “living in sin” signifies an unmarried man and woman living together. A more contemporary term is “shacking up,” but as mores change, the concept is losing its traditional distinction. In a postmodern world, the notion of sin becomes more and more passé.
Living in Sin
She had thought the studio would keep itself
no dust upon the furniture of love
Half heresy, to wish the taps less vocal
the panes relieved of grime. A plate of pears,
a piano with a Persian shawl, a cat
stalking the picturesque amusing mouse
had risen at his urging.
Not that at five each separate star would writhe
under the mailman’s tramp; that morning light
so coldly would delineate the scraps
of last night’s cheese and three sepulchral bottles;
that on the kitchen shelf among the saucers
a pair of beetle-eyes would fix her own—
enjoy from some village in the moldings . . .
Meanwhile, he, with a yawn,
sounded a dozen notes upon the keyboard,
declared it out of tune, shrugged at the mirror,
rubbed at his beard, went out for cigarettes;
while she, jeered by the minor demons,
pulled back the sheets and made the bed and found
a towel to dust the tabletop,
and let the coffee-pot boil over on the stove.
By evening she was back in love again
though not so wholly but throughout the night
she woke sometimes to feel the daylight coming
like a relentless milkman up the stairs.
Reading
Commentary on “Living in Sin”
Adrienne Rich’s “Living in Sin” paints a portrait of disillusionment felt by a young woman, who at the urging of her paramour has moved in with him in what appears to be a small flat or studio apartment.
First Movement: What! I Have to Dust the Furniture?
She had thought the studio would keep itself
no dust upon the furniture of love
Half heresy, to wish the taps less vocal
the pains relieved of grime. A plate of pears,
a piano with a Persian shawl, a cat
stalking the picturesque amusing mouse
had risen at his urging.
A young woman is puttering around in a studio apartment, observing the slovenliness into which she has allowed herself to be brought by her boyfriend. The idea of moving in together had seemed so romantic when he first touted the idea.
He had suggested a delicious plate of fruit on the coffee table, he painted the image of a piano draped in a “Persian shawl,” and he described the cute antics of his cat chasing a mouse—all so colorful, sweet, and amusing.
But she is now observing that there is dust on the real furniture, although no dust had appeared as her fellow described the “furniture of love.” She is finding out that she actually has to work to make the place livable. The faucets belch out squeaky noises, and the windowpanes are filthy. This scenario is not what she envisioned when her boyfriend suggested they shack up together.
Second Movement: How Can I Sleep through This Racket
Not that at five each separate star would writhe
under the mailman’s tramp; that morning light
so coldly would delineate the scraps
of last night’s cheese and three sepulchral bottles;
that on the kitchen shelf among the saucers
a pair of beetle-eyes would fix her own—
enjoy from some village in the moldings . . .
The young woman now rattling around in the tiny flat furthermore had no clue that she would have her sleep interrupted by the creaking stair-steps at 5 a.m. by the milkman stomping up those noisy stairway.
Also, the “scraps / of last night’s cheese and three sepulchral bottles” do not look so tempting with the cold light of morning revealing them for what they actually are—filthy trash to be tossed out.
She also had not anticipated to engage in a staring contest with a cockroach that has stationed himself “on the kitchen shelf among the saucers,” making her understand the creepiness in the fact that he must have crawled out “from some village in the moldings” where numerous others of his ilk continue to proliferate.
Third Movement: He Doesn’t Look so Good in the Cold Light Day
Meanwhile, he, with a yawn,
sounded a dozen notes upon the keyboard,
declared it out of tune, shrugged at the mirror,
rubbed at his beard, went out for cigarettes;
while she, jeered by the minor demons,
pulled back the sheets and made the bed and found
a towel to dust the tabletop,
and let the coffee-pot boil over on the stove.
This nasty studio apartment is proving to be nothing but a pig sty, unlike any love-haven she might have imagined prior to moving in. Even her man has disappointed her: with a bored demeanor, he plunked out of few notes on the piano then complains that it is “out of tune.” Might this suggest that he does not even know how to play the piano?
So he gives himself a quick look in the mirror, “rub[s] at his beard,” and leaves the apartment to buy cigarettes. What, no kiss good-bye? While alone, she is “jeered by the minor demons,” annoyed by petty thoughts that irk her more than anger her. So she gets busy, making the bed and dusting, but “let[s] the coffee-pot boil over on the stove.” Oops, another irksome detail of “living in sin.”
Fourth Movement: Will Love Get Me though This?
By evening she was back in love again
though not so wholly but throughout the night
she woke sometimes to feel the daylight coming
like a relentless milkman up the stairs.
Nevertheless, once her man is back, and they snuggle up together with wine and cheese again, she finds herself “back in love again.” But later as she tries to sleep again, she remembers the irritating details of the grubby little place she is sharing with this yawning man as the creaking stair-steps remind her of what living in sin looks like in the cold light of day.
Commentaries on Other Adrienne Rich Poems
- Adrienne Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck” Adrienne Rich’s speaker in “Diving into the Wreck” claims that she has read “the book of myths.” Note that by stating she has read “the book of myths,” she is implying that there is only one such book.
- Adrienne Rich’s “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” Structured in three awkward movements, Adrienne Rich’s “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” explores a theme that feminists [1] employ to assert concocted damage done to women by “patriarchal” marriage.
