“Appropriation’s claw. Afraid, he hissed “Of me”, No cordiality, He fathomed me. Then to a Rhythm Slim Secreted In his Form As Patterns swim Projected him. That time I flew Both eyes his way Lest he pursue Nor ever ceased to run Till in a distant Town Towns on from mine” This was a dream.
In Winter in My Room’ is set in winter, at a time of emotional barrenness and isolation. Finds in her room a harmless worm. Worm lover, tied by a string, idea of being restricted by someone.
Worm becomes a snake it grew (sexual connotation, phallic? ) Ties of marriage, person has transformed. Sin’ “How fair you are” flattery, appeasing the snake, attempting to. Disgust & admiration, also submission sexual act 1. 24-31 snake of Eden. Evil, sly, cruel. Symbolic finds a harmless worm in her room; stands for male companion. Cautious, decides to keep it tied with a string. But the worm remain contained, and when she returns, she encounters a powerful snake that threatens her.
She shrinks in fear and attempts to appease it: “How fair you are! Propitiation claw’; desires and advances. His advances please and attract her. His rising sexual desire rallies the coiling rhythm of a snake about to attack. Fascinated, yet terrified, she wavers momentarily for she cannot shake her own deep-seated fears of masculine aggression. He, who was ‘pink, lank and something warm’; phallic imagery; becomes ‘ringed with power’; coiled to attack; and threatens to break out of the controls she had put on him.
Retreats to “a distant Town/ Towns on from mine”; isolated state of being; to her former isolated self. Poem ends abruptly with what first appears to be a deliberate diversion: “This was a dream”, but we know that in an effort to wipe her memory clean of the experience, o repress the inadequacy she felt as desire was overcome by terror, she maintains, “This was a dream”. ‘Secreted in his form’; natural male force.
The poem is allegorical in its framework for it depicts a woman’s rejection of the physical by saying that it “was a dream”; not real but opposed to reality. Its imagery has invited Freudian interpretations as to how the conscious mind, the ego denies and rejects the surging drives of the subconscious. ‘Fathomed’; studied and comprehended, that she is attracted towards him. Before marriage? Sin committed if sexual act so pretend it was a dream?
