Our Whole Life - A poem by Adrienne Rich


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Adrienne Rich - Our Whole Life

Our whole life a translation 
the permissible fibs

and now a knot of lies 
eating at itself to get undone

Words bitten thru words

~~

meanings burnt-off like paint 
under the blowtorch

All those dead letters 
rendered into the oppressor's language

Trying to tell the doctor where it hurts 
like the Algerian 
who waled form his village, burning

his whole body a could of pain 
and there are no words for this

except himself

Added: on December 10th, 2007 at 6:54 PM | Viewed: 8648 times | Comments and analysis of Our Whole Life by Adrienne Rich Comments (1)

Our Whole Life - Comments and Information
Poet: Adrienne Rich Poem: Our Whole Life Year: Published/Written in 1969 Poem of the Day: Jun 27 2004 Comment 1 of 1, added on December 10th, 2007 at 6:54 PM. The poem seems to be entirely pessimistic. Memory fades, but pain never dies. The break in the middle reminds one of Dickinson, and of a sort of tradition of darkly philosophical female poets in the English language. Nicholas Stevens from United States More Comments >> Are you looking for more information on this poem? Perhaps you are trying to analyze it? The poem, Our Whole Life, has received one comment so far. Click here to read it, and perhaps post a comment of your own. Of course you can also always discuss poems by Adrienne Rich with others on the American Poems poetry forum!

Poem Info
Poet: Adrienne Rich Poem: Our Whole Life Year: Published/Written in 1969 Last read: May 14 2008, 9:19PM Poem of the Day: Jun 27 2004 Viewed 8648 times. Added on December 10th, 2007 at 6:54 PM.

Rich Info
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