The Landlady

Sound is a key motif in Atwood’s poem. Five of the poem’s seven stanzas reference sound in some way (Stanzas 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7). Of the six references to sound, five are related to the landlady. The speaker describes “raw voice” (Line 3) as personifying the landlady, contributing to the “continuous henyard squabble” (Lines 5-6) in the rooms below. The landlady’s voice is so salient to the speaker that they indicate the woman is embodied by the voice, “She is a raw voice” (Lines 2-3), rather than saying she simply has a raw voice. This adds to the feeling of the landlady’s omnipresence as she travels, disembodied as just a voice, through the house. A rich soundscape is built up throughout the poem, as blood “bickers” (Line 8) and the landlady “slams […] days like doors” (Line 15). The cacophony of sounds are continuous, and the author now contributes when she wakes up shouting (Line 23). Finally, the landlady is a “raucous fact” (Line 30). Through the sustained use of aural vocabulary, Atwood places the reader in the midst of the poem, allowing them to experience the auditory stimuli with the tenant.