Adrienne Rich's Poetry: Texts of the Poems; The Poet on Her Work; Reviews and Criticism

by Adrienne Rich, Barbara Charlesworth Gelpi (Editor), Albert Gelpi (Editor)

This wonderful Adrienne, Rich Texts of the Poems is a joy. The editor have carefully chooses their materials to provide the opportunity for an on-going study in the classroom, of an important American poet.

Genres: Poetry, Feminism, Essays, Nonfiction, Womens, LGBT, Classics

215 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

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

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

She makes me want to be:
a poet
a warrior
a better person

[Sophia Eck · Rating 5 out of 5]

adrienne rich is a gorgeous gorgeous girl

[Rosa Jamali · Rating 5 out of 5]

زنان
آدرین ریچ

ترجمه به فارسی از رُزا جمالی



سه خواهرِ من نشسته اند
بر گدازه ها و سنگ ها
برای بار اول در روشنایی، به وضوح می بینم چه کسانی هستند.

خواهرِ اولِ من انگار دارد لباسش را برای به جلو رفتن می دوزد
انگار که بانویی ماهوی ست و به جلو قدم بر می دارد
تمام عصب هایش و رگ هایش پیداست.

خواهرِ دومِ من باز در حال دوختن است
بخیه های قلب اش را که هیچوقت محکم نشده
حداقل اش این است که اگر قلب اش را بدوزد خیال اش راحت خواهد شد.

خواهرِ سومِ من خیره نگاه می کند
بر پوسته ی مسی تیره رنگی که به غرب دریا می تازد
جوراب هایش پاره است با این همه او چیزی از زیبایی کم ندارد.



Adrienne Rich translated into Persian by Rosa Jamali; Women

[Nicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Norton Critical Editions are always awesome to have: they gather up so much useful material, winnowing through to find the good stuff. That said, I've loved most of Adrienne Rich's poetry, wherever I found it, so maybe she only has good stuff. Doubtful, though: everyone has their off days. (There are even books by Ursula Le Guin that I don't really like! -- ssh, it's a secret.)

From the stiff formal work like Aunt Jennifer's Tigers to the vivid and sensual later stuff, all of her poetry that I've read is carefully worked and says something clear and meaningful.

This edition also contains some of her essays on her own work, which are always interesting, and good to have a feel for.

[Samuel Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Note that I only read the Poetry half of this.

I prefer Rich's early-to-middle period, particularly the work in "Diving Into the Wreck." But it's "A Marriage in the 'Sixties" that will stay with me the most.

I'm giving this 4 stars because I felt like her later poems got too prosey for me. This worked sometimes, but I think she's stronger as a more lyric poet and think she moved away from that.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adrienne Rich, on her birthday May 17
Here is the voice of Sleeping Beauty, who woke herself up one day and set about to reinvent herself and her society, a 50's housewife turned poet radical who contains within her the whole history of feminism, and whose mission is to shake the rest of us awake. Using a gorgeously wrought poetry to do so, as a prod and poker.
As I don't think Adrienne Rich would like the idea of a man explaining her and her art, I shall say only that her collected wortks belong among the other Great Books of our civilization and can stand with anyones , and so I leave you with her words speaking for herself:

“Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you...it means that you do not treat your body as a commodity with which to purchase superficial intimacy or economic security; for our bodies to be treated as objects, our minds are in mortal danger. It means insisting that those to whom you give your friendship and love are able to respect your mind. It means being able to say, with Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre: "I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all the extraneous delights should be withheld or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.
Responsibility to yourself means that you don't fall for shallow and easy solutions--predigested books and ideas...marrying early as an escape from real decisions, getting pregnant as an evasion of already existing problems. It means that you refuse to sell your talents and aspirations short...and this, in turn, means resisting the forces in society which say that women should be nice, play safe, have low professional expectations, drown in love and forget about work, live through others, and stay in the places assigned to us. It means that we insist on a life of meaningful work, insist that work be as meaningful as love and friendship in our lives. It means, therefore, the courage to be "different"...The difference between a life lived actively, and a life of passive drifting and dispersal of energies, is an immense difference. Once we begin to feel committed to our lives, responsible to ourselves, we can never again be satisfied with the old, passive way.”
― Adrienne Rich

[Ashli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how she strives for equality with her progressive views on sexuality, love, social norms, and family relations.

So glad she came to lil ole Stillwater, OK to read. I'll never forget it.

[soulAdmitted]

"The moment of change is the only poem".

[Jacinta · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite poet.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poems are better than the prose, early better than late, but all are pretty good.

Be proud, when you have set
The final spoke of flame
In that prismatic wheel,
And nothing’s left this day
Except to see the sun
Shine on the false and the true,
And know that Africa
Will yield you more to do.

She has a bad habit, common in critical theory, of confusing possible nasty interpretations of texts with the author's intention or with reality, and so dismissing the work. But, along with Greer, Dworkin, Young, and Sontag I don't think I'll stop reading her, no matter how much I disagree.

[Rain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stuff. The section of criticism and reviews was not as interesting as the editors thought, and would have been better replaced with more of Rich's work, but a great collection well contextualized as usual with Norton.

[Pembroke · Rating 5 out of 5]

AR proves to be the keeper of the True and Worthwhile

but we knew this

[Vanessa Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mrs Guthrie pushed me into the world of this fabulous woman. And her words and expression are so beautiful. I inspire to write poetry like this woman.

[Ash Sandstrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars both for the poetry and this book as a resource. If you are new to reading poetry or literary criticism this is an excellent introduction. The footnotes were also very thorough.

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/4 stars

[Mitchell francis]

She makes me a sad sad lesbian

[mickey francesca · Rating 4 out of 5]

thanks 4 helping me realize i’m a lesbian ❤️

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology boasts an excellent selection from all but the most recent of Rich's poetry collections, as well as critical, political, and feminist essays that I would never have read on my own but that deepen readers' sense of a social context for the poems. If you're a true Rich fan you won't want to be missing a single poem, but this is an excellent jumping-off point if you're new to her work, and a good survey of what to earmark for the future if you only respond to certain themes or styles in her artistic evolution.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually have an older edition of this, so the last star is lost b/c I didn't love all the essays at the end by other people, and who knows, maybe this edition got rid of some of that stuff. I liked seeing the progress of Rich's poems as she went from being a 50s housewife to realizing she wanted more from her life- it's like you can see her cracking herself open, and that's what's cool about reading a collection as opposed to one book written at one specific time.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was riveted to this book. Obviously, I discovered Adrienne Rich late; but I was also lucky in that I picked an anthology of her "best" poetry (that is, less overtly polemical) and prose. She wrote a number of great poems, and her essay on Emily Dickinson was brilliant. A brilliant poet and woman.

[kenneth]

This book was published in the 70's, and it is a survey of some of Rich's acclaimed work during this period of time.The best poem in this collection,in my opinion, is "The Burning of Paper Instead of Children". There are several other breathtaking poems such as "The Phenomenology of Anger", "Diving into the Wreck", and "Images for Godard".

[Theresia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somebody should've just either hold my hand or tell me what to look for next time I decided to read a poetry anthology, because most of the time I was lost.

Also, I have 99 problems with radical feminism and "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence" is one of them. Still, worth rereading in this Pride Month.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I maintain that Rich makes some enduring points in her essay on compulsory heterosexuality and a "lesbian continuum".

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adrienne Rich used to shop at the bookstore where I worked. She was a very nice woman, and she did many poetry readings at our store. I think she was good friends with the stores owners.

[Albie]

Adrienne Rich's Poetry and Prose: Poems Prose Reviews and Criticism (Norton Critical Editions) by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1993)

[Corinne Blackmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

read

[Marwa · Rating 2 out of 5]

no.

[Julianne]

It was great and I want to buy it.

[Cheyenne Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is nothing more to say than how grateful I am that this woman exists.

[Mic Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE. She understands quiet and sad beauty. Sometimes she loses me in her activist zeal...otherwise, I'm obsessed. She died in 2012. And she was a lesbian!

ICON.