Eavan Boland - The War Horse

Eavan Boland - Biography

Power - Adrienne Rich

Living in the earth-deposits of our history

Today a blackhoe divulged out of a crumbling flank of earth
one bottle amber perfect a hundred-year-old
cure for fever or melancholy a tonic
for living on this earth in the winters of this climate.

Today I was reading about Marie Curie:
She must have known she suffered from radiation sickness
her body bombarded for years by the element
she had purified
It seems she denied to the end
the source of the cataracts on her eyes
the cracked and suppurating skin of her finger-ends
till she could no longer hold a test-tube or a pencil

She died a famous woman denying
her wounds
denying
her wounds came from the same source of her power

Living in Sin - Adrienne Rich

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 stair would writhe
under the milkman'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---
envoy 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 table-top,
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

This poem was written by Adrienne Rich about Alfred Conrad, her husband. She was not married to him at the time, but they were living together. That is why Rich calls the poem 'Living in Sin'. However, by living with a man and having a romantic relationship with him, she was committing a sin of a different kind - she was also lying to herself. (At this point in her life, Rich was not a lesbian, nor thought of herself as one)

Rich starts the poem by again making reference to the fact that she had idealistic notions about what a relationship would be like. She says:

"She had thought the studio would keep itself;
no dust upon the furniture of love."

She had believed that all would be forever well in love and romance, and that it did not need regular maintenance to keep it from going stale.

The next couple of lines in this poem go on to describe the scene of their apartment. She notes all the problems it has, which are symbols for the problems within their relationship. Rich is starting to realise that living with a partner is hard work, and is also not as idealistic as one would first imagine.

Rich makes reference to the efforts of her then boyfriend to maintain the relationship. Her resentment for his lack of interest is clear:

"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;"

Rich, like the stereotypical woman in a failing relationship, is plagued by this as she notes, "while she, jeered by the minor demons" cleans the house and prepares the breakfast while letting "the coffee-pot boil over on the stove." This indicates the stress or upset that this woman (Rich) in the poem must be feeling. Her thoughts are elsewhere as the coffee-pot boils over. She is preoccupied with doubts over the stability of her relationship with this man.

However, she does not leave him. "By evening she was back in love again." She continues to work on this relationship, as the stereotypical woman would, "like the relentless milkman up the stairs" This signifies Rich's struggle to conform to the duties of a girlfriend, wife, woman and mother all her life. Rich explains in her poetry that the decisions she made in relation to her family, career and sexuality were not ones she made lightly. She tried very hard to conform and was relentless in her efforts to be what would have been considered as a normal woman. However, once again the reader can see that this was not possible for Rich. It was not possible for her because, as she says in The Roofwalker; "A life I didn't choose chose me"

Aunt Jennifer's Tigers - Adrienne Rich

Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.

Aunt Jennifer's finger fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.

When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

This poem was written by Rich about her Aunt, Jennifer. The poem begins by describing the design on Aunt Jennifer's tapestry. The tigers on this tapestry 'prance' across the screen. Colours like 'bright topaz' and 'a world of green' are used to describe the scene too. These tigers are not afraid of man and are courageous. They walk in 'sleek chivalric certainty'. This means that they are powerful and in control of themselves.

These tigers represent everything that Aunt Jennifer is not. They are symbols for the life Aunt Jennifer would love to have and the life Rich wishes for herself. The tigers are a form of escapism for Jennifer. When she is creating her tapestry she too is free and unafraid. The positive imagery such as 'prance', 'topaz', 'bright' and 'green' all suggest that this situation is idyllic. The strength we can see in these tigers however is not visible in the character of Aunt Jennifer.

She is not even strong enough to pick up her tapestry needle:

"Aunt Jennifer's finger fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull."

Rich firmly puts the blame for Jennifer's oppression at the hands of her uncle, Jennifer's husband. The key quotation in this poem is:

"The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand."

This not only sums up the poem and Aunt Jennifer's life - it also gives the reader an insight into Adrienne Rich's views on men. She is quite bitter about male dominance and she paints a grim picture of her Aunt to highlight her opinion.

To back up her image of a woman with no life, Rich gives us an image of her aunt when she is dead:

"When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by."

It is quite shocking for Rich to even be thinking of an image of her Aunt being dead, especially since Aunt Jennifer has not even passed away yet. However, Rich wants us to listen to her feminist views and the best way to do that is with sensational imagery. She avoids euphemisms like 'passed away' because she feels that she needs to shock here. The 'ordeals she was mastered by' represent her marriage. The fact that she will be 'ringed' by them is another reference to how her husband and marriage controlled her. (Rich is saying that when Jennifer is dead she will still have her wedding ring on her finger)

However, the memories of what Jennifer could have been will live on through her tapestry, as the poet tells us that they will continue to "go on prancing, proud and unafraid".

From a Survivor - Adrienne Rich

The pact that we made was the ordinary pact
of men and women in those days

I don't know who we thought we were
that our personalities
could resist the failures of the race

Lucky or unlucky, we didn't know
the race had failures of that order
and that we were going to share them

Like everyone else, we thought of ourselves as special

Your body is as vivid to me
as it ever was: even more

since my feeling for it is clearer:
I know what it could and could not do

it is no longer
the body of a god
or anything with power over my life

Next year it would have been 20 years
and you are wastefully dead
who might have made the leap
we talked, too late, of making

which I live now
not as a leap
but a succession of brief, amazing moments

each one making possible the next


From a Survivor is a poem written by Adrienne Rich in response to the death of her husband, Alfred H. Conrad. After Adrienne Rich left her husband in 1970 he committed suicide. It is understood that he was suffering from problems in his career during this time also. The title of the poem, From a Survivor, clearly tells us that there has been a death of some description.

Rich describes at the start of the poem that their marriage was the 'done thing' in the past:
"The pact that we made was the ordinary pact
of men and women in those days"
Rich is actually starting the poem with a hint that there was nothing special about them at all, that their marriage was just part of the ordinary course of events involved in having a relationship.

The poet then goes on to say that she didn't know why they ever thought they were so special, why they ever thought that they "could resist the failures of the race." We all have failures and Rich and her husband were no exception. However, she does mention that "Lucky or unlucky", they didn't know this. Unlucky that they didn't know because they could have saved themselves so much time and heartache, but lucky that they didn't know because they got three sons and good memories from the relationship.

The reader knows that there were good memories because Rich is sorry that he is dead. She says that he is "wastefully dead".

Rich does mention, however, that her husband's body is "no longer / the body of a god". He no longer has any control over her and cannot tell her what to do. She has made the leap to a new life, a life with her new partner, Michelle Cliff, which is full of "brief, amazing moments". Rich is sad that Conrad never made this leap himself.

At the end of this poem, we can see that Rich feels her husband's suicide was a shame, but we can also see that she is moving on. The final line, "each one making possible the next" makes reference to the future. This tells us that the poet has moved on, but the fact that she wrote this poem in the first place, 20 years after her husband's death, means that she has not forgotten him.

The Roofwalker - Adrienne Rich

For Denise Levertov

Over the half finished houses
night comes. The builders
stand on the roof. It is
quiet after the hammers,
the pulleys hang slack.
Giants, the roofwalkers,
on a listing deck, the wave
of darkness about to break
on their heads. The sky
is a torn sail where figures
pass magnified, shadows
on a burning deck.

I feel like them up there:
exposed, larger than life,
and due to break my neck.

Was it worth while to lay -
with infinite exertion -
a roof I can't live under?
- All those blueprints,
closings of gaps
measurings, calculations?
A life I didn't choose
chose me: even
my tools are the wrong ones
for what I have to do.
I'm naked, ignorant,
a naked man fleeing
across the roofs
who could with a shade of difference
be sitting in the lamplight
against the cream wallpaper
reading - not with indifference -
about a naked man
fleeing across the roofs.



This poem is about Adrienne Rich's struggle to be recognised as an equal in her life. Rich uses everyday words to highlight the issues she wants to talk about and this poem is no exception. In The Roofwalker, she talks about her struggle to live her life the way she wants to. She uses the every day scene of a building site to do this.

The poem begins with dark and silent imagery,
"Over the half finished houses
night comes."
"It is silent"
Night time is seen as dark, which is also seen as negative, so the reader knows that the tone of the poem will be negative.


The silence of the pulleys hanging 'slack' is described as a calming before the imminent storm. We get the sense that something is about to happen and the mood is tense in this first stanza. The deck they are standing on is 'listing' and 'burning'. Something is about to happen. Rich tells us that darkness is "about to break on their heads." What does she mean?

Rich is saying to us that she is getting ready to fight back at the roofwalkers. She is going to get up, high up onto that roof too and fight them for her freedom.

"Giants, the roofwalkers". Adrienne Rich describes these roofwalkers as Giants. This represents the great poets of the time. Rich calls them roofwalkers as they are raised high above society, looking down on everyone else. However, by calling them 'Giants' we realise that Rich has a great deal of respect for these men. These 'Giants' are who originally inspired her and she is respectful of them for that.

Rich says:
"I feel like them up there"
The poet feels that she too deserves to be given high status as a poet. However, she feels that because she is a woman, she is not getting it. She knows that her attempts to challenge society and demand equal status for female poets is dangerous as she says she is "due to break my neck"

Rich begins to wonder about her own life in the third stanza of this poem. She thinks about whether or not she wasted her time making "a roof I can't live under". This roof that she can't live under is the roof she shares with her husband and sons. Rich was not the excellent mother and devoted wife that her own mother was. Rich struggled to adapt to family life, and longed to be doing activist work within society.

She looks back on the wasted time she has spent trying to be someone she is not
"All those blueprints,
closings of gaps
measurings, calculations?"

The poet then concludes that the problem is that she was given the wrong life,
"A life I didn't choose
chose me:"
Rich did not choose to be a poet, but this life seemed to choose her. The reader gets the impression that Rich is saying that a male's life would have suited her better. She does not have the tools she needs for her life. This is a reference to her life as a poet and also is a link to her sexuality.

This is also evident in the mention of the
"naked man
fleeing across the roofs."
Rich describes herself as a naked man. Naked because she is exposing her personal life by writing this poem. A man because she would fit into society better as a man in terms of her vocation and sexuality.