Damaris Lopez

Block 5

1/11/17

Living in Sin Analysis

The idea of a perfect love is just a mere childlike illusion. The perfect relationship is

nonexistent and only occurs in fairy tales simply because all relationships have their bad

moments. A good idea of relationships would be in Adrienne Richs poem, Living in Sin. In

the poem, Rich allows us to glimpse into what her idea of what relationships are truly like using

symbolism, metaphors and she even uses the poems structure to present her idea of an actual

relationship.

As beautiful as we may have imagined love to be, it does not always play out as wed like

them to turn out. In the poem, Rich emphasizes this through the way in which the poem is

constructed. The relationship itself does not sound like the most healthiest one. The relationship

in the poem sounds plain and dull giving the reader the understanding that the two characters do

not share a connection. The poem has no rhyming sequence and the ending words do not pair off

with the upcoming stanza. The non rhyming sequence could be a representation of the pair that

do not seem to compliment one another. The fact that each sentence within the poem do not

really specifically relate to one another, makes it seem almost as if it is foreshadowing that the

pairs relationship is something that is meant to be short.

Another literary support that Rich used to prove her point was through the use of

metaphors. In the poem, Rich uses a couple of metaphors that gives the audience more

knowledge in the quality of the relationship. In the second line, the metaphor involves a

furniture of love. It explicitly describes the couples furniture made up of their love. In the
present tense, the protagonist has said to have thought the studio would clean itself causing no

dust to land on their furniture of love. The fact that Rich uses present tense to speak of the

protagonist's thoughts implies that that is not the way she thinks anymore. It is assumed that the

protagonist had the wrong idea all along.

Aside from using both metaphors and structure to convey her point. Rich also uses

symbolism to represent the couples relationship. Rich uses the studio to symbolize the

relationship, in which the studio is thought to be kept on its own by the protagonist represents to

the relationship being free of problems. The the fact that the protagonist used past tense, allows

the reader to realize she made the wrong assumption on her relationship would not require any

input.

In conclusion, Rich uses figurative language and structure for her benefit in order to get

her message across.Rich leaves it to the reader to decode her writing in order to get to the true

meaning in her poem. Rich believes that relationships arent what we paint them to be as she

clearly states through her writing throughout the poem.