Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth

by Adrienne Rich

This title is a new volume from Adrienne Rich and is one of her more unpredictable and evocative collections. Titles include: 'rhyme'' Letters Censored, Shredded, Returned to Sender or Judged Unfit to Send', and 'Draft 2006'.

Genres: Poetry, Feminism, The United States Of America, Nonfiction, Poetry Plays, American, LGBT

112 pages, Hardcover

First published October 17, 2007

About the author

Works, notably Diving into the Wreck (1973), of American poet and essayist Adrienne Rich champion such causes as pacifism, feminism, and civil rights for gays and lesbians.

A mother bore Adrienne Cecile Rich, a feminist, to a middle-class family with parents, who educated her until she entered public school in the fourth grade. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Radcliffe college in 1951, the same year of her first book of poems, A Change of World. That volume, chosen by W. H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award, and her next, The Diamond Cutters and Other Poems (1955), earned her a reputation as an elegant, controlled stylist.

In the 1960s, however, Rich began a dramatic shift away from her earlier mode as she took up political and feminist themes and stylistic experimentation in such works as Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law (1963), The Necessities of Life (1966), Leaflets (1969), and The Will to Change (1971). In Diving into the Wreck (1973) and The Dream of a Common Language (1978), she continued to experiment with form and to deal with the experiences and aspirations of women from a feminist perspective.

In addition to her poetry, Rich has published many essays on poetry, feminism, motherhood, and lesbianism. Her recent collections include An Atlas of the Difficult World (1991) and Dark Fields of the Republic: Poems 1991–1995 (1995).

Reviews

[Julie Ehlers · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good. It's the second-to-last collection she ever published, and it's up there with her best.

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

As Rich entered her 70s, she began looking back in a different way than she'd previously done. You could look at the book as a long conversation with/meditation on the ghosts/legacy of the Sixties and Seventies. In "Skeleton Key," she ends a section that begins "Cut me a skeleton key/ to that other time, that city/ talk starting up, deals and poetry," with an acknowledgement that she is "Exhuming the dead / Their questions." She circles back repeatedly to the sense that that era was, in fundamental ways, different than what was to follow: "But as for living at that time/ we were all living together with many others/ for whom living was precisely the question" ("Even Then Maybe"). Among those others, the Leroi Jones of The Dead Lecturer (not to be confused with the Amiri Baraka of Black Art),who she addressees directly in "Rereading The Dead Lecturer," which balances on the knife edge between regret and affirmation of "An idea. And we felt it./ A meaning. And we caught it/ as the dimensions spread," conversations "scrawled with smoke and music." Whatever his contradictions and limits, Jones wrote, as Rich concludes the poem a "(book of a soul contending."

All of that against the backdrop of the Bush era with it's "Excruciating contempt for love/ For the strained fibre of common affection, mutual assistance" ("Draft #2006"). Like the smoke and music--I can't help thinking of Paul Simon's "the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls"--Rich listens for "Contraband packets, hummed messages. Dreams of the/ descendants, surfacing." At several key points, wearily but with a sense of surprised wonder, she turns her eyes to the cosmos. In "Hubble Photographs: After Sappho," she turns to "the ex-stasis of galaxies/ so out from us there's no vocabulary/ but mathematics and optics/ equestions letting sight pierce through time/..."beyond good and evil as ever stained into dream/ beyonw remorse, disilluison/ fear of death."

It's not somewhere she can or would rest or remain. Rather, as she has done again and again for more than four decades, she recommits herself to the poet's work, seeking to forge an "instrument searching, probing/ toward a foreign tongue" ("Long After Stevens"). It matters because without clear honest articulation, the descendants will find themselves lost: "You think you are helpless because you are empty-handed/ of concepts that could become your strength" ("Letters Censored Shredded Returned to Sender or Judged Unfit to Send"). Feeling age, knowing death isn't abstract, she turns to the task "Not for me/ but for furtherance," for the descendant, "You, the person, you/ the particle fierce and furthering."

Among the highlights: "Skeleton Key," "Archaic," "Long After Stevens," Hubble Photographs: After Sappho," "Midnight, the Same Day," "Rereading The Dead Lecturer," "Letters Censored," "Draft #2006" and the unforgettable "The Burning Kangaroo," which I'm sure will be showing up in my dreams.

[Quynh Meeks · Rating 3 out of 5]

um. not my fav…

[Yvonne Rambeau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm not my favourite.. But below, a list of some small fragments that caught my eye:

Secret codes of skin and hair
traces of feeling
bones of the river
lapsed desire A falling
the skin of boredom
sight for sight
Charcoal, your hair
bed-laughter
forgiving sunlight
Vocalising forbidden syllables
your possible orange
hummed messages
A bracelet of rust

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adrienne Rich's poems are always gorgeous, provocative, and striking. In this collection in particular, though, there's a sort of haunting quality to many of the works. The political element that comes into her poetry so often, and which makes for some of my favorite poems, is turned more toward personal revelation and struggle here, focused more on characters and situations which readers will find strangely available and familiar, less documentary in a larger sense as opposed to a relatable, if sometimes terrifying, personal sense.

This collection surprised me--it wasn't what I expected, based on other collections of Rich's I've read, and yet it was every inch her lyrical voice and elegantly dangerous, striking work.

For readers of poetry, or Rich, I absolutely recommend it.

[Grady · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poetry is always hit or miss for me. I imagine these are very good poems - they are certainly dense. Not quite stream of consciousness, though sometimes the juxtaposition of words, and the line breaks, seem impressionistic. There's a vagueness in the settings for these poems, as though the material, concrete world just isn't that important a part of what Rich is trying to convey. Unfortunately, most of these poems were lost on me - I didn't understand them analytically, and they didn't light me up emotionally.

[Castles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure it touched me so much, but there were indeed some beautiful moments in this book with sentences that caught me, not enough to connect with the rest of the book unfortunately.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not my favorite collection by Rich, but it has some stellar moments. For her later work, I much prefer Tonight No Poetry Will Serve.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like I just couldn't "get into" this collection at first. --In other words, I felt too stupid to really understand it.

The last couple of sections really drew me in, though, and wouldn't let me stop reading until far too late in the evening.

My favorite lines from the end of the first section of Three Elegies:

And beneath the skin of boredom
indecipherable fear

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really only 2½ stars. While I did like a few of the poems ("Rhyme", "Hubble Photographs: After Sappho", parts of "Draft #2006"), most left me either unmoved or confused. Perhaps I should have gotten an earlier collection, more similar to "Planetarium".

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Striking language, relatable imagery, some open to interpretation.

[Brendan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Not much here for me. She's a big name, so maybe the problem is me. But other reviewers have mentioned they found this collection difficult to understand. So I don't feel too bad.

Favorites:
"Rhyme" - It's a rhyming poem. : )
"Rereading The Dead Lecturer" - after a collection of poems by LeRoi Jones

- To think of her naked every day unfreezes me -
- "Letters Censored, Shredded, Returned to Sender, or Judged Unfit to Send"

[Magali · Rating 4 out of 5]

After having read most of her previous work, and realizing this is one of her last collections, I can't stop thinking about how I would have liked to meet her. As an older woman she still wrote with so much life and strength and still tried new things. This collection was not my favorite but it was really good.

[Caitlin Conlon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. honestly, not my type of poetry, so I don't feel completely comfortable rating this. I could really appreciate these poems, even if they weren't personally my favorite. Rich is clearly immensely talented.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are certainly some fine poems in this book, but either Rich's concerns are not my concerns or her way of expressing her concerns are sufficiently strange to me that I never felt she was speaking to me.

[Jemmie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The stone walls recede and the needs that laid
scar of winter sun stretch low
behind the advancing junipers"

Interesting, eclectic, circuitous, & sprawling like a dense forest of emotions and pasts.

[Abby Franks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Punctuation is needed and important! So difficult to read. A couple of gems, but frustrating overall.

[Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm currently reading a lot of Adrienne Rich. Very good poetry and prose in her numerous books.

[Vera · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars

[Chang Garcia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite dull.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I like her older poems better.

[Noémie Dubé · Rating 5 out of 5]

“let sound be sense. A world
echoing everywhere […]
— the feeling of an idea. An idea of feeling.

That love could be so resolute” ✨

[Angel Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful !

[faith adams-michaels · Rating 4 out of 5]

your life, your prevailing

[Kasi · Rating 5 out of 5]

5++ stars

[Meghan Violet · Rating 5 out of 5]

what we said then, our breath remains otherwhere: in me in you

[Nicole Fegan · Rating 3 out of 5]

three poems are innocent: “Hubble Photographs: After Sappho,” “Letters Censored…,” and “Voyage to the Denouement.” the rest i fear are rather drab.

[Lisa M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was sick while reading this book, and it really influenced my reading. I would pick up the book and put it down because my head hurt too much to concentrate. So, this will be a light review. This book had a few different themes. I really enjoyed the quotes Rich opens the collection with. She claims that the "I" and "you" in poetry are not necessarily real. The idea of misunderstood identity is carried out in the first half of the book, where appearances are not always what they seem. The last half of the book read as more socio-political to me, with Rich telling her readers that love is the answer. Tone ranged from entertaining (Rhyme, Hotel) to more serious poems. As always, Rich does interesting things with line breaks. Her rhyme is amazing. When I read Rich, I wish she handled punctuation differently. I enjoy what Rich says about life, and how she writes it.

[Story of Choice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth is not a linear narrative easily read in a few sittings, and unlike many novels and guidebooks, Rich's work cannot be quickly digested and encapsulated for another party. However, she wields language as a master craftswoman, uniquely reflects and validates my own experience, and invites me to expand myself with her observations of places unfamiliar to me, or, just as gratifying, with new observations of more familiar places. Rich is a keen and sympathetic observer of the world around and within her and I discover fresh or edifying insight each time I sift her poetry. A welcome addition to my library.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this wasn't Adrienne Rich, I would probably be singing this collection's praises. But the problem with having an amazing and lengthy career is that you have quite a body of work to compete with and frankly, I don't know that I'm the greatest fan of Ms. Rich's current work. However, there are some standout pieces and I love anyone who combines politics and poetry. There were a couple pieces that seemed to be inspired by the aftermath of Katrina. Moving, but not crucial like the rest of her work.