In “Twenty-One Love Poems” by Adrienne Rich. each verse form helps us understand her life. We as the readers get a “sneak peak” at the battles she faces due to an about ‘doomed’ love matter she has with another adult female. The scenes of her verse forms take topographic point in Manhattan which she refers to as the “island of Manhattan” many times. There is a transitioning from get downing to stop of this short aggregation of verse forms. Rich begins her aggregation with a reasonably about ebullient tone of passion and love affair she portions with her lover. In verse form IV she states “I open the mail. imbibing delightful java. delightful music. my organic structure still both light and heavy with you” ( 10-12 ) . The talker here is holding physical contact with her lover. juxtaposed to the subsequently poems where the lover is merely a memory. The purdah she finds herself in is seen in poem Eighteen: “Close between heartache and choler. a infinite opens where I am Adrienne entirely. And turning colder” ( 13-14 ) . This is the exact point where we find out her unhappiness and loss she has experienced. I will concentrate on this side of the spectrum. Adrienne Rich’s passage into purdah.

Poem XVIII starts off with rain in the metropolis. and the talker is at a ruddy visible radiation at Riverside. It can be interpreted that the rain is in correlativity with her unhappiness and/or cryings as to happening herself at a halt in her life. which is in correlativity with the ruddy visible radiation she is presently waiting on. This averment can be made by the lines that follow: “the more I live. the more I think/ two people together is a miracle” ( 3-4 ) . She is clearly being judgmental about relationships in general based on her experiences in love. Two people together don’t needfully hold to be viewed as a miracle like she puts it. Two adult females nevertheless. in her clip. had to hold a concealed love. wholly unknown to the outside universe.

The terminal consequence would be that their love for each other would hold to ever remain hidden. as to why she writes: “The narrative of our lives becomes our lives” ( 7 ) . She continues by stating her lover that she knows her response already. and that it most probably will sound like something some Victorian poet would state. “… salt estranging sea” is what she pulls from Matthew Arnold’s “To Marguerite” which is largely saying that we are all entirely no affair the 1000000s of people around us. Rich ends the verse form by saying that she is in a province of “estrangement. ” Estrangement is separation ensuing from ill will. but in this instance the alienation can perchance be synonymous for a fresh start. What can be really difficult to understand about the stoping of this verse form is that although “a clef of light” is seeable. Adrienne feels more entirely than of all time. Although the start of something new can be both. good and scaring for person. the start of this new twenty-four hours for Adrienne makes her feel colder than she of all time has felt.

Rich continues in verse form Nineteen to demo the darker side of the “island of Manhattan. ” The verse form starts off with a inquiry “Can it be turning colder when I begin to touch myself once more. adhesion draw off? ” ( 1-2 ) The tone here is grief and an uprising choler. It is interesting to detect that although the talker is prosecuting in onanism. she still feels the coldness that overcame her in verse form Eighteen. It is eccentric because person wouldn’t usually tie in the act of onanism with coldness. unless. this event brings up a memory. a memory which gives her an unhappy feeling. She continues by saying that a bare face turns from looking backwards and is now looking to the yesteryear for comfort. she is ready to take on what is in forepart of her: ” the oculus of winter. metropolis. choler. poorness and death” ( 5 ) .

This new present she is presently confronting possibly excessively much for her to digest. This is why she contemplates if her life is deserving populating in the undermentioned line. She shifts the verse form to turn to her lover by inquiring her a inquiry. She asks her if she is talking in a cold mode if she says love isn’t marvelous. This is a transitioning in her province of head. new profound wisdom enters her and she portions it with us and her lover. She realizes that a relationship dwelling of two adult females “is a work” merely like any other relationship. Thos who are able to be in a healthy relationship can see their attempts as “heroic in its mundaneness. ” The verse form ends by Rich stating her love to “look at the faces of those who have chosen to be in love. that although it takes a batch of difficult work. they are in the terminal happy.

Poem XX starts off really equivocally. with the talker saying that the conversation she and her lover were supposed to hold supports on play backing in her caput. The Fact that it ne’er happened hangouts her boulder clay this twenty-four hours. She continues the verse form by saying that she can separate a adult female she one time loved. the really adult female who holds many secrets that built an huge sum of fright. She has tried to talk to this adult female on many occasions but her “expressive head” is a “dragging down deeper” into a topographic point where she is unable to do contact with her. The adult female she is seeking to talk to the full clip is herself. She comes into a self realisation that she misses the adult female she used to be.

In twenty- one love verse form. Adrienne Rich gives us a peep into her altering ideas about love and life. She uses contradictions to parallel the thought procedure all of us have with love. There is a alteration of head go oning throughout all of the verse forms and this makes the verse forms and poet appear more “human-like. ” What I mean is that in mundane life people have contradictions about many things and this is how Adrienne Rich does a great thought in humanising ideas. Her life is difficult to populate and she realizes that and so make we. I feel safe to state that she knows its tough but this is a life she has chosen. We experience her adversities in her life through her poesy and we see her passage into purdah.

Plants Cited

Rich. Adrienne. 21 Love Poems hypertext transfer protocol: //www. sabrinaaiellophotography. com/files/Complete_21_Love_Poems_by_Adrienne_Rich. htm