Living in Sin

            
             This poem is about the guilt in ones conscious during a marital affair. The first sentence "She had thought the studio would keep itself" the author talks about the studio as the relationship with her other man. "Keeping it self", meaning that it was supposed to be a self contained secret and not getting back to her husband. "No dust on the furniture" as said in the next line, means that the furniture (which resembles love) was not supposed to get old but it did anyway. She also wishes that other people would not talk about her relationship, that she wishes that they would keep it to themselves. When she talks of "Grime" you sense that she feels consumed with so much guilt that she feels dirty to the touch. She gives examples plates with pears on it, a piano with a Persian shawl, and a picture of perfect a cat and mouse at play. This resembles feelings of beauty, youthfulness with a contrasting sense of feeling rotten. This means to me that he was telling her that their relationship was perfect and meant to be. She feels extreme guilt throughout the whole poem as if she wants to stop the relationship but can not seem to tell the "milkman" no. "By evening she was back in love again" this sentence means that she feels love for her husband when she spends time with him at night. She also has a sentence stating, "Pulled back the sheets and made the bed and found a towel to dust the table off." I interpret this as saying now that my husband is home I am trying to forget about the other man, and trying to forget what happened earlier on that day. You can tell that she feels that the relationship needs to stop as well as the guilt she feels when she spends time with her husband. "She woke sometimes to feel the daylight coming like a restless milkman up the stairs" In this sentence she tells the reader that she wakes up in the middle of the night and feeling guilt for the fact that the "milkman" is coming in the morning with a sense of constant pressure on her to keep her other relationship to keep going when she really wants it to stop.