A Valediction Forbidding Mourning

“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne (1633)

Rich’s “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning” invokes and comments on the English literary canon largely through its relationship to Donne’s poem of the same name. Rich draws on Donne’s themes of loss and patriarchal rule to complicate received ideas of feminine sacrifice and male dominion. Many of Rich’s images mirror those in Donne, such as her speaker’s “swirling wants” (Line 1) following the “twin compasses” (Line 26) of Donne’s metaphysical conceit.

“Morning Song” by Sylvia Plath (1961)

Sylvia Plath is one of Rich’s closest contemporaries. Though critics often categorize Plath and Rich as confessional poets, both writers resist the label. Confessional poets such as Robert Lowell place emphasis on lived traumas and the direct communication of experience. Plath’s masterful use of symbols and imagined imagery place her closer to Rich than to the Confessional poets. Plath’s “Morning Song” uses a similar free-verse form as Rich’s “Valediction,” and explores ideas of loss and motherhood.

“Diving into the Wreck” by Adrienne Rich (1973)

“Diving into the Wreck” is perhaps Rich’s best-known engagement with the literary canon. The speaker frames the work through their “read[ing] the book of myths” (Line 1), and the poem grapples with the decaying implications of such a body of knowledge.