Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In "Moving in Winter," Adrienne Cecile Rich provides a poignant look at the complexities of relationships through the lens of a couple moving their belongings in the winter snow. The poem opens with an evocative metaphor, comparing the couple's life to "unplayed cards," suggesting not only fragility but also a sense of unrealized potential or opportunities left unexplored. This imagery is then extended through the domestic objects that symbolize various facets of their relationship: the bed, the table, the mirrors, the bureaus, and the carpets. Each item carries an emotional and narrative weight, telling a story about the couple's life together, which appears fraught with tension and suffocation.

The bed, for instance, serves as a battleground of emotions. The woman "has lain desiring him," while he, in return, offers a sleep that builds "its canopy to smother her once more." There's a discrepancy here between her desire and his suffocating presence, a lopsided dynamic that questions the health of their relationship.

Next, the table, "by four elbows worn," is a locus of shared time, but also a silent witness to the "wax" that "runs down evening after evening." The melting wax could symbolize the eroding emotional connection between them, quietly ebbing away as time passes.

The mirrors, "grey with reflecting them," further emphasize this emotional stagnancy. They have become grey not with age, but from the continual reflection of this tense relationship, as if even the mirrors could no longer bear their story. Similarly, the "bureaus coffining from the cold" contain "things that can shuffle in a drawer," perhaps alluding to unspoken words, secrets, or regrets that remain hidden yet move about, subtly affecting the relationship.

Finally, the "carpets rolled up around those echoes" become a metaphor for unresolved issues and "old silences." When "shaken out," these echoes "take wing and breed new altercations," indicating that their problems, far from being resolved, are merely postponed, ready to reemerge at any moment.

The use of winter and snow in the poem is also significant. It externalizes the emotional and relational coldness between the couple, providing an environmental parallel to their interior lives. It also emphasizes the difficulty and strain of moving-physically and emotionally-in such an unforgiving setting.

The poem captures the weight of a relationship teetering on the edge, burdened by its history and the emotional detritus that accumulates over time. It's a nuanced, tightly packed exploration of how objects can be imbued with emotional meaning, serving as mirrors to the complexities of love and the erosion of connection. Rich succeeds in packing a universe of emotions and stories into a domestic scene, turning the act of moving into a vivid tableau of relational dissolution and emotional fatigue.

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...