The speaker, in Adrienne RichÆs ItÆs True, These Last Few Years IÆve Lived, maintains that over the past few years she has ôlivedö (Rich, p. 378). However, the speaker of the poem is filled with irony as she maintains this act of living. For while RichÆs poem maintains the speaker has lived, the speaker is actually maintaining that life is nothing but a process of ôlossö (Rich, p. 378). How the speaker has lived has only been to fight against this loss in a manner that has ôno artö to it ôbut angerö (Rich, p. 378).
The speaker in this poem maintains that the way she has been living the past few years have been to watch herself ôin the act of lossùthe art of losingö (Rich, p. 378). The knowledge of mortality makes the speaker know that no matter what brings her pleasure in living, she will ultimately have to part with everything and everyone. The speaker refers to Elizabeth Bishop, whose poem One Art advocates turning this act of loss into an art of living. However, the speaker in RichÆs poem does not have the capacity to put such a rosy color to this act of loss. Instead, eh maintains, ôbut for me no art / only badly-done exercises / acts of the heart forced to question / its presumptions in this worldö (Rich, p. 378).
RichÆs speaker maintains that human desires and the human tendency to put a cheerful or artful face on the act of loss is merely a pretension, since all human beings will die. In contrast to finding any kind of celebration in attachments to earthly things or other people, RichÆs speaker advocates a vitriolic response and not submission to the slow dissolution of all earthly attachments. Like Dylan ThomasÆ Do Not Go Gentle, RichÆs speaker takes exception to BishopÆs call to find something to celebrate in the letting go of earthly attachment. RichÆs (p. 378) maintains there is nothing to celebrate and that she is angry over having to slowly but surely diss
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