Saivi Zaveri 11.

Amends

By Adrienne Rich

Adrienne Rich was a poet and essayist who was called ‘one of the most widely read
and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century’, and was credited with
bringing ‘the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse.’
Many of her poems have been used to combat female suppression. Amends shows
her belief the women were suppressed and unnoticed and that women were then left
to make amends for others actions. This poem could also be interpreted as a fight for
the natural world. Amends is a sixteen-line poem divided into four quatrains. It
contains a repetition of ‘as it’ and it could be interpreted as an allegory. It also
contains some examples of sibilance and personification. It does not have a rhyme
scheme or meter but the punctuation is notable; there is very little punctuation
throughout the poem, Rich may have done this to mimic the movements of the
moonlight and create a soft, soothing effect. Another interpretation is that the lack of
punctuations is used to create a feminine effect; the poem begins with a soft, tranquil
tone but by the third stanza a sense of aggression is developed.

The title of the poem is ‘Amends’ is defined by google dictionary as ‘ compensate or

make up for a wrongdoing.’ It could tell us that this poem is the ‘moonlight’ or women
trying to make amends. The poem starts and ends with the word ‘amends’, this
shows a loop which implies that nothing has changed and no amends have been
made.
The poem begins with ‘Nights like this: on the cold apple-bough’, it tells us that this
night is unique, it is not like any other nights, the apple could be used to signify
knowledge. This sentence is also an allusion to Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice,
specifically, Act 5 Scene 1. During this time, Lorenzo tries to woo Jessica who
rejects his advances. She, who was Jewish, converts to Christianity to elope but
soon starts to see Lorenzo as the obnoxious person. She tries to make amends.

The word ‘cold’ creates a bleak atmosphere. It describes the night as distant and
lonely. The next line ‘a white star, then another’ could be used as a symbol of hope.
A white star is like a beacon shining in cold night. If you look carefully you will then
see ‘another exploding out of the bark’. This is a metaphor for women who are not
heard. Women are the hope in the darkness and they are usually suppressed so you
need to look hard enough to see ‘another’ and when you see it, you will also see
many other ‘stars’ ‘exploding out of the bark’ eager to be heard and to spread their
knowledge. It proves that the unjust portrayals of women were wrong. The last line of
the stanza is ‘on the ground, moonlight picking at small stones’, this is used to signify
that the ‘moonlight’ a metaphor for women is starting her day. The phrase ‘small
stones’ gives you a small range of view as if women were restricted.

The next stanza moves smoothly with little punctuation and repetition of the phrase
‘as it’, it has many descriptions of nature and its work. Now the phrase ‘greater
stones’ is used, this zooms out of the confined area and allows women to look at the
bigger world waiting for them. The moonlight ‘rises with the surf’ could show that
women had their ups and downs during their fight for equality, just like how a wave
rises and then crashes. The second line of the stanza tells you that even though
sometimes they had trouble they did not give up: ‘laying its cheek for moments on

By: Saivi Zaveri

Saivi Zaveri 11.2

the sand’. They rested themselves only for moments before getting back up again
and going back to the fight. ‘it licks the broken ledge’ showing a motherly action,
much like how tiger mothers lick their young to soothe their wound, and as they flow
up the cliffs and flick across the tracks. It shows that women are capable of doing
anything they wish to do. They can ‘flick’, ’lick’ and ‘flow’ if they want to. The calm
tone of this stanza shows that their movement was peaceful, but the abrupt /k/
sounds show that if pushed they could move ‘across’ the peaceful boundaries and
turn violent just like Mother Nature has a calm before the storm.

In stanza three there is a sudden shift of mood and tone, it is now aggressive. The
‘moonlight’ now looks at the man-made objects and situations. The first line talks
about the early feminism movements: ‘unavailing pours into the gash’, the
movements were not working and the efforts were useless. ‘gash’ is a human wound
which does not heal easily, this tells us that the early movements would take a long
time to be effective. Gash is also a vulgar term used for women. The first efforts
made by women were often belittled and put down and called ‘gash’. The next line is
that the efforts were poured into ‘sand-and-gravel quarry’. This imagery gives a
negative atmosphere, quarry is a place where land has been excavated to obtain
stones and other materials, it shows how women were abused during their
movement towards equality; gravel is hard and sharp, showing their tough fight to
equality. The poet also creates an image of a crop dusting plane. The fuselage of
crop-dusting plane is in the hangar and as if it is sleeping, the movement is also
gaining power. We can say this because a crop dusting plane is powerful and is
relaxing, this is used as a metaphor for the increase of power in the movement.

The last stanza of the poem is shows us that the ‘moonlight’ ‘soaks through cracks
into the trailers’; this gives you an image of a sponge soaking up all the water. The
light of the moon must also be very powerful if it can go between small cracks of a
trailer, thus is a motif of the increasing power of feminism. The next line describes
the people nervously sleeping. This shows us that many people were ignorant and
as the movement gained force the ignorant authorities became nervous. The next
line describes the moonlight as a peaceful dweller looking at the sleepers. The last
line is very effective as it is the end of the repetition of ‘as it’, instead it begins with
‘as if’. The last line is consequential: ‘as if to make amends’. The moonlight is shown
as if it makes amends, but does it? ‘as if’ –a very important phrase –tells us that the
moonlight, a symbol for women, ultimately does not apologize. It shows the
empowerment of women. Women are always expected to apologize, sometimes
even if it is not their fault, they show no remorse for their movement; it shows the
revolution has been a success. The moon, represents women, and the sleepers
represent everyone else ignorant and just as women are expected to apologize, they
shouldn’t have to. The sleepers need to apologize, even if they start from something
small like a pebble. Change begins with small stones, and then grows bigger.

Amends is a beautiful, enigmatic poem which shows the struggles and success of
the early feminist movement which has shaped twenty-first century. Rich has
carefully weaved the theme of feminism in the poem but numerous other themes
have been laced in which are open to many interpretations. The theme of
environmentalism is seen this poem too, where the moon plays nature who is
repeatedly trying to fix every problem by ‘licks[ing] the broken ledge’ and ‘flicks[ing]
across the tracks’ but as it gets to the human, the tone is harsh. It is harder to solve

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this problem caused by man; the nature’s problems were elementary but the man-
made, issues are hard to solve. Rich tells us that nature works hard enough to keep
this world running, it does not have time solve human corruption. This intricate poem
holds many other mysteries to be unravelled and is a deceptively simple poem which
holds treasures of the lands unknown.

By: Saivi Zaveri