Why is marriage not like a house or a tent?

/in /by

HABITATION
by Margaret Atwood

 

Marriage is not

a house or even a tent
it is before that, and colder:
the edge of the forest, the edge

of the desert

the unpainted stairs

at the back where we squat

outside, eating popcorn
the edge of the receding glacier
where painfully and with wonder

at having survived even

this far
we are learning to make fire

 

Questions:

  1. Read the poem 3 times, then explain what you think it might mean.
  2. Why is marriage not like a house or a tent?
  3. Why is marriage colder?
  4. What is the importance of “the unpainted stairs”?
  5. Why the “receding glacier”?
  6. What is mean by “learning to make fire”?
  7. Express what you think about the poem after your analysis.
 
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