The Mirror in Which Two Are Seen as One (poem by Adrianne ri

I see this poem as addressing mother-daughter, sister-sister, and women-world(society/surroundin

gs) relationships. The pronouns and the ‘sisters’ leave distinction vague making it difficult for me to decipher between the sister-sister references or the mother-daughter references. The ‘you’ in the poem seems to refer to a mother at times and to the sister or daughter at times, likewise with the ‘she.’ The elements and factors of these relationships do overlap so I don’t find it too distressing. I actually find the soft ground of this more comfortable and interesting because it makes the reader realize the connection of the relationships. The lack of the concrete role identity brings more insight, more images and more connections. This poem is about the influenced identity issue of women; reflected instinctively and socially. The natural passing of ‘identity’ among women who live together, who are related, and society’s weight put upon the stereotypical woman/housewife. It has a metaphysical touch, questioning the self, being and its’ validity. It portrays the contradiction of morals, nature and instinct. Intuitive feelings that arise yet are pushed back under the surface by our culture. Rich conveys these concepts through, image, repition, line breaks, metaphors and personifications

In the last stanza the image of the knife is brought up again from the first stanza in the beginning of the poem. The last two lines show the affect of enculturation. The burden of being a typical housewife and the anxiety of meeting the expectations.

In this poem like most of Rich’s poems there is no punctuation, which I admire. This absence leaves more to the reader to interpret since a comma or period can change everything. Her line breaking I see as her punctuation. Each line is thought out and broken up in an interesting conceptual manner and orally significant. She uses repetition of the sister phrase, the word ripe, but more so uses repetition of thoughts and images. The word choice is also important, two that stick out; in the first stanza ‘she steel wool’ as i stated earlier, and section 2 first stanza ‘dazzle yourself in her wide eyes’ the word wide holds a demeanor that it was specifically chosen. Rich’s images as most will notice are amazing, beautiful and t

Some topics in this essay:
Adrienne Rich, live related, identity issue, women live related, refer mother times, daughter times, refer mother, word choice, section ‘you’, mother times, women live,