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Anne Billington
Professor Johnsen
English 362
Tuesday, March 1St
Scottish Feminism: Love vs. Economics
When reading feminist literature the reader expects to encounter certain themes, however,
feminism isn’t about hating men it is about loving women and what they can achieve.
Suffragettes were fighting for the vote, during WWI and II they fought for the right to support
their families and against the idea that a woman has to the run the household or can’t run the
house and hold down a job. This poem, Affections Must Not by Denise Riley, hits on the major
feminist themes of economics and duty vs. love and discusses some of the myths of woman in
relation to slavery and weather.
As this poem begins the author starts by introducing the concept of “this” in the first line,
“This is an old fiction of reliability” (Quoted in Tuma, Riley, 749), the question that develops in
the readers mind is: what or who is “this”? The reader can assume that “this” is wifely duty
based on the lines “stands up in kitchens” and “arms in cotton” (Quoted in Tuma, Riley, 749)
because women are the ‘old fiction’ that are meant to stand up in kitchens and they are the slaves
in comfort of the home (cotton). Knowing as we do that “this” is her duty as a wife, than we can
infer that when she says “I” she must be referring to her independent self, separate from her job
as a mother or a wife. From this point we must question the author’s use of the term “arms” –are
they her arm’s or her husbands? From the line “is arms in cotton” (Quoted in Tuma, Riley, 749)
we learn that her wifely duty is her arms trapped in cotton so we can assume that in the line,
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“arms that I will not love folded nor admire for their ‘strength’” (Quoted in Tuma, Riley, 749)
she is also speaking of her own arms. If she is speaking of her own arms here than the reader
must assume that the poet does admire her own ability to accomplish things within the house, her
own strength and reliability.
One of the motifs in the poem is responsibility, which is heavily linked with duty to the
house and income. One of the first things we read is about the strength it takes to perform wifely
duties; one must be reliable, righteous, a slave to the home, and endure like the weather. Weather
comes up again in the third stanza when she says that a wife is the “true storm shelter” standing
in the kitchen yet later she says wives stand speechlessly in that same kitchen while the house is
the one that murmurs. The voice vs. voicelessness displays the duty and responsibility in this
poem that is felt by the woman that is running the house. Not having a voice is a also shown by
the many slave metaphors and the use of the word “bear” and “bearing” (Quoted in Tuma, Riley,
749) in reference to tolerating life. The poet feels that they must be strong and carry out this
fiction, this duty and performance that society and history has handed down to them but by
calling it fiction, mythical, and burdens she admits that she does not want to be in the home.
There are many confusing and beautiful lines in this poem; it is the art of Reily’s work,
however, one stanza stands out as having seemingly nonsensical text, stanza # WHATEVER.
She starts the stanza by saying, “of mothers who never were, nor white nor black/mothers who
were always a set of equipment and a fragile balance” these few lines are the clear, she states that
is a universal problem among all women and all races being treated as household labors
(“equipment”) that are feeble yet dependable. Next she moves on to say, “mothers who looked
over a gulf through the cloud of an act & at times speechlessly saw it//inside a designation there
are people permanently started to bear it, the not-me against sociology” (Quoted in Tuma, Riley,
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749) These two stanzas are confusing at the least but through the artistic word choice there is
meaning. Here we see the author using weather again speaking of a cloud, haze that obscures
vision, of a performance that they saw with out complaint. The next line talks about how tracking
of women into roles can occur. Designation’s synonyms are: label, alias and nickname, so she is
saying that mothers watched silently as other young women were labeled and tracked to bear the
wifely duty because they believed in “not-me against sociology” (Quoted in Tuma, Riley, 749).
The poet is blaming other women as well as society for the fiction that she finds herself trapped
in now.
Though the poet blames other women she also shows pity for young women who did not
realize what they were getting into when they married, “inside the kitchens there is realising of
tightropes/Milk, if I do not continue to love you as deeply and truly as you want and need/that is
us in the mythical streets again” (Quoted in Tuma, Riley, 749) Here Riley says that it is in the
kitchen that the women understands her place and the circus she is now part of. ‘Milk’ is a very
interesting word because it makes the reader think of kitchen and the domestic, childhood and
innocence, also to exploit and take advantage of someone. When we read this passage we are
inclined to think of the loss of innocence of the young wife as she looses her love for all kitchen
related item and her husband because of being trapped in the home. This is the only time love for
the husband is called into question but it is refuted as it is linked with mythical walks which like
the fictional ideas of wifely duties the poet does not support.
Ultimately the woman in the poem believes that she can bring home money for the house
but that it comes down to a choice between keeping up her house and bringing home enough
money to survive. The author makes a forceful statement, “affections must not support the rent”
(Quoted in Tuma, Riley, 749) but then moves on to say, with equally as forceful punctuation
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that, “I. neglect. the house” (Quoted in Tuma, Riley, 749) meaning only that the woman has
picked to work outside the home. This is important because she chose to work outside the home,
but more important because two lines earlier the author implied that not only is it a choice
between the house and work but love and economics, saying that if she chose work than she
didn’t choose love (her home). In true feminist fashion this poem supports the idea that a
mother’s first love is her home but that she is capable of more and can ‘neglect’ the housework
to fulfill other duties.
AFFECTIONS MUST NOT
By Denise Riley
This is an old fiction of reliability
is a weather presence, is a righteousness
is arms in cotton
this is what stands up in kitchens
is a true storm shelter
& is taken straight out of colonial history, master and slave
arms that I will not love folded nor admire for their ‘strength’
linens that I will not love folded but will see flop open
tables that will rise heavily in the new wind & lift away, bearing their precious
burdens
of mothers who never were, nor white nor black
mothers who were always a set of equipment and a fragile balance
mothers who looked over a gulf through the cloud of an act & at times
speechlessly saw it
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inside a designation there are people permanently started to bear it, the not-me
against sociology
inside the kitchens there is realising of tightropes
Milk, if I do not continue to love you as deeply and truly as you want and need
that is us in the mythical streets again
support, support
the houses are murmuring with many small pockets of emotion
on which spongy grounds adults lives are being erected and paid for daily
while their feet and their children’s feet are tangled around like those of fen larks
in the fine steely wires which run to and fro between love and economics
affections must not support the rent
I. neglect. the house
WORK CITED
Riley, Denise. Anthology of Twentieth-century British &
Irish Poetry. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, Inc,
2001. Edited by Keith Tuma 1957. Riley b.1948.