Analysis of Adrienne Rich’s Poem "Living in Sin"

Adrienne Rich was an American poet, essayist, and feminist. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland on May 16, 1929. Her work in the literature field made her recognizable and allowed her to achieve the National Book Award for Poetry and many more. The poem, “Living in Sin” was written during the 1950s and became quite popular during this time. Her phenomenal work serves as a perfect example of how the reality of relationships can never be perfect, leaving one to seek for something better. The woman in this poem fantasized and expected a perfect relationship by daydreaming and hoping that her relationship will never have difficulty and hardship. However, down the line her imagination backfired, and the reality took over. Adrienne Rich uses colorful language with the involvement of an intense choice of diction and rhetorical devices to adequately describe the sadness the woman is facing in the poem.

Rich begins the poem with two lines that immediately shows the audience that the woman is currently in a state of regret and sorrow because of her relationship. The first two lines of the poem start with, “She had thought the studio would keep itself; no dust upon the furniture of love” (1-2). This quote shows that the woman pictured a perfect relationship in the beginning, but as time progressed, problems and issues started to occur making her lose interest and affection with her significant other. The author performs a wise choice by using the word “dust” as a replacement for problems in the poem. Once problems and issues occur in the couple's relationship the love begins to fade and the woman is no longer interested. The word “furniture” can be defined as the couple's life or their relationship making the first two lines of the poem very meaningful. Using colorful language, Rich creates a powerful message in her poem to show what the woman is possibly facing.

The author uses an intense choice of diction to show the emotions of the woman in the poem. The following words, coldly and relentless can all be found in the poem. She uses these two detailed words to describe the woman's thoughts and feelings that she is currently facing in her relationship. The author also mentioned, “Meanwhile, he, with a yawn, sounded a dozen notes upon the keyboard, declared it out of tune” (15-17). This quote can be classified as a metaphor, Rich uses the word keyboard in this metaphor to make a related connection to the couple's relationship. While the statement, "declared out of tune" can be referred to as the complications the relationship is currently facing. Another quote that was mentioned in the poem, “that morning light so coldly would delineate the scraps of last night's cheese and three sepulchral bottles” (9-11). This quote can best describe that the couple's relationship is no longer enjoyable and is beginning to get sour, just like last night’s scraps of cheese. Rich also uses the three sepulchral bottles to show the action of the woman feeling downhearted towards her relationship which forces her to consume the three bottles.

All in all, Adrienne Rich’s poem, “Living in Sin” sets as an example of how relationships cannot always be perfect. Nowadays, most relationships fail because when tough times come around the majority of people give up and walk away. The truth is, every relationship is going to experience difficulty, from young to old, every relationship will have their ups and downs. The woman in the story expected to enter a life full of hopes and promises with her lover. However, when reality struck, she realized that work and effort must be put out to have a perfect relationship. Rich developed a well-written piece of art by incorporating colorful language, an intense choice of diction, and utilizing rhetorical devices to fully describe the feelings and thoughts of the woman in the poem.