Living In Sin

A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)

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 amoong 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.

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Poems in English 

• A New Year’s Resolution to Leave Dundee by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• A Humble Heroine by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• A Descriptive Poem on the Silvery Tay by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• A Christmas Carol by William Topaz McGonagall by Anglo File
• On The Porch At The Frost Place, Franconia, N. H. by William Matthews by Anglo File
• On the Nativity of Christ by William Dunbar by William Dunbar
• On a Soldier Fallen in the Philippines by William Vaughn Moody by Anglo File
• Ode to My Guitar by William Wright Harris by Anglo File
• No Return by William Matthews by Anglo File
• Mingus At The Showplace by William Matthews by Anglo File
• Memory by William Browne by Anglo File
• Lament for the Makers by William Dunbar by William Dunbar
• Job Interview by William Matthews by Anglo File
• In Honour of the City of London by William Dunbar by William Dunbar
• Homer’s Seeing-Eye Dog by William Matthews by Anglo File
• Gloucester Moods by William Vaughn Moody by Anglo File
• Earliest Spring by William Dean Howells by Anglo File
• Composed Upon Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth by Anglo File
• Britannia’s Pastorals by William Browne by Anglo File
• Between the Dusk of a Summer Night by William Ernest Henley by Anglo File

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