"Living in Sin" is an early-career poem by Adrienne Rich, first published in The New Yorker in 1954 and later collected in The Diamond Cutters and Other Poems (1955). It depicts a young woman "living in sin"—living together outside marriage—with a male partner in a dingy apartment. Her fantasy of a romantic bohemian lifestyle turns into a reality of daily drudgery, leaving her increasingly dissatisfied. The poem is a sharp portrait of romantic disillusionment, as well as a preview of the feminist themes that would define much of Rich's later work.

• Read the full text of “Living in Sin”

• “Living in Sin” Summary

• “Living in Sin” Themes

  • 

    Romantic Illusions and Disappointment

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-26
  • 

    Domesticity and Gender Inequality

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-26

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Living in Sin”

  • Lines 1-4

    She had thought ...
    ... relieved of grime.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 4-7

    A plate of ...
    ... at his urging.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 8-11

    Not that at ...
    ... three sepulchral bottles;

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 12-14

    that on the ...
    ... . . .

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 15-18

    Meanwhile, he, with ...
    ... out for cigarettes;

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 19-22

    while she, jeered ...
    ... on the stove.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 23-26

    By evening she ...
    ... up the stairs.

    

    

    

    

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• “Living in Sin” Symbols

  • 

    Morning and Evening

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 8-11: “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;”
    • Lines 23-26: “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.”
  • 

    The Milkman

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 8-9: “Not that at five each separate stair would writhe / under the milkman's tramp;”
    • Lines 25-26: “she woke sometimes to feel the daylight coming / like a relentless milkman up the stairs.”
  • 

    Mess and Decay

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-4: “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.”
    • Lines 5-7: “a cat / stalking the picturesque amusing mouse / had risen at his urging.”
    • Lines 9-14: “that morning light / so coldly would delineate the scraps / of last night's cheese and three sepulchral bottles; / that on the kitchen shelf among the saucers / a pair of beetle-eyes would fix her own— / envoy from some village in the moldings . . .”
    • Lines 20-22: “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.”

• “Living in Sin” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “Half heresy”
    • Line 4: “panes,” “plate,” “pears”
    • Line 5: “piano,” “Persian”
    • Line 6: “picturesque”
    • Line 8: “separate stair”
    • Line 9: “milkman's,” “morning”
    • Line 20: “back,” “bed”
    • Line 21: “towel,” “table-top”

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 4: “panes,” “plate”
    • Line 5: “shawl”
    • Line 6: “stalking”
    • Line 8: “five,” “writhe”
    • Line 9: “milkman's tramp”
    • Line 11: “cheese,” “three”
    • Line 17: “shrugged”
    • Line 18: “rubbed”
    • Line 20: “found”
    • Line 21: “towel”
    • Line 22: “over,” “stove”
    • Line 24: “night”
    • Line 25: “sometimes,” “daylight,” “coming”

  • Irony

    

    

    

    

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    Where irony appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-26

  • Juxtaposition

    

    

    

    

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    Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-26

  • Parallelism

    

    

    

    

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    Where parallelism appears in the poem:

    • Lines 3-4
    • Lines 4-6
    • Lines 8-13
    • Lines 16-18
    • Lines 20-22

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “no dust upon the furniture of love.”
    • Lines 3-4: “Half heresy, to wish the taps less vocal, / the panes relieved of grime.”
    • Lines 8-9: “each separate stair would writhe / under the milkman's tramp”
    • Line 11: “three sepulchral bottles”
    • Line 14: “envoy from some village in the moldings . . .”
    • Line 19: “while she, jeered by the minor demons,”

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Lines 25-26: “she woke sometimes to feel the daylight coming / like a relentless milkman up the stairs.”

  • Imagery

    

    

    

    

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    Where imagery appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-18
    • Lines 20-22
    • Lines 25-26

  • Asyndeton

    

    

    

    

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    Where asyndeton appears in the poem:

    • Lines 3-4: “to wish the taps less vocal, / the panes relieved of grime.”
    • Lines 5-6: “a piano with a Persian shawl, a cat / stalking the picturesque amusing mouse”
    • Lines 9-13: “that morning light / so coldly would delineate the scraps / of last night's cheese and three sepulchral bottles; / that on the kitchen shelf among the saucers / a pair of beetle-eyes would fix her own—”
    • Line 18: “rubbed at his beard, went out for cigarettes;”

• “Living in Sin” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Living in Sin
  • Studio
  • Heresy
  • Taps
  • Persian shawl
  • Picturesque
  • Tramp
  • Writhe
  • Milkman
  • Delineate
  • Sepulchral
  • Fix
  • Moldings
  • Envoy
  • Sounded
  • The minor demons
  • Jeered
  • (Location in poem: )

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Living in Sin”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Living in Sin” Speaker

• “Living in Sin” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Living in Sin”

• More “Living in Sin” Resources

  • External Resources

    • An Interview with the Poet — Watch a 1973 interview with Adrienne Rich.

    • The Poet's Life — A biography of Adrienne Rich at the Poetry Foundation.

    • Rich and Feminism — An article on "Adrienne Rich's Feminist Awakening" in the late 1960s and early '70s.

    • Rich on Love and Power — The poet discusses power dynamics in romantic relationships.

    • More on Rich and Politics — An in-depth exploration of Rich's work as a political poet and essayist.

    • The Poet's Obituary — Read Rich's 2012 New York Times obituary.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Adrienne Rich

    • Amends

    • Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

    • Diving into the Wreck

    • Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law

    • What Kind of Times Are These

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