"One Flesh" is a poem from Elizabeth Jennings's 1966 collection The Mind Has Mountains. It's a brief, melancholy sketch of the speaker's parents, whose marriage has cooled off sexually and emotionally. The title (which alludes to the biblical notion that man and wife should be as "one flesh") becomes deeply ironic, as the poem shows how much distance and loneliness can exist within a marriage—even, or especially, a long marriage. The speaker also suggests that the coldness of the couple's relationship is a kind of preview of another coldness: death. In a few short stanzas, then, the poem broods on time, change, family, mortality, and the loss of passion.

• Read the full text of “One Flesh”

• “One Flesh” Summary

• “One Flesh” Themes

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    Marriage and Intimacy

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-18
  • 

    Youth, Age, and Mortality

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 3-5
    • Lines 8-12
    • Lines 15-18

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “One Flesh”

  • Lines 1-4

    Lying apart now, ...
    ... All men elsewhere—

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 4-6

    it is as ...
    ... the shadows overhead.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 7-10

    Tossed up like ...
    ... feeling—or too much.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 11-12

    Chastity faces them, ...
    ... were a preparation.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 13-16

    Strangely apart, yet ...
    ... Touching them gently.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 16-18

    Do they know ...
    ... now grown cold?

    

    

    

    

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• “One Flesh” Symbols

  • 

    The Beds

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “Lying apart now, each in a separate bed,”
    • Line 13: “Strangely apart, yet strangely close together,”

• “One Flesh” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Allusion

    

    

    

    

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    Where allusion appears in the poem:

  • Irony

    

    

    

    

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    Where irony appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “He with a book, keeping the light on late,”
    • Line 5: “the book he holds unread,”

  • Rhetorical Question

    

    

    

    

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    Where rhetorical question appears in the poem:

    • Lines 16-18: “Do they know they're old, / These two who are my father and my mother / Whose fire from which I came, has now grown cold?”

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Lines 3-4: “She like a girl dreaming of childhood, / All men elsewhere—”
    • Lines 4-6: “it is as if they wait / Some new event: the book he holds unread, / Her eyes fixed on the shadows overhead.”
    • Line 7: “Tossed up like flotsam from a former passion,”
    • Lines 9-10: “Or if they do it is like a confession / Of having little feeling—or too much.”
    • Lines 14-15: “Silence between them like a thread to hold / And not wind in.”

  • Antithesis

    

    

    

    

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    Where antithesis appears in the poem:

    • Lines 11-12: “Chastity faces them, a destination / For which their whole lives were a preparation.”
    • Lines 15-16: “And time itself's a feather / Touching them gently.”
    • Lines 17-18: “These two who are my father and my mother / Whose fire from which I came, has now grown cold?”

  • Antithesis

    

    

    

    

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    Where antithesis appears in the poem:

    • Lines 8-10: “How cool they lie. They hardly ever touch, / Or if they do it is like a confession / Of having little feeling—or too much.”
    • Line 13: “Strangely apart, yet strangely close together,”

• “One Flesh” 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.

  • Wait
  • Flotsam
  • Chastity
  • Wind in
  • (Location in poem: Lines 4-5: “it is as if they wait / Some new event:”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “One Flesh”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “One Flesh” Speaker

• “One Flesh” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “One Flesh”

• More “One Flesh” Resources

  • External Resources

    • The "Mystery" of Jennings — More biographical context on the poet.

    • The Poet's Life and Work — A biography and recordings of Jennings at the Poetry Archive.

    • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of "One Flesh."

    • Jennings: A Retrospective — Read the poet's 2001 obituary in The Guardian.

    • More on "The Movement" — Read about the mid-20th-century literary movement with which Jennings is sometimes associated.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Elizabeth Jennings

    • Absence

    • In Praise of Creation

    • The Enemies

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