Living in Sin

“General Review of the Sex Situation” by Dorothy Parker (1926)

In Parker’s debut volume of poetry Enough Rope, she writes a light poem about men’s and women’s behaviors in love. Her assessment that “Woman wants monogamy; Man delights in novelty” (Lines 1-2) seems to be rearranged in Rich’s “Living In Sin.” The woman in Rich’s poem seems to be inconsistent, questioning love in the morning and “[b]y evening […] back in love again” (Line 23). While the tone of both poems differs, the focus on the two sexes along with the general conclusion, indirectly present in Rich’s but directly stated in Parker’s poem, “What earthly good can come of it?” (Line 8), is similar.

“You All Know the Story of the Other Woman” by Anne Sexton (1969)

In this poem, from Sexton’s Love Poems collection, Sexton uses third-person pronouns, like Rich, to speak of an unspecified woman who is a man’s “selection, part-time” (Line 15). Unlike the domesticity that comes with living together, shown in Rich’s poem, Sexton’s shows the woman as used, placed, “like a phone, back on the hook” (Line 18). Both poems ultimately evoke a similar wistful tone: being someone’s part-time sex escapade without any longevity seems to have as much uncertainty as being someone’s full-time domestic partner.