23 pages 46 minutes read

Adrienne Rich

Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1963

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Symbols & Motifs

The Bird

The symbol of the bird is used in different ways throughout the poem; consistently used in reference to woman herself, it nevertheless depicts different facets and capabilities.

Reference to a bird is first made in Section Three when Rich's speaker asserts, “The beak that grips her, she becomes” (Line 27). The speaker seems to suggest that for a woman to overcome the kind of restrictions placed upon her, she must embody facets of her oppressor. While this does not suggest that a woman must oppress others the way she has been, it does indicate Rich’s opinion that she must shed some of her femininity to succeed.

Rich uses the image of a bird again when describing Dickinson in Section Four. Dickinson is described as “iron-eyed and beaked and purposed as a bird” (Line 48); the image is once again used to indicate intelligence, purpose, and power. It highlights the contrast between a woman’s capabilities and the work she is condemned to complete, for even as Dickinson is all of this, she is mainly reduced to “dusting everything on the whatnot every day of life” (Line 49). Her powers of discernment and strength of purpose must be largely channeled into household work.

Perhaps this is what leads Rich to use the bird in a different manner when she calls Corinna a “bird” (Line 62) and a “tragical machine” (Line 62) in the following section.

Related Titles

By Adrienne Rich

Study Guide

logo

Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

Adrienne Rich

Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

Adrienne Rich

Study Guide

logo

A Valediction Forbidding Mourning

Adrienne Rich

A Valediction Forbidding Mourning

Adrienne Rich

Study Guide

logo

Diving into the Wreck

Adrienne Rich

Diving into the Wreck

Adrienne Rich

Study Guide

logo

Living in Sin

Adrienne Rich

Living in Sin

Adrienne Rich

Study Guide

logo

Necessities of Life

Adrienne Rich

Necessities of Life

Adrienne Rich

Study Guide

logo

Planetarium

Adrienne Rich

Planetarium

Adrienne Rich

Plot Summary

logo

Tonight No Poetry Will Serve

Adrienne Rich

Tonight No Poetry Will Serve

Adrienne Rich

Study Guide

logo

Vesuvius at Home

Adrienne Rich

Vesuvius at Home: The Power of Emily Dickinson

Adrienne Rich