Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In "Splitting" by Adrienne Cecile Rich, the poem explores the complex intersections of love, identity, and pain as they manifest in both physical and psychological realms. Rich's speaker navigates the tension between past and present, absence and presence, self and other. With San Francisco serving as an opening backdrop, the poem begins with a body awakening, each pore "crying the change of light," but also acknowledges a painful absence, presumably of a lover.

The text delves into the tension between past experiences and the "here and now," outlining the speaker's struggle with a pain that not only emanates from absence but also from the "presence of the past destructive to living." It sets the stage for an existential dialogue between the self and pain, suggesting that the human mind can indeed converse with its suffering. This conversation with pain reveals an unsettling truth-that the pain the speaker feels is a "pain of division creator of divisions." In other words, the pain itself is not merely a symptom but a causative force, responsible for separating the speaker from their lover. It's a powerful, almost sentient entity that admits it has "no existence apart from you."

The second part of the poem introduces a profound concept-that the speaker believes they are "choosing something now, not to suffer uselessly yet still to feel." This presents the act of choosing as both a defiance against and an acceptance of pain. The speaker questions whether it's inherent in us to feel "primordial loneliness" and likens human suffering to natural processes, asking whether a diverted stream remembers its original course. Here, Rich seems to be probing the nature of absence and loss: Are they etched into our very being, shaping us as fundamentally as a stream's bed shapes its course?

The third section delves further into the idea of choice, particularly the choice "not to suffer uselessly and not to use her." Here, the power dynamics within love and the duality of love and action come into play. The speaker challenges traditional roles and expectations in relationships, refusing to "abnegate power for love" or to hide "from power in her love like a man." This is an outright rejection of a forced dichotomy, and it reflects Rich's broader feminist ethos. It emphasizes the importance of embracing love "with all my intelligence," essentially combining emotional and intellectual faculties to arrive at a form of love that is both rational and deeply felt.

Rich's "Splitting" presents a complex, multi-layered examination of how we experience and negotiate pain and love. It presents the human psyche as an intricate landscape that mirrors the complexities of the physical world, from the changing light of San Francisco to the hills scented with eucalyptus. And in that intricate landscape, the poem posits that our most profound choices often involve not a denial of pain, but a new way of interacting with it-one that integrates, rather than divides, the multifaceted elements of our lives.

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