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Collected Poems: 1950–2012
Adrienne Rich was the singular voice of her generation and one of our most important American poets. She brought discussions of gender, race, and class to the forefront of poetical discourse, pushing formal boundaries and consistently examining both self and society.
This collected volume traces the evolution of her poetry, from her earliest work, which was formally exact and decorous, to her later work, which became increasingly radical in both its free-verse form and feminist and political content. The entire body of her poetry is on display in this vast volume, including the National Book Award–winning Diving Into the Wreck and her prize-winning Atlas of the Difficult World.
The Collected Poems of Adrienne Rich gathers and memorializes all of her boldly political, formally ambitious, thoughtful, and lucid work, the whole of which makes her one of the most prolific and influential poets of our time.
This collected volume traces the evolution of her poetry, from her earliest work, which was formally exact and decorous, to her later work, which became increasingly radical in both its free-verse form and feminist and political content. The entire body of her poetry is on display in this vast volume, including the National Book Award–winning Diving Into the Wreck and her prize-winning Atlas of the Difficult World.
The Collected Poems of Adrienne Rich gathers and memorializes all of her boldly political, formally ambitious, thoughtful, and lucid work, the whole of which makes her one of the most prolific and influential poets of our time.
1164 pages, Hardcover
First published March 28, 2016
97 people are currently reading
1057 people want to read
About the author
Adrienne Rich
139 books1,582 followersWorks, 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).
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).
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
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December 17, 2025La intenció és llegir un o dos (o tres o quatre) poemes cada dia, en ordre cronològic, fins a llegir l'obra poètica completa. Som-hi!
October 19, 2017
Adrienne Rich produced a large body of work, most of which runs the gamut from quite good to exemplary. If there's a single fault in this book, it's that--for the sake of one's back--it should have been divided up into two volumes. This singular, heavy tome is magnificent but it is (excuse the pun) an absolute embarrassment of riches.
April 10, 2017
For about six weeks, I've lived with Adrienne Rich's poetry, making my way through the 20-plus books collected in this 1100 page jewel. It reminded me of just how important Rich has been to me since I first encountered Diving into the Wreck, which led me to Leaflets, The Will to Change and The Dream of a Common Language. Her images and her intelligence and the music of her words helped lead me out of the tangle of confusions I'd grown up with in 1950s and 60s America. She helped me think through gender, added a serious white voice to the chorus that included James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison as I made sense of race. I evolved into a better and I hope more constructive person in large part because of her. So it was a joy, sometimes a difficult joy, to revisit the books that had been published by the time I wrote my book Adrienne Rich: The Poet and Her Critics.
All of which only loosely prepared me for the impact of the Collected Poems. The early poems maintain their power, but what came through most clearly was the equal power of the books she published beginning with Time's Power in 1989. I'd read them all as they appeared, responded strongly to some. But read in context, with the earlier echoes resounding, they formed themselves into what at one point she calls a "mural" rather than a "map." Always aware that she looked at the world from a lesbian feminist perspective, she increasingly insisted that that was the point of departure--to be defended fiercely if need be as was often the case--rather than the conclusion. Her vision expanded to take in the global destruction left in the wake of economic exploitation, white supremacy and, to be sure, patriarchy. And at every step, she reflected on the poet's vocation in times when it seemed impossible to maintain real hope. The last 15 years saw her withdraw--not retreat--to an underground where she sought to imagine and connect with those who needed clarity, precise language, to live their way into their own lives.
As I've read, I've reviewed each volume in turn, knowing that not many will have the time or inclination for full immersion. I've included suggestions for poems to read from each volume. At some point I'll read those in sequence and see if the anthology makes sense. I know it won't match the power of reading Rich complete.
All of which only loosely prepared me for the impact of the Collected Poems. The early poems maintain their power, but what came through most clearly was the equal power of the books she published beginning with Time's Power in 1989. I'd read them all as they appeared, responded strongly to some. But read in context, with the earlier echoes resounding, they formed themselves into what at one point she calls a "mural" rather than a "map." Always aware that she looked at the world from a lesbian feminist perspective, she increasingly insisted that that was the point of departure--to be defended fiercely if need be as was often the case--rather than the conclusion. Her vision expanded to take in the global destruction left in the wake of economic exploitation, white supremacy and, to be sure, patriarchy. And at every step, she reflected on the poet's vocation in times when it seemed impossible to maintain real hope. The last 15 years saw her withdraw--not retreat--to an underground where she sought to imagine and connect with those who needed clarity, precise language, to live their way into their own lives.
As I've read, I've reviewed each volume in turn, knowing that not many will have the time or inclination for full immersion. I've included suggestions for poems to read from each volume. At some point I'll read those in sequence and see if the anthology makes sense. I know it won't match the power of reading Rich complete.
December 30, 2017
Ufa. Esse foi o livro mais difícil que li em 2017. E um dos melhores. Difícil pela questão de ser de poesia por 1200 páginas, o que requer tempo e paciência para ser lida, mesmo o estilo adotado por Rich ser o clássico livre, liberto de quaisquer formas que pudessem tolir o efeito libertário de sua escrita, só lá nos primeiros poemas ela adota determinada métrica e versificação.
Rich foi conhecida também como feminista, fato este que reflete na sua poesia a partir dos anos 70 e que fica ainda mais forte quando "saiu do armário" na segunda metade dos anos 70, em geral sua poesia a partir tem um viés político muito forte e que acaba arrefecendo em suas obras mais maduras que tendem a se apresentarem de forma mais contemplativa.
Rich foi conhecida também como feminista, fato este que reflete na sua poesia a partir dos anos 70 e que fica ainda mais forte quando "saiu do armário" na segunda metade dos anos 70, em geral sua poesia a partir tem um viés político muito forte e que acaba arrefecendo em suas obras mais maduras que tendem a se apresentarem de forma mais contemplativa.
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June 26, 2021I’ve had open soul surgery, to my benefit. The hardest part of trying to evaluate a book like this is that I’m limited to using words. I’ve known about Adrienne Rich for years, but this is the first time that I have read any more of her work than the sample that is usually contained in anthologies. Out of a multitude of things that I love in this collection, perhaps the most satisfying for me as a reader is the sense of a life and mind unfolding over 60+ years; the book is also an autobiography. Perhaps the most satisfying thing for me as a writer is the challenge, the bravery to admit just how much I don’t get yet.
read-in-part-2018
April 28, 2021I think this will forever remain partially read since it's been at least two years so I'm just going to add it to that shelf.
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September 28, 2016amazing to see her development through time. I read her in college but only a few of the books ~ this collection has them all.
October 13, 2019
Beautifully written poetry filled with feminism and self-empowerment.
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December 5, 2023Wow! What a ride. 62 years of living on the planet through all of her transitions, roles, and political causes. Rich's work cycles and stands battle-tested through every "*.ism" imaginable: ageism, classism, colonialism, sexism, and racism. She began her career as a poet in the 50s using traditional rhymed verses, but by the time the book reaches the poems of the 60s, she moves toward open and direct communique with her reader about difficult topics--anything from sexuality to political propaganda.
Her more personal poems of the 70s, which explicitly explore her sexuality, give way to the highly politicized poems of the 90s. In one poem, "What Kind of Times Are These", Rich borrows from the ideas in Bertolt Brecht's work "To Those Born Later". Brecht writes about trees instead of the Nazi atrocities taking place in Germany at the time. In these lines, the "forest" where Rich picks mushrooms, isn't in Brecht's Germany or a South American jungle, it is anywhere on Earth where truth and dread coexist in symbiosis.
I've walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of dread, but don't be fooled
this isn't a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here,
our country moving closer to its own truth and dread,
its own ways of making people disappear.
Her more personal poems of the 70s, which explicitly explore her sexuality, give way to the highly politicized poems of the 90s. In one poem, "What Kind of Times Are These", Rich borrows from the ideas in Bertolt Brecht's work "To Those Born Later". Brecht writes about trees instead of the Nazi atrocities taking place in Germany at the time. In these lines, the "forest" where Rich picks mushrooms, isn't in Brecht's Germany or a South American jungle, it is anywhere on Earth where truth and dread coexist in symbiosis.
I've walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of dread, but don't be fooled
this isn't a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here,
our country moving closer to its own truth and dread,
its own ways of making people disappear.
August 31, 2023
consider yourself lucky to have come this far
an incredible journey. you can see her grow and develop power with every year. i hadn't read her before because sylvia plath didn't like her poetry, and that somehow stuck with me. but it makes sense to me now because the poetry she wrote while sylvia was alive seemed in many ways flat and/or try-hard, and if it had all followed that vein, i may have felt similarly. somewhere just before diving into the wreck, maybe even during leaflets, her poetry becomes illuminating and brilliant, and it retains that character until the final page.
an incredible journey. you can see her grow and develop power with every year. i hadn't read her before because sylvia plath didn't like her poetry, and that somehow stuck with me. but it makes sense to me now because the poetry she wrote while sylvia was alive seemed in many ways flat and/or try-hard, and if it had all followed that vein, i may have felt similarly. somewhere just before diving into the wreck, maybe even during leaflets, her poetry becomes illuminating and brilliant, and it retains that character until the final page.
November 18, 2018
someone buy this for me so i don't have to keep renewing library copy plz
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April 10, 2020@ 12%
November 9, 2020
This took me a long time to get through because it was so dense! Honestly, I really connected and loved some poems, but was kind of meh on the others.
June 18, 2022
"My heart doesn't ache; sometimes though it rages."
September 6, 2022
Unmatched. Excellent introduction by Claudia Rankine.
Want to read
May 5, 2025rec'd by joanne in susan's group. particularly the poem, "What Kind of Times Are These"
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 6, 2025
my favorite book of poetry i’ve ever read
December 1, 2020
That was a lot of poetry. Whew! I finished it! Before starting on this a year and a half ago, I really only knew some of the 1970s works, either from my copy of "Diving Into the Wreck" or from anthologies. Earlier works are good but Rich never stops getting better. The politics is there and if some of the images are brutal, unfortunately they reflect reality and so I never felt like Rich was being heavy-handed. If anything, there is a critical attitude towards the doctrinaire especially, towards their vocabulary and phrasing. This almost gentle nudge runs alongside the humility of a good comrade who doesn't pretend to have all the answers but is sure of her morals. Politics, feminism, and Jewish identity are all aspects of Rich's work that attract me but all that aside, these are just excellent poems, sometimes sweet, sometimes spicy, but always surprising and innovative.
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July 29, 2016811.54 R498p 2016
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December 21, 2016Find it at UCI Libraries: http://antpac.lib.uci.edu:80/record=b...
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews