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Elizabeth Jennings 'One Flesh' On the surface, 'One Flesh' is the poet's description of the relationship that exists between her elderly married parents, a relationship which, though full of 'passion' in the past, is now sterile and 'cold.' The main theme of the poem, however, is the mystery and indissolubility of the married state by which two, however 'separate' and 'apart' they may seem, are actually 'strangely close together' in that they have become 'One Flesh.' In marriage, 'oneness' grows through sexual passion and the conception of children; it then moves on to another kind of connectedness that exists even in silence and physical separation. The poem thus addresses the different implications of 'one flesh,' the physical as well as the mysterious unknown aspects of a relationship. The title of the poem, 'One Flesh,' is drawn both from the Christian marriage service and from the Bible. In Genesis, it is written...

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