Analyzing Imagery in Poems?

Question

Please explain to me how would you be able to answer these questions because I've been trying to find out what the poem is trying to say and i can't! I have to answer these questions in two paragraphs each. Please and Thank You! :)
- What image does this poem contain? Look at each line and discuss the different senses the author uses such as sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch.
- How is the first half of the poem different from the last half? And what is the poem ultimately about and how is the reader supposed to feel about this topic?

Living in Sin
By: Adrienne Rich

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 among 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.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

This is a tantalising snippet of an analysis, however, it might help.

The Poem

Adrienne Rich’s “Living in Sin” is a twenty-six-line single-stanza poem that effectively captures the stark contrast between a young woman’s romantic notions and the bitter taste of daily realities once she acts on those notions.

Told entirely from the woman’s point of view, the poem begins in the past, with the vision of how she thought her life would be living with the man she loved. The first two lines effectively convey her naïveté, her simple acceptance of a fairy tale version of her future once she has accepted his offer to come and live with...

http://www.enotes.com/living-sin-salem/l…


Poetry Analytic Essay and Sentence Outline on Adrienne Rich's "Living in Sin"

The poem “Living in Sin” was written by acclaimed poet Adrienne Rich. The poem portrays a woman relating her life thus far in a relationship that has died down. The poem portrays a seemingly content life, yet it was empty of some element that escapes her, or has chosen to deny. Only now does she realize the next day, after a brief, now rare taste of romance between illegitimate man and wife, how stale and far removed from grace their relationship had become.

http://www.definition-essay.com/show_def…

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POETRY ANALYSIS.

You won’t need all of these links but it is a good selection of sites that help to analyse poetry:

Poetry Analysis Fact Sheet

http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/

http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/37.html

http://www.poetrymagic.co.uk/critiquing.…

http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/analysis…

http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/display/i…