Adrienne Rich - From a survivor
From ZuluNotes - Free Leaving Cert Notes
| English Poem | |
| Image:AdrienneRichPoems.jpg | |
| Adrienne Rich - From a survivor | |
|---|---|
| Subject | English |
| Section | Poetry |
| Paper | 2 |
| Poet | Adrienne Rich |
| On syllabus | 2008 , 2009 , 2010 , 2011 , 2012 , 2013 |
| Note | |
Background
In 1953 Adrienne Rich married an economist, however their marriage proved to be a difficult one. Rich was not content to play the role of obedient wife and adoring mother and gradually realised she was a lesbian
Synopsis
In lines 1 to nine rich thinks back to her early days of marriage and concentrare on her marriage vows, she and her husband like many young newlyweds, believed they were special 'we thought ourselves as special' and that they would never experience the effects of long term relationships and suffer 'the failures of the race'. In actual fact Rich and her husbands marriage was an ordinary one and were not immune to the difficulties of marriage. They were extremely naive in believing that they would never fall into the same place as most couples after years together and in her poem she claims 'we didnt know the race had failures.....and that we were going to share them'. It turns out that Rich and her husband were just 'like everyone else'. It was arrogant of them to think themselvs as special
Lines 10-15 highlight some of the difficulties that affected Rich's marriage. She found marriage troublesome because in that era women were expected to obey their husbands. Rich being a feminist felt she was more than this and felt the constraints of marriage enclosing her into a world controlled by man. Society regarded the man as a 'god'. However in the years since his death her independence and confidence was allowed to flourish and her worries about being dominated by man have vanished. Due to this Rich can now set aside any resentment she felt towards her husband and focus on the love she shared for the gifted economist and social campaigner
In lines 18-23 Rich mourns her husbands death and towards the end of the marriage we see that the couple may have been discussing the possibility of a divorce. However talk of this leap didnt come in time for Rich's husband as he commited suicide. Since her husbands tragic passing Rich now goes on to live a hapy life filled with joy and wonder. however her husbands passing was a tragic waste and he is 'wastefully dead' and will never get to the experience the highs of life that she has
