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Tonight No Poetry Will Serve
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Poetry (2011)In the intimate address of "Axel Avákar," the black humor of "Quarto," and the underground journey of "Powers of Recuperation," compressed lyrics flash among larger scenarios where images, dialogues, blues, and song spiral into political visions. Adrienne Rich has said, "I believe almost everything I know, have come to understand, is somewhere in this book."
from "Ballade of the Poverties"
There's the poverty of wages wired for the funeral you
Can't get to the poverty of bodies lying unburied
There's the poverty of labor offered silently on the curb
The poverty of yard sale scrapings spread
And rejected the poverty of eviction, wedding bed out on street
Prince let me tell you who will never learn through words
There are poverties and there are poverties.
80 pages, Hardcover
First published January 17, 2011
15 people are currently reading
863 people want to read
About the author
Adrienne Rich
138 books1,573 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 - 30 of 78 reviews
July 10, 2021
...afterimages
swirl and dissolve along a shoal of
footprints
***
No one writes lyric on a battlefield
On a map stuck with arrows
But I think I can do it if I just lurk
In my tent pretending to
Refeather my arrows
***
I hear the colors of your voice
***
years ravel out and now
who'd be protecting whom
I left the key in the old place
in case
***
all new learning looks at first
like chaos
the tiny magnet throbs
in citizen's pocket
***
(from Chekhov's Notebook)
...in nature everything has a meaning. And everything is forgiven, and it would be strange not to forgive
swirl and dissolve along a shoal of
footprints
***
No one writes lyric on a battlefield
On a map stuck with arrows
But I think I can do it if I just lurk
In my tent pretending to
Refeather my arrows
***
I hear the colors of your voice
***
years ravel out and now
who'd be protecting whom
I left the key in the old place
in case
***
all new learning looks at first
like chaos
the tiny magnet throbs
in citizen's pocket
***
(from Chekhov's Notebook)
...in nature everything has a meaning. And everything is forgiven, and it would be strange not to forgive
September 2, 2018
all new learning looks at first
like chaos
like chaos
December 26, 2015
Laid my ear to your letter trying to hear
Tongue on your words to taste you there
Couldn’t read what you had never written there
Played your message over
feeling bad
Played your message over it was all I had
To tell me what and wherefore
this is what it said:
I’m tired of you asking me why
I’m tired of words like the chatter of birds
Give me a pass, let me just get by
Tongue on your words to taste you there
Couldn’t read what you had never written there
Played your message over
feeling bad
Played your message over it was all I had
To tell me what and wherefore
this is what it said:
I’m tired of you asking me why
I’m tired of words like the chatter of birds
Give me a pass, let me just get by
January 23, 2018
Tonight No Poetry Will Serve is a collection of poetry by Adrienne Rich in six parts with eight poems in the first part, five poems in the fourth, nine in the fifth and two in the sixty. Parts two and three have one poem each. The poems are written in free verse, through a web of varied voices, and dialogue.
Unlike the full sentence in the title of the book, Adrienne Rich mostly thinks and feels in phrases, as in The Emergency Clinic, “Iodine—dark // poem walking to and fro all night // un—gainly // unreconciled // unto and contra.” The sound and the connection of the words and phrases are there to impress the reader, ensuing conflicting points.
The varied voices in the poems present an individuality while searching for something common yet ethical. The poem that lends its title to the book is personal and at the same time refers to war, possibly the Vietnam war, which had left an impression on the poet. In a good number of the poems, a reference to illness or hospitalization exists since this book was published two years before Adrienne Rich passed away, while in her eighties.
In the section Axel Avakar, there’s a situation where two figures who were once close friends and read together are now separated. There is a feeling of betrayal by both, as they address each other through recorded message, missed dialogue, and lost opportunity.
Some poems in the book are overtly political as in Domain “the congressman’s wife who wears nothing but green // tramples through unraked oak leaves yelling // to her strayed dogs Hey Rex! Hey Roy! // Husband in Washington: 1944”
Others are more subtle as in Waiting for Rain, for Music. “…a notebook scribbled in // contraband calligraphy against the war // poetry wages against itself.”
Fifth section’s Ballade of the Poverties is a list poem, listing poverties such as sickness, clinics, deathbeds, war, violence, etc. As such, in Circum/stances “All violence is not equal // I write this // with a clawed hand” and then, in Quarto, “No one writes lyric on a battlefield // On a map stuck with arrows // But I think I can do it if I just lurk…”
All in all, these poems reflect, at times, an imaginative spirit who studies the world metaphorically[ and at times with a personal grief.
Unlike the full sentence in the title of the book, Adrienne Rich mostly thinks and feels in phrases, as in The Emergency Clinic, “Iodine—dark // poem walking to and fro all night // un—gainly // unreconciled // unto and contra.” The sound and the connection of the words and phrases are there to impress the reader, ensuing conflicting points.
The varied voices in the poems present an individuality while searching for something common yet ethical. The poem that lends its title to the book is personal and at the same time refers to war, possibly the Vietnam war, which had left an impression on the poet. In a good number of the poems, a reference to illness or hospitalization exists since this book was published two years before Adrienne Rich passed away, while in her eighties.
In the section Axel Avakar, there’s a situation where two figures who were once close friends and read together are now separated. There is a feeling of betrayal by both, as they address each other through recorded message, missed dialogue, and lost opportunity.
Some poems in the book are overtly political as in Domain “the congressman’s wife who wears nothing but green // tramples through unraked oak leaves yelling // to her strayed dogs Hey Rex! Hey Roy! // Husband in Washington: 1944”
Others are more subtle as in Waiting for Rain, for Music. “…a notebook scribbled in // contraband calligraphy against the war // poetry wages against itself.”
Fifth section’s Ballade of the Poverties is a list poem, listing poverties such as sickness, clinics, deathbeds, war, violence, etc. As such, in Circum/stances “All violence is not equal // I write this // with a clawed hand” and then, in Quarto, “No one writes lyric on a battlefield // On a map stuck with arrows // But I think I can do it if I just lurk…”
All in all, these poems reflect, at times, an imaginative spirit who studies the world metaphorically[ and at times with a personal grief.
June 22, 2014
god she is good so so so good, even when she's not that good she's still so good
December 16, 2011
The range of subjects is amazing.
Tonight No Poetry Will Serve (excerpt from the poem in the volume)
Saw you walking barefoot
Taking a long look at the new moon's eyelid
later spread
sleep-fallen, naked in your dark hair
asleep but not oblivious
of the unslept unsleeping elsewhere
Tonight I think
no poetry
will serve
Then, she also discusses illuminates socio/political issues, such as in "Ballad of the Poverties."
There's the poverty of the cockroach kingdom and the rusted toilet bowl
The poverty of to steal food for the first time
The poverty of to mouth a penis for a paycheck....[gap here where I have not typed rather large sections]
There are poverties and there are poverties... [gap here where I have not typed rather large sections]
There's the poverty of cheap luggage bursted open at immigration
Poverty of the turned head averted eye ...
... [gap here where I have not typed rather large sections]
Princes of finance you who have not lain there
There are poverties and there are poverties
... [gap here where I have not typed rather large sections]
There's the poverty of the labor offered silently on the curb
The poverty of the no-contact prison visit
There's the poverty of yard-sale scrapings spread
And rejected the poverty of eviction, wedding bed out on street ... [gap here where I have not typed rather large sections]
You who travel by private jet like a housefly
Buzzing with the other flies of plundered poverties
Princes and courtiers who will never learn through words
Here's a mirror you can look into: take it: it's yours.
Tonight No Poetry Will Serve (excerpt from the poem in the volume)
Saw you walking barefoot
Taking a long look at the new moon's eyelid
later spread
sleep-fallen, naked in your dark hair
asleep but not oblivious
of the unslept unsleeping elsewhere
Tonight I think
no poetry
will serve
Then, she also discusses illuminates socio/political issues, such as in "Ballad of the Poverties."
There's the poverty of the cockroach kingdom and the rusted toilet bowl
The poverty of to steal food for the first time
The poverty of to mouth a penis for a paycheck....[gap here where I have not typed rather large sections]
There are poverties and there are poverties... [gap here where I have not typed rather large sections]
There's the poverty of cheap luggage bursted open at immigration
Poverty of the turned head averted eye ...
... [gap here where I have not typed rather large sections]
Princes of finance you who have not lain there
There are poverties and there are poverties
... [gap here where I have not typed rather large sections]
There's the poverty of the labor offered silently on the curb
The poverty of the no-contact prison visit
There's the poverty of yard-sale scrapings spread
And rejected the poverty of eviction, wedding bed out on street ... [gap here where I have not typed rather large sections]
You who travel by private jet like a housefly
Buzzing with the other flies of plundered poverties
Princes and courtiers who will never learn through words
Here's a mirror you can look into: take it: it's yours.
June 9, 2019
I keep reading Adrienne Rich and trying to enjoy it more than I actually do. Reading her poetry reminds me of reading poetry written by my best friend in college. I wanted to like it and I just couldn't get into it.
So my honest opinion of this book is that it's just OK. I actually didn't like most of it. But I must say that I was surprised to find one excellent poem in this book: Ballade of the Poverties, which I will be printing out and keeping. And a pretty good one was: You, Again. Those two were keepers. The rest of the book was just too abstract and literary for me.
So my honest opinion of this book is that it's just OK. I actually didn't like most of it. But I must say that I was surprised to find one excellent poem in this book: Ballade of the Poverties, which I will be printing out and keeping. And a pretty good one was: You, Again. Those two were keepers. The rest of the book was just too abstract and literary for me.
January 3, 2022
every built thing has its unmeant purpose"
December 8, 2015
every built thing has its unmeant purpose
May 1, 2018
somewhere else being the name of whatever once said your
name
and you answered
February 14, 2018
Interesting. I had trouble at some parts and loved others (chapter V was a personal fave). Built (often) off fragments that often wind around until the meaning reveals itself, it's a rewarding read with lots of depth and layers. She loses me at times...like many great poets, there's a feeling when reading her that she's almost trying too hard for her own good. All in all though, for it being my first time reading Rich, I found her to be satisfyingly complex while maintaining accessibility.
July 11, 2020
I keep trying to enjoy Adrienne Rich's poetry more than I actually do. It never works.
This collection has poems that deal with a vast number of subjects— both political and personal, and sometimes both at the same time— but I could not understand them. I tried to read and re-read many poems but to no avail. I did love some of them, especially "Ballade of the Poverties" but that was it.
Maybe I'll appreciate it more if I read it some other time in the future. Who knows.
This collection has poems that deal with a vast number of subjects— both political and personal, and sometimes both at the same time— but I could not understand them. I tried to read and re-read many poems but to no avail. I did love some of them, especially "Ballade of the Poverties" but that was it.
Maybe I'll appreciate it more if I read it some other time in the future. Who knows.
May 1, 2019
If all the poems in this collection had been as good as the one it takes the title from, it would have been a 5 stars ratings for me. But as most of the times when I read poetry, some poems talk to me, others don't... What is certain is how talented Adrienne Rich was and how beautiful and full of meaning her work was.
May 17, 2018
Wow. What an amazing poet. I honestly aspire to write like this some day, so subtle and powerful. My favorite (if I could possibly choose one) would be Ballad of the Poverties.
November 22, 2023
Iodine-dark
poem walking to and fro all night
un-gainly
unreconciled
unto and contra
—
just another stunning collection from adrienne
poem walking to and fro all night
un-gainly
unreconciled
unto and contra
—
just another stunning collection from adrienne
June 8, 2011
Adrienne Rich has some solid poems, but most of hers don't resonate with what's going on and what went on in my life.
August 8, 2019
I feel like this book could provide (perhaps it already has) some unintentional publicity for another author because, after reading Tonight No Poetry Will Serve, I am very surprised that its sticker says “National Book Award Finalist” instead of “Winner.” This is an incredible collection, and now I feel compelled to check out the winning book (Nikky Finney’s Head Off and Split, if you care to know) and see how it compares.
I don’t know if I have ever read any poet who manages spacing and line breaks better than Rich. She takes short sentences and stretches and divides them until their layers have begun to reveal themselves. Have a look at “Benjamin Revisited”:
The angel
of history is
flown
now meet the janitor
down
in the basement who
shirtless smoking
has the job of stoking
the so-called past
into the so-called present
Many poems do not contain any periods, although question marks and other punctuation appears. I would like to think the lack of periods brings the final line into dialogue with the opening line, which is just one example of how Rich works magic on her pieces.
You would be hard pressed to find a more articulate angry voice than the one found in some of these poems. I think “Ballade of the Poverties” may be one of my all-time favorite poems: “You who travel by private jet like a housefly / Buzzing with the other flies of plundered poverties / Princes and courtiers who will never learn through words / Here’s a mirror you can look into: take it: it’s yours.”
She also writes terrifyingly well about being ill—“From Sickbed Shores” deserves many rereads as well: “From the shores of sickness you lie out on listless / waters with no boundaries floodplain without horizon / dun skies mirroring its opaque face and nothing not / a water moccasin or floating shoe or tree root to stir interest / Somewhere else being the name of whatever once said your / name”
Most people go their whole career without writing anything this powerful, and this was Rich’s final collection in a career filled with high points. I mean, this came out 37 years AFTER she won the National Book Award! With most people whose publication list stretches on, it can be hard to find a point of entry. I am not so sure this is the best introduction to Rich’s work—perhaps some of her earlier work is a bit more accessible, and certainly more widely-read, but this cannot be ignored.
I don’t know if I have ever read any poet who manages spacing and line breaks better than Rich. She takes short sentences and stretches and divides them until their layers have begun to reveal themselves. Have a look at “Benjamin Revisited”:
The angel
of history is
flown
now meet the janitor
down
in the basement who
shirtless smoking
has the job of stoking
the so-called past
into the so-called present
Many poems do not contain any periods, although question marks and other punctuation appears. I would like to think the lack of periods brings the final line into dialogue with the opening line, which is just one example of how Rich works magic on her pieces.
You would be hard pressed to find a more articulate angry voice than the one found in some of these poems. I think “Ballade of the Poverties” may be one of my all-time favorite poems: “You who travel by private jet like a housefly / Buzzing with the other flies of plundered poverties / Princes and courtiers who will never learn through words / Here’s a mirror you can look into: take it: it’s yours.”
She also writes terrifyingly well about being ill—“From Sickbed Shores” deserves many rereads as well: “From the shores of sickness you lie out on listless / waters with no boundaries floodplain without horizon / dun skies mirroring its opaque face and nothing not / a water moccasin or floating shoe or tree root to stir interest / Somewhere else being the name of whatever once said your / name”
Most people go their whole career without writing anything this powerful, and this was Rich’s final collection in a career filled with high points. I mean, this came out 37 years AFTER she won the National Book Award! With most people whose publication list stretches on, it can be hard to find a point of entry. I am not so sure this is the best introduction to Rich’s work—perhaps some of her earlier work is a bit more accessible, and certainly more widely-read, but this cannot be ignored.
January 13, 2019
i didn't even realise before i had finished reading this book.
a three-star rating seems the most suitable compromise for this collection. at times, i found myself smiling at some poems; at others, i was tempted to scratch my head, too lost to follow her line. and this happened all the time, like the world's most revolting roller-coaster, up and down, up and down. yet, still, at the end, i wanted to read more of hers, see if maybe i could even the score between these rising-decreasing motions and settle with one idea. fortunatelly, adrienne rich has a massive back catalogue for me to dip my toes around--a most comforting idea.
to me, the biggest highlight of this collection became the titular poem, tonight no poetry will serve. maybe all the grammatical puns moved something in the linguist in me. all i know is found myself smiling at the end of it:
Saw you walking barefoot
taking a long look
at the new moon’s eyelid
later spread
sleep-fallen, naked in your dark hair
asleep but not oblivious
of the unslept unsleeping
elsewhere
Tonight I think
no poetry
will serve
Syntax of rendition:
verb pilots the plane
adverb modifies action
verb force-feeds noun
submerges the subject
noun is choking
verb disgraced goes on doing
now diagram the sentence
a three-star rating seems the most suitable compromise for this collection. at times, i found myself smiling at some poems; at others, i was tempted to scratch my head, too lost to follow her line. and this happened all the time, like the world's most revolting roller-coaster, up and down, up and down. yet, still, at the end, i wanted to read more of hers, see if maybe i could even the score between these rising-decreasing motions and settle with one idea. fortunatelly, adrienne rich has a massive back catalogue for me to dip my toes around--a most comforting idea.
to me, the biggest highlight of this collection became the titular poem, tonight no poetry will serve. maybe all the grammatical puns moved something in the linguist in me. all i know is found myself smiling at the end of it:
Saw you walking barefoot
taking a long look
at the new moon’s eyelid
later spread
sleep-fallen, naked in your dark hair
asleep but not oblivious
of the unslept unsleeping
elsewhere
Tonight I think
no poetry
will serve
Syntax of rendition:
verb pilots the plane
adverb modifies action
verb force-feeds noun
submerges the subject
noun is choking
verb disgraced goes on doing
now diagram the sentence
November 25, 2022
For all that I write poetry myself I am still learning how to read it better, how to understand it more deeply. There was a lot here that was wonderful and some stuff that made me feel like I was just missing something like you had to be there or something like that. Rich gets quoted all the time by every single feminist so I expected her to sound more familiar, mind you this is her late in life stuff and I guess she would have kept evolving and reinventing like we all do.
It made me slow down and think which is worth it.
It made me slow down and think which is worth it.
July 27, 2025
have read many rich poli sci books & realized had read none of poetry! yesterday i fixed that. gorgeous poems, mostly metapoetic or political, getting at language’s inadequacy to get at the things let along change the things, which makes sense for my icon. first half was very strong and especially tender
Read
August 24, 2025"Being or doing: you're taken in for either, or both. Who you were born as, what or who you chose or became. Facing moral disorder head-on, some for the first time, on behalf of others. Delusion of inalienable rights. Others who've known the score all along."
August 6, 2017
LOVE "Tonight No Poetry Will Serve" and the Axel Avákar cycle.
June 4, 2018
Adrienne has me tightly clenched in between her fingers. This is the ultimate poetry collection. I miss her.
May 12, 2019
Know I didn't get all she was saying, but I enjoyed a number of poems, phrases,
'all knew learning looks at first like chaos'
other notes in booknotes
'all knew learning looks at first like chaos'
other notes in booknotes
August 2, 2019
The title poem was quite moving. The rest of the collection didn't speak to me.
January 25, 2020
"Between us yet / my part belonged to me / and when we parted / I left no part behind I knew / how to make poetry happen"
December 29, 2020
A wonderful poetry collection. Rich demonstrates her mastery of language in these poems, with many of them being both touching in content and pleasing in execution. Ultimately, Rich writes for people who already possess an appreciation for poetry.
June 14, 2021
Poem is a flow—
A pattern
An unexpected turn of events;
Or plots—
Or signs
—live/dead;
I’m embracing you back oh poets and poems!!
A pattern
An unexpected turn of events;
Or plots—
Or signs
—live/dead;
I’m embracing you back oh poets and poems!!
June 29, 2021
I’m the dreaming ghost, guest, waitress, watcher, wanting the words to be true.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews