Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law

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. Here, the bird is no longer strong and purposeful; instead, it resides within a cage, albeit with the door unlocked. Rich sees the bird and the woman it represents as tragic, owing to the fact that it/she does not seem cognizant of the fact that freedom is within reach.