Poetry. "Storm Warnings" by Adrienne Rich

Dear Readers,
Today in English we studied the poem "Storm Warnings" by Adrienne Rich. It is one of her poems that will be on our leaving cert. course. This poem is one of her earlier poems.

It talks about, in my opinion, how a person can feel in a bad or troubled relationship. She talk about hearing a 'storm' coming shattering barometres glass, shutting of power and sealing in windows. Though she doesnt say it, I think when she wrote it she felt trapped in her own defenses; "walking from window to closed window". Her defense systems against 'storms' are plain to see, when she says "we can only close the shutters" and "I draw the curtains as the sky goes black", she is putting up layers, hiding from the 'storm'.
She seems pacient enough to wait a long time for the storm to go away and leave her, to blow over; "the wind will rise". The fact of her willingness to wait, to stick to her defenses and not let go is in the lines "between foreseeing and averting change, inwards...silent core of waiting, shattered fragments of an instrument". She lets everything to shatter around her "the glass ahs been falling all the afternoon" as if it was part of her life shattering to pieces before her, yet letting it; "into the polar releam".
"Into the polar releam", this is another significant line in the poem. She saying that she is in an extreme situation. Maybe here she is also indicating that her partner, or the 'storm' causer is feeling the opposite to her "polar releam", on the side of the storm. Like in the line "weather abeoad..weather in the heart", the "weather abroad" is the other person in the relationship, and the "weather in the heart" are her own feelings or problem. When adding the line "regardless of prediction" she is indicating that the cannot tell or predict the others feelings, all they can do is prepare. Also adding to this point may be the line "time in hand is not control of time" meaning as she waits with time on her hands she can't control how much time she has or what she can do with that time, for she is trapped.
There is a small symbol of hope within the poem; "and set a match to candles sheathed in glass against the keyhole draught, the persistant whine of weather". I think the candle is a great symbol of hope but there are troubling conditions around it. For instance it is enclosed in glass, maybe Adrienne is saying that she see it and wants it but it is not avaible to her, or she is saying that she sees it but is "averting change" and doesn't feel worthing of such a presious gift that is Hope. This symbol of hope also seems to struggles, and Adrienne sees it, because of the "keyhole draught" that the flame battles against, she sees it fading away from her. She finds, I think, the "insistant whine of weather" not only a problem for the candle flame but for her, there are gaps in her defenses that she either finds distressing or she could also she it as a light of hope that she could use this gap to escape her own defenses and embrace the storm.
Another important line in the poem is the last "these are the things that we have learned to do, who live in trobled regions". I find this striking because she is saying to use that at this young age she already has enough life experiance to say that she has "learned" not "learning". Also the way she uses the collective word "we", does she mean the other person in the relatonship or the human race itself. She may be seen to be giving advise not to enter "troubled regions". I think she accepts there is something wrong in her relationship, that something needs to be done. Writing this poem, and thinking of storms I feel has helped her do that, take the first step of accepting and acknowledging.

In my opinion this is what Adrienne Rich is trying to tell me or warn me. This poem has a lot of mixed emotions such as fear, regret, saddness and even hope. I enjoyed reading this poem because it had hiden meanings and I liked looking for them and coming up with theories from the poem.

Thanks again,
Roisin.P.