One Flesh

• “Lying apart now, each in a separate bed”

  • The opening line immediately shows physical and emotional distance between the couple
  • The word “now” hints that they once shared closeness but have since grown apart
  • It sets a tone of sadness and nostalgia, highlighting how relationships can change over time
• “He with a book, keeping the light on late / She like a girl dreaming of childhood

  • These images show each person escaping into their own world—he into reading, she into memories
  • The phrase “like a girl” is especially striking—it shows how she’s mentally far away, perhaps longing for a simpler or happier past
  • The simile makes the woman seem fragile or lost in thought, contrasting with the expected image of a united older couple
• “They hardly ever touch, / Or if they do, it is like a confession”

  • Jennings uses a simile here to suggest that any physical intimacy now feels awkward or shameful, almost like admitting something uncomfortable
  • Suggests the physical relationship has faded, replaced by emotional distance
  • It may also reflect traditional attitudes towards sex in older generations
• “Whose fire from which I came, has now grown cold”

  • The metaphor of “fire” once symbolising passion, now “cold,” shows how love has faded
  • The speaker seems confused and questioning—“has” now grown cold suggests surprise or sadness
  • The rhetorical question shows the speaker’s emotional struggle to understand how their parents’ relationship has changed
• Regular Form

  • The poem is made up of three equal stanzas, each with six lines and a mostly steady rhythm and rhyme scheme
  • This creates a sense of order and control, which contrasts with the emotional confusion and disconnection described in the poem
  • It might reflect the outward appearance of the couple’s marriage—calm and structured—even though it’s filled with unspoken distance
• Enjambment

  • Jennings uses enjambment (where sentences flow across lines or stanzas without punctuation) throughout the poem
  • This mirrors the ongoing, unresolved emotions and the passage of time in the couple’s relationship
  • For example, in the first stanza, enjambment reflects how their lives continue side-by-side but without real connection
• Contrast Between Past and Present

  • There’s a strong contrast in structure between memories of passion and the current emotional coldness:
  • Words like “fire” and “passion” from the past are now matched with “cold” and “chastity.”
  • This shift is not just in the content, but also in the tone of each stanza, moving from observation, to reflection, to personal emotion
  • The structure mirrors the speaker’s growing realisation of the relationship’s emptiness
• • Elizabeth Jennings was a 20th-century British poet, born in 1926 and writing during a time when traditional values, especially around marriage and religion, were still strong in society
  • Jennings was a devout Roman Catholic, and her poetry often reflects moral, emotional, and spiritual themes
• • In One Flesh, Jennings reflects on her parents’ marriage, using her observations as their adult child to explore the emotional distance that can grow between a couple over time
  • The poem shows how their relationship has lost its physical intimacy and passion, replaced by a sense of quiet companionship—or even loneliness
• • Her religious background also plays a role in the imagery—words like “chastity” and the moral tone suggest that she views this emotional separation through a lens of spiritual and moral reflection, not just emotional detachment