Adrienne+Rich

Maggie Wigton Adrienne Rich was born May 16, 1929 in Baltimore, Maryland. Rich graduated from Radcliffe College and married economics professor, Alfred Conrad. Adrienne Rich struggled with the expectations of motherhood and femininity which transferred into her work. After receiving many awards for her politically and socially aware works, Rich died in 2012.

"Diving into the Wreck"
1 First having read the book of myths,  and loaded the camera,  and checked the edge of the knife-blade,  I put on 5 the body-armor of black rubber  the absurd flippers  the grave and awkward mask.  I am having to do this  not like Cousteau with his 10 assiduous team  aboard the sun-flooded schooner  but here alone.

 There is a ladder.  The ladder is always there 15 hanging innocently <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> close to the side of the schooner. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> We know what it is for, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> we who have used it. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Otherwise <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">20 it is a piece of maritime floss <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> some sundry equipment.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I go down. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Rung after rung and still <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> the oxygen immerses me <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">25 the blue light <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> the clear atoms <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> of our human air. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I go down. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> My flippers cripple me, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">30 I crawl like an insect down the ladder <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> and there is no one <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> to tell me when the ocean <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> will begin.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> First the air is blue and then <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">35 it is bluer and then green and then <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> black I am blacking out and yet <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> my mask is powerful <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> it pumps my blood with power <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> the sea is another story <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">40 the sea is not a question of power <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I have to learn alone <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> to turn my body without force <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> in the deep element.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> And now: it is easy to forget <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">45 what I came for <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> among so many who have always <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> lived here <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> swaying their crenellated fans <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> between the reefs <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">50 and besides <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> you breathe differently down here.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I came to explore the wreck. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The words are purposes. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The words are maps. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">55 I came to see the damage that was done <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> and the treasures that prevail. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I stroke the beam of my lamp <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> slowly along the flank <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> of something more permanent <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">60 than fish or weed

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> the thing I came for: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> the wreck and not the story of the wreck <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> the thing itself and not the myth <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> the drowned face always staring <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">65 toward the sun <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> the evidence of damage <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> worn by salt and sway into this threadbare beauty <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> the ribs of the disaster <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> curving their assertion <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">70 among the tentative haunters.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> This is the place. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> And I am here, the mermaid whose dark hair <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> streams black, the merman in his armored body. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> We circle silently <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">75 about the wreck <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> we dive into the hold. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I am she: I am he

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> whose drowned face sleeps with open eyes <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> whose breasts still bear the stress <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">80 whose silver, copper, vermeil cargo lies <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> obscurely inside barrels <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> half-wedged and left to rot <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> we are the half-destroyed instruments <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> that once held to a course <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">85 the water-eaten log <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> the fouled compass

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> We are, I am, you are <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> by cowardice or courage <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> the one who find our way <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">90 back to this scene <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> carrying a knife, a camera <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> a book of myths <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> in which <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> our names do not appear.

<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Rich, Adrienne. "Diving into the Wreck." //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">, Poem //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. Web. 27 Jan. 2016.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> When I began reading this poem, it seemed that it was explicitly detailing a person’s diving adventure; however as I read deeper into the work (pun intended), I realized that the meaning went beyond the words on the page. The first stanza depicts the preparation of the diver’s journey. By using diction the poet creates a mood reflecting the preparation for a battle. In the first stanza the figure’s wetsuit is described as “body-armor of black rubber” (5), and the diver compares his expedition to that of Cousteau, a naval officer and explorer (9).The descent into the ocean is described from lines 14 to 43. The author turns the surface of the water into a portal from air to water, and the ladder acts as a passage. It was interesting to read this part of the poem because the diver was almost transitioning into another world. Diving in was uncomfortable at first, just like anything different or new. The rest of the poem is filled with whimsical and frightening descriptions. Phrases like crenellated fans (48), threadbare beauty (67), and ribs of disaster (68) create an ethereal setting for the dive. The final few stanzas also expose the underlying meaning of the poem. The ultimate purpose for this diver’s expedition was exploring the shipwreck, and the remnants of the ship represent humankind after experiencing history. The protagonist also divides into different characters which are also whole, contributing to the central idea that history does not remember individuals. The final three lines are crucial to this point because Rich breaks up the meter to emphasize that all the details, the names, and the truth of history fade until it is only a myth.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Diving Game

<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"Fancy Diver." //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">- Play It Now at Coolmath-Games.com //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. Web. 25 Jan. 2016.

<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"In A Classroom"
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">(1) Talking of poetry, hauling the books

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> arm-full to the table where the heads

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> bend or gaze upward, listening, reading aloud,

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> talking of consonants, elision,

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">(5) caught in the how, oblivious of why:

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I look in your face, Jude,

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> neither frowning nor nodding,

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> opaque in the slant of dust-motes over the table:

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> a presence like a stone, if a stone were thinking

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">(10)What I cannot say, is me.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> For that I came.

<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Rich, Adrienne. "In A Classroom." //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">, Poem //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. Web. 27 Jan. 2016.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Adrienne Rich’s poem, “In a Classroom”, resonated with me because it reminded me of how confused and lost I feel whenever there is a poetry unit in class. Although the poem is not lengthy by any means, it managed to confuse me upon the first couple of readings. Rich mixes the actions of the teacher and students together in the first few lines. The teacher is “hauling the books arm-full to the table where the heads bend or gaze upwards” (1-3) while the students discuss poetry. One of the most important lines of “In a Classroom” is line five because it is indicating the purpose of this poem; Rich is saying that humans are easily caught in details instead of looking at the big picture. This fits in with the author’s common political themes. The line also transitions the poem to a different point. Rich shifts to the face of her classmate, Jude, who actual dwells on the meaning and effect in the poems the class is studying. His face is difficult to interpret or understand because he is lost in thought. Rich uses attention to detail such as “dust-motes over the table” (8) and “a presence like a stone” (9) to emphasize that the real undertaking is not visible to the naked eye; almost all of the students are bored or lost, but Jude is considering the works. Lines 10 through 11 serve as a periodic statement. For the entire duration of the poem, Rich is observing her surroundings, but she transfers her attention from her environment to herself. These lines are a reference to Gerard Manly Hopkins’ poem, “As King Fishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame”, and they open a window for the reader to understand Rich’s experience in the classroom.

<span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> "Classroom in the Cloud." //Classroom in the Cloud//. Web. 27 Jan. 2016. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**"Aunt Jennifer's Tigers"** <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen, Bright topaz denizens of a world of green. They do not fear the men beneath the tree; They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">5 Aunt Jennifer's fingers fluttering through her wool Find even the ivory needle hard to pull. The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie 10 Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by. The tigers in the panel that she made Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Rich, Adrienne. "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers." Web. 16 Mar. 2016.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Adrienne Rich’s poem, “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”, exhibits the social commentary for which Rich is known. The work is a statement on the constraints of marriage on women. By contrasting the prancing tigers in a world of green and the heavy weight of marriage of Aunt Jennifer, Rich demonstrates the idea of what could be and what is. The narrator introduces Aunt Jennifer in a familiar way which makes the piece relatable to the reader especially because of the subject matter. In the poem the woman is embroidering a tapestry of sorts, and the poem roams into the sad, oppressed death of Aunt Jennifer which is juxtaposed with the ever-happy tigers. In the second line Rich uses imagery like “bright topaz” and “world of green” to paint a utopia where the tigers “do not fear the men beneath the tree” (3). Aunt Jennifer wants to be free and certain like a tiger; there is no distress in their world, and her embroidery reflects this longing. The second stanza takes a turn for the more serious. I interpreted the image of an “ivory needle hard to pull” (6) as a parallel to death. The ivory needle is like the bone of a finger, thinning the membrane between life and death. In line seven, the narrator describes the “massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band”, and effectively depicts the toll marriage takes on Aunt Jennifer. Unlike “The Story of An Hour”, it seems that the woman is not just longing for her freedom but actually fearful of her husband, or Uncle. The final stanza appears to be melancholy because it describes the death of Aunt Jennifer however, it is a release from the tortures of her marriage. Although she no longer would exist for those close to her, she still leaves behind the panel of fearless, prancing tigers.



<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Neiman, Leroy. //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Resting Tiger //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. Oil Pastels.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Translations **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">You show me the poems of some woman

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">my age, or younger

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">translated from your language

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Certain words occur: enemy, oven, sorrow

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">(5)enough to let me know

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">she's a woman of my time

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">obsessed

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">with Love, our subject:

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">we've trained it like ivy to our walls

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">(10)baked it like bread in our ovens

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">worn it like lead on our ankles

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">watched it through binoculars as if

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">it were a helicopter

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">bringing food to our famine

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">(15)or the satellite

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">of a hostile power

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">I begin to see that woman

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">doing things: stirring rice

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">ironing a skirt

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">(20)typing a manuscript till dawn

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">trying to make a call

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">from a phonebooth

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The phone rings endlessly

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">in a man's bedroom

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">(25)she hears him telling someone else

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Never mind. She'll get tired.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">hears him telling her story to her sister

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">who becomes her enemy

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">and will in her own way

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">(30)light her own way to sorrow

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">ignorant of the fact this way of grief

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">is shared, unnecessary

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">and political

<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"Five Poems by Adrienne Rich." //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Nation //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. 29 Mar. 2012. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I love everything about this poem. The way Rich talks about love from different experiences and viewpoints makes it relatable to any woman. In line seven, she breaks the flow of her words to call attention to the word “obsessed”. Reading the poem the singular word echoed in my mind for a moment, reminding me of spoken word. In the next stanza Rich reveals the various facets of love such as love, imprisonment, danger, and many more. I especially enjoy this segment of the poem because the author recognizes that love is different depending on the people and their relationship, but she also identifies that love is a dominant factor in any life. She uses phrases like “baked like it bread in our ovens” (10) and “the satellite of a hostile power” (15-16) to contrast different outlooks towards love; the hospitality and acts of service versus the fear and feeling of entrapment. The second half of the poem follows this woman through her mundane activities to her actual hobby, writing, which she is forced to do in the late hours of the night. She eventually calls a man, who I assume is her husband because she calls him from a phone booth perhaps after he does not return home that night. The man brushes her off and returns to a woman that Rich refers to as the woman’s “sister” but she uses it as a bond in womanhood. The final stanza is simplistic and final; she does not belittle the woman’s grief, but it acts as a message to the women readers that holding onto the same negativity that the woman harbors is poisonous and pointless, and it is better to release that resentment.



<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Maxpixel. "Lord Howe Island, Lonely Phone Booth at Night." //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Panoramio //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. 11 Sept. 2010. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.