Introduction

"Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law" is a poem in ten sections by celebrated 20th-century American poet Adrienne Rich. The work expresses overtly feminist themes as Rich examines the everyday lives and challenges of women living in a patriarchal society. As the title suggests, the speaker writes about her daughter-in-law, making astute observations about that woman's experiences and the speaker's own. In this way, Rich offers her observations on women's roles in a way that captures personal, individual experience and makes a statement about the sociocultural debasement of women in the mid-20th century.  

Rich is known for poetry that centers on female experience. "Snapshots" was published in 1963. Like most of Rich's work, this poem is associated with second-wave feminism, a movement that highlights the social, economic, and legal gender inequities based on gender and seeks, through activism and art, to gain equal rights for women. 

Summary

The poem's first section addresses the daughter-in-law directly as "you." The speaker recalls the woman in her youth, her "skin like a peachbud" before her marriage. Despite a romanticized past, the woman is presently "moldering" and "heavy with useless experience." Marriage and aging have taken a toll on the daughter-in-law. At the end of the stanza, the speaker introduces her granddaughter, the child of her daughter-in-law; the relationship between mother and daughter is tense, characterized by the daughter's resistance. 

In the next section, the speaker describes a domestic scene: the daughter-in-law washes dishes and considers advice given by what are "probably angels." The monotony of chores marks her life; her station emotionally dulls her.

The third section comments on the danger of intellect in a woman: "A thinking woman sleeps with monsters." This stanza also describes a conflict between "Two handsome women," each standing her ground but resorting to character attacks ("ad feminam"). They may represent the speaker and her daughter-in-law. The speaker wonders how they can be at each other's throats when shared struggles should unite them.

The following stanza observes that intimacy can also breed tension and resentment. The speaker transitions to a contrast between domestic labor and artistic work. Sometimes, activities like reading or poetry distract women from their chores, but more often than not, women apply the same careful attention to everything they do.

The fifth stanza is exceptionally brief – only three lines in which the speaker describes the daughter-in-law shaving her legs and speaking sweetly, presumably adhering to feminine norms.

In the sixth section, the speaker references Thomas Campion's poem describing a woman named Corrina singing and playing her lute. Rich emphasizes Corrina's physical actions in her poem, describing her hair hitting her knees as "the song." Corinna is "unsatisfied" and "caged," and the speaker wonders if her pain is "fertile" and whether it could be channeled into her art. The final lines of the stanza suggest that, for a woman, devotion to romantic love dulls her ability to create.

The seventh section begins with a quote from famous feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, apparently exhorting women to gain a secure occupation. The speaker reflects on how contemporaries reacted to Wollstonecraft, commenting that women who transgress gender norms are ruthlessly degraded by men.

Stanza eight includes a quote from Diderot that claims women's lives end when they are fifteen. Despite this prediction, the speaker remarks that women continue to dream and strive later in life. However, unfulfilled potential and "martyred ambition" make women feel "drained" in middle age. This stanza contrasts the "delicious" fantasies young women entertain about the future and the stark reality of the daughter-in-law's present. 

The next stanza begins with another allusion ,...