Adrienne Rich Biography

Academic, Poet, Scholar, Journalist (1929–2012)

Adrienne Rich is a U.S. poet, scholar and critic whose work exhibits her
commitment to the women's movement and a lesbian/feminist aesthetic
influence.
IN THESE GROUPS
 FAMOUS MOVEMENT
 FAMOUS TAUREANS
 FAMOUS PEOPLE BORN IN BALTIMORE
 FAMOUS PEOPLE BORN IN UNITED STATES
Show All Groups

Synopsis
Adrienne Rich, U.S. poet, scholar and critic, was born on May 16, 1929, in Baltimore, MD. She
was a college student when her poems were chosen for publication. Rich's increasing
commitment to the women's movement and a lesbian/feminist aesthetic influenced much of her
work. She also wrote compelling books of nonfiction.

Early Life
One of American's leading poets and essayists, Adrienne Rich was a champion for women's
rights. Margalit Fox of The New York Times perhaps put it best, saying that Rich "accomplished
in verse what Betty Friedan, author of 'The Feminine Mystique,' did in prose." During her
lifetime, she won countless honors for her works and her activism.

Born in 1929, Rich grew up in Baltimore as the daughter of a doctor and a concert pianist. She
started writing poetry as a child with much encouragement from her father. In 1951, Rich
published her first collection, A Change of World. She graduated from Radcliffe College that
same year with a degree in English.

Women's Rights Activism

Two years later, Rich married an economics professor Alfred Conrad. The couple soon started a
family that would grow to include three boys. The talented writer struggled with the traditional
expectations of being a wife and mother, and this internal conflict found its way into her work.
With her poems, Rich examined and challenged social norms and the imbalance of power
between men and women. She also fought against the Vietnam War and for civil rights.

By 1970, Rich had become estranged from her husband and she decided to leave him. He
committed suicide later that year. Continuing to commit herself to social activism, she released
the poetry collection, Diving into the Wreck, in 1973. Rich won the National Book Award for
this work the following year.

Rich published an essay collection, Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution,
in 1976, which gave voice to many women's issues surrounding parenthood and marriage.
Around this time, Rich came out as a lesbian. She later became involved with writer Michelle
Cliff, and the couple stayed together for the rest of Rich's life.

Awards and Achievements

During her legendary career, Rich won many awards, including a fellowship from the John D.
and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1994. She did turn down one prestigious honor in
1997, refusing to accept a National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton for political
reasons. More recently, Rich picked up the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2005
for School Among the Ruins, Poems 2000-2004.

Death
Rich died on March 27, 2012, at her home in Santa Cruz, California, from complications related
to her rheumatoid arthritis. She had suffered from the condition most of her life. Rich was 82
years old.

Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich

Introduction and Main Theme
Diving into the Wreck is Adrienne Rich’s most celebrated poem. It is unanimously called epic
of our modern times. The poet gives a description of the sea and her dive into the sea, the
various things observed and particular experiences underwent are all beautifully narrated and
described. The poem is also adventurous because it I based on the search for a wreck.

Here Diving into the Wreck is not a simple adventure story, but Rich has a very serious account
to relate. On the onset, it is a story of a diver going into the water to observe a wreck, but as the
seawater is deep and mysterious so are the meanings of the poem. Basically the poem is the
struggle for women rights in the male-dominated society. The poem is representative of not
only Rich’s ideals, but also the changing conditions of American at the time when the poem was
written.
Rich becomes androgyny[1] and wants to observe the damage that was done to the female race
and the treasures that prevail in their rights. Her struggle for the voice of rights is single-
handed.

AUNT JENNIFER'S TIGERS

SUMMARY
 BACK

 NEXT

The speaker tells us about her Aunt Jennifer's needlework tapestry, which features beautiful bright
tigers prancing. Snazzy! The tigers are strong and have no fears, so they've got that going for them.
Aunt Jennifer, though, is not so free. The speaker tells us about the metaphorical weight of Aunt
Jennifer's wedding band, and implies that her marriage was unhappy and held her back from the life
that she wanted to live. The speaker then tells us that, when Aunt Jennifer is dead, she will still wear
the ring that symbolizes the marriage that trapped her. Major bummer. But, the speaker says, silver
lining alert! The tigers will keep prancing in her needlework, and Aunt Jennifer will be immortalized
through her art.

Final Notation by Adrienne Rich

Introduction and Theme
Final Notations is thematically an ambiguous poem. The poem is not understood because of the flowing
imagery or stylistically presented issues, but because of the reader’s individual perception of the poem.
We can say that unlike Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers, which has a few fixed themes and issues, Final Notations is
infinite in its interpretations.

Final Notation is a cultural, political and personally emotional poem which has been written in
a simple and neat style with careful economy of words. The poet is experiencing new lifestyles,
sexual issues, motherhood tensions, friendship or even doctor patient relationship. Final
notations shows the last message of the poet or the New World Order of a colonial power when
it has controlled a territory or is coming to control it.
In short, we can say that Final Notation shows us things which are difficult at first become
easy, things which are strange at one time, become familiar at another, things which may seem
painful, but become joyful and pleasant which encountered and things which people apparently
looking disgusting in the first impressions, later become our heart and soul with the passage of
time.