"Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law" is a landmark feminist poem by Adrienne Rich, published in her 1963 collection of the same title. Its 10 sections offer a series of "Snapshots" of the modern female condition, touching on the struggles of ordinary women as well as female figures from literature and myth. The speaker moves from portraying the plight of a particular woman (the "Daughter-in-Law" of the title) to imagining a kind of modern goddess who delivers all that women have been "promise[d]"—or fulfills their own thwarted "promise." The poem is at once a protest against the male-dominated world that has held women back, a call to women to demand more of and for themselves, and a "promise" that women can defeat social barriers and attain their loftiest dreams.

• Read the full text of “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law”

• “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law” Summary

• “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law” Themes

  • 

    Feminist Liberation and Patriarchal Oppression

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-13
    • Lines 14-25
    • Lines 26-39
    • Lines 40-49
    • Lines 50-52
    • Lines 53-68
    • Lines 69-76
    • Lines 77-85
    • Lines 86-107
    • Lines 108-122
  • 

    Historical and Internalized Misogyny

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 20-25
    • Lines 26-27
    • Lines 33-39
    • Lines 40-42
    • Lines 69-76
    • Line 77
    • Lines 86-88
    • Lines 95-107
    • Lines 108-110
  • 

    Aging, Beauty Standards, and Discontent

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-13
    • Lines 27-32
    • Lines 50-52
    • Lines 53-68
    • Lines 77-85
  • 

    Nature, Art, and Female Experience

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-13
    • Lines 26-32
    • Lines 40-49
    • Lines 53-59
    • Lines 60-68
    • Lines 86-107
  • 

    Daughterhood and the Generation Gap

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-13
    • Lines 14-25
    • Lines 60-68

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law”

  • Lines 1-6

    You, once a belle ...
    ... "

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 7-13

    Your mind now, ...
    ... grows another way.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 14-19

    Banging the coffee-pot ...
    ... you cannot save.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 20-25

    Sometimes she's let ...
    ... into her eyes.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 26-27

    A thinking woman ...
    ... her, she becomes.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 27-32

    And Nature, ...
    ... heads and orchids.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 33-39

    Two handsome women, ...
    ... semblable, ma soeur!

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 40-49

    Knowing themselves too ...
    ... day of life.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 50-52

    Dulce ridens, dulce ...
    ... like petrified mammoth-tusk.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 53-59

    When to her ...
    ... of an eye.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 60-68

    Poised, trembling and ...
    ... sons never saw?

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 69-76

    "To have in ...
    ... shrew and whore.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 77-80

    "You all die ...
    ... blankening with steam.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 81-85

    Deliciously, all that ...
    ... our middle years.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 86-91

    Not that it ...
    ... if we could?

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 92-99

    Our blight has ...
    ... our mediocrities over-praised,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 100-107

    indolence read as ...
    ... for that honor.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 108-115

    Well, ...
    ... or helicopter,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 116-122

    poised, still coming, ...
    ... ours.

    

    

    

    

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• “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law” Symbols

  • 

    Household Items

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 12-13: “Nervy, glowering, your daughter / wipes the teaspoons, grows another way.”
    • Line 14: “Banging the coffee-pot into the sink”
    • Lines 20-23: “Sometimes she's let the tapstream scald her arm, / a match burn to her thumbnail, / or held her hand above the kettle's snout / right in the woolly steam.”
    • Lines 34-35: “I hear scream / across the cut glass and majolica”
    • Lines 43-44: “Reading while waiting / for the iron to heat,”
    • Lines 45-46: “writing, / My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun— / in that Amherst pantry while the jellies boil and scum,”
    • Lines 48-49: “iron-eyed and beaked and purposed as a bird, / dusting everything on the whatnot every day of life.”
  • 

    The Blank Windows

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 80: “behind closed windows blankening with steam.”

• “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Juxtaposition

    

    

    

    

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    Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

    • Before Line 1
    • Lines 1-13
    • Between Lines 13-14
    • Lines 14-25
    • Between Lines 25-26
    • Lines 26-39
    • Between Lines 39-40
    • Lines 40-49
    • Between Lines 49-50
    • Lines 50-52
    • Between Lines 52-53
    • Lines 53-68
    • Between Lines 68-69
    • Lines 69-76
    • Between Lines 76-77
    • Lines 77-85
    • Between Lines 85-86
    • Lines 86-107
    • Between Lines 107-108
    • Lines 108-122

  • Allusion

    

    

    

    

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    Where allusion appears in the poem:

    • Lines 4-6: “and play a Chopin prelude / called by Cortot: " / Delicious recollections / float like perfume through the memory. / "”
    • Lines 28-29: “that sprung-lidded, still commodious / steamer-trunk of / tempora / and / mores”
    • Lines 31-32: “the terrible breasts / of Boadicea”
    • Lines 33-36: “Two handsome women, gripped in argument, / each proud, acute, subtle, I hear scream / across the cut glass and majolica / like Furies cornered from their prey:”
    • Line 39: “ma semblable, ma soeur!”
    • Lines 45-46: “writing, / My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun— / in that Amherst pantry while the jellies boil and scum,”
    • Line 50: “Dulce ridens, dulce loquens,”
    • Lines 53-54: “When to her lute Corinna sings / neither words nor music are her own;”
    • Lines 63-63: “is this / fertilisante douleur / ?”
    • Lines 69-76: “"To have in this uncertain world some stay / which cannot be undermined, is / of the utmost consequence." / Thus wrote / a woman, partly brave and partly good, / who fought with what she partly understood. / Few men about her would or could do more, / hence she was labeled harpy, shrew and whore.”
    • Line 77: “"You all die at fifteen," said Diderot,”
    • Lines 86-87: “Not that it is done well, but / that it is done at all?”
    • Line 95: “Sigh no more, ladies.”
    • Lines 108-122: “Well, / she's long about her coming, who must be / more merciless to herself than history. / Her mind full to the wind, I see her plunge / breasted and glancing through the currents, / taking the light upon her / at least as beautiful as any boy / or helicopter, / poised, still coming, / her fine blades making the air wince / but her cargo / no promise then: / delivered / palpable / ours.”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Lines 10-11: “crumbling to pieces under the knife-edge / of mere fact.”
    • Line 15: “she hears the angels chiding,”
    • Line 22: “or held her hand above the kettle's snout”
    • Line 23: “right in the woolly steam.,” “They are probably angels,”
    • Lines 24-25: “since nothing hurts her anymore, except / each morning's grit blowing into her eyes.”
    • Line 26: “A thinking woman sleeps with monsters.”
    • Lines 27-30: “The beak that grips her, she becomes. And Nature, / that sprung-lidded, still commodious / steamer-trunk of / tempora / and / mores / gets stuffed with it all:”
    • Lines 37-38: “all the old knives / that have rusted in my back, I drive in yours,”
    • Lines 41-42: “their gifts no pure fruition, but a thorn, / the prick filed sharp against a hint of scorn...”
    • Lines 56-57: “only the song / of silk against her knees”
    • Lines 58-59: “and these / adjusted in reflections of an eye.”
    • Lines 60-62: “Poised, trembling and unsatisfied, before / an unlocked door, that cage of cages, / tell us, you bird,”
    • Line 62: “you tragical machine—”
    • Lines 63-66: “Pinned down / by love, for you the only natural action, / are you edged more keen / to prise the secrets of the vault?”
    • Lines 66-68: “has Nature shown / her household books to you, daughter-in-law, / that her sons never saw?”
    • Line 82: “all that we were—fire,”
    • Lines 89-90: “This luxury of the precocious child, / Time's precious chronic invalid,—”
    • Line 92: “Our blight has been our sinecure:”
    • Line 94: “glitter in fragments and rough drafts.”
    • Lines 96-97: “Time is male / and in his cups drinks to the fair.”
    • Line 101: “slattern thought styled intuition,”
    • Lines 102-104: “our crime / only to cast too bold a shadow / or smash the mold straight off.”
    • Lines 105-107: “For that, solitary confinement, / tear gas, attrition shelling. / Few applicants for that honor.”
    • Line 111: “Her mind full to the wind,”
    • Lines 117-122: “her fine blades making the air wince / but her cargo / no promise then: / delivered / palpable / ours.”

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “with henna-colored hair, skin like a peachbud,”
    • Lines 5-6: “" / Delicious recollections / float like perfume through the memory. / "”
    • Lines 7-11: “Your mind now, moldering like wedding-cake, / heavy with useless experience, rich / with suspicion, rumor, fantasy, / crumbling to pieces under the knife-edge / of mere fact.”
    • Lines 33-36: “Two handsome women, gripped in argument, / each proud, acute, subtle, I hear scream / across the cut glass and majolica / like Furies cornered from their prey:”
    • Line 48: “iron-eyed and beaked and purposed as a bird,”
    • Lines 51-52: “she shaves her legs until they gleam / like petrified mammoth-tusk.”
    • Lines 81-85: “Deliciously, all that we might have been, / all that we were—fire, tears, / wit, taste, martyred ambition— / stirs like the memory of refused adultery / the drained and flagging bosom of our middle years.”
    • Lines 109-110: “she's long about her coming, who must be / more merciless to herself than history.”
    • Lines 113-115: “taking the light upon her / at least as beautiful as any boy / or helicopter,”

  • Irony

    

    

    

    

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    Where irony appears in the poem:

    • Lines 4-11: “and play a Chopin prelude / called by Cortot: " / Delicious recollections / float like perfume through the memory. / " / Your mind now, moldering like wedding-cake, / heavy with useless experience, rich / with suspicion, rumor, fantasy, / crumbling to pieces under the knife-edge / of mere fact. In the prime of your life.”
    • Lines 23-25: “They are probably angels, / since nothing hurts her anymore, except / each morning's grit blowing into her eyes.”
    • Lines 37-39: “The argument / ad feminam / , all the old knives / that have rusted in my back, I drive in yours, / ma semblable, ma soeur!”
    • Lines 47-49: “or, more often, / iron-eyed and beaked and purposed as a bird, / dusting everything on the whatnot every day of life.”
    • Lines 50-52: “Dulce ridens, dulce loquens, / she shaves her legs until they gleam / like petrified mammoth-tusk.”
    • Lines 53-54: “When to her lute Corinna sings / neither words nor music are her own;”
    • Lines 60-61: “Poised, trembling and unsatisfied, before / an unlocked door, that cage of cages,”
    • Lines 75-76: “Few men about her would or could do more, / hence she was labeled harpy, shrew and whore.”
    • Lines 79-80: “Still, eyes inaccurately dream / behind closed windows blankening with steam.”
    • Lines 86-88: “Not that it is done well, but / that it is done at all? / Yes, think / of the odds! or shrug them off forever.”
    • Lines 95-97: “Sigh no more, ladies. / Time is male / and in his cups drinks to the fair.”
    • Lines 102-107: “our crime / only to cast too bold a shadow / or smash the mold straight off. / For that, solitary confinement, / tear gas, attrition shelling. / Few applicants for that honor.”
    • Lines 108-110: “Well, / she's long about her coming, who must be / more merciless to herself than history.”
    • Lines 114-115: “at least as beautiful as any boy / or helicopter,”

  • Asyndeton

    

    

    

    

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    Where asyndeton appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “with henna-colored hair, skin like a peachbud,”
    • Lines 7-11: “Your mind now, moldering like wedding-cake, / heavy with useless experience, rich / with suspicion, rumor, fantasy, / crumbling to pieces under the knife-edge / of mere fact.”
    • Line 12: “Nervy, glowering, your daughter”
    • Lines 30-32: “the mildewed orange-flowers, / the female pills, the terrible breasts / of Boadicea beneath flat foxes' heads and orchids.”
    • Line 34: “each proud, acute, subtle,”
    • Lines 82-83: “fire, tears, / wit, taste, martyred ambition”
    • Lines 98-102: “we hear / our mediocrities over-praised, / indolence read as abnegation, / slattern thought styled intuition, / every lapse forgiven,”
    • Lines 105-106: “For that, solitary confinement, / tear gas, attrition shelling.”
    • Lines 120-122: “delivered / palpable / ours.”

• “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Belle
  • Shreveport
  • Henna-colored
  • Dresses copied
  • Chopin prelude
  • Cortot
  • Moldering
  • Nervy
  • Glowering
  • They
  • Insatiable
  • Grit
  • Steamer-trunk
  • Tempora and mores
  • Sprung-lidded
  • Commodious
  • Orange-flowers, foxes' heads, orchids
  • The female pills
  • Boadicea
  • Foxes' heads
  • Cut glass and majolica
  • Furies
  • Argument ad feminam
  • Ma semblable, ma soeur!
  • Fruition
  • My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun—
  • Amherst
  • Scum
  • Dulce ridens, dulce loquens
  • Petrified
  • When to her lute Corinna sings
  • Fertilisante douleur
  • Prise
  • "To have [...] utmost consequence."
  • Harpy, shrew, and whore
  • Diderot
  • Blankening
  • Matryred
  • Drained and flagging
  • "Not that [...] done at all?"
  • Chronic invalid
  • Sinecure
  • Sigh no more, ladies
  • In his cups
  • Bemused
  • Abnegation
  • Indolence
  • Slattern
  • Styled
  • Attrition shelling
  • She's long about [...] no promise then
  • Palpable
  • (Location in poem: Line 1: “You, once a belle in Shreveport,”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law” Speaker

• “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law”

• More “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law” Resources

  • External Resources

    • The Poet's Life and Career — Read a biography of Adrienne Rich at the Poetry Foundation.

    • Rich and Brand: A Conversation — Watch a filmed conversation between Rich and fellow feminist writer Dionne Brand, complete with readings of their work.

    • Rich's Feminist Awakening — Learn about how Rich's feminism evolved over the course of her life and work.

    • Rich, Remembered — Read Rich's 2012 obituary in the New York Times.

    • Marilyn Hacker on "Snapshots" — Poet Marilyn Hacker honors the literary legacy of "Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law."

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Adrienne Rich

    • Amends

    • Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

    • Diving into the Wreck

    • Living in Sin

    • What Kind of Times Are These

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