The Speaker's Mind

The entire poem takes place inside the speaker's perceptions. Even as she evokes specific domestic settings such as the bedroom and kitchen or dining room, they exist in her memories. Phrases like "time and again" and the plural "mornings" indicate that the speaker describes how she views her family's typical routines.

The Marriage Bed

The speaker often evokes a mental image of her marriage bed. She describes how she constantly binds her heart to "that headboard," with the word "that" signifying her contempt (2). The dichotomy between head and heart presented in these lines plays on the traditional association between women and feelings, and conversely men and intellect. The speaker also both explicitly refers to sexual intercourse and uses double entendres throughout the poem.

The Kitchen or Dining Room

The speaker recounts how she consistently observes her husband "[driving] into the gored / Roasts" and dealing out "slivers...