Rita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio in 1952; In 1973, Dove graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor

of Arts from Miami University; As a professor, she taught creative writing at Arizona State University, and since 1989 she has been teaching at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville; and there she currently is a Commonwealth Professor of English; Since 1980, she has published many works as a poet, as well as writer of essays, novel, drama and short stories; Besides her Pulitzer Prize (1987), Rita Dove has received numerous literary and academic honors; Concerning her personal life, Dove married Fred Viebahn, a German-born writer, in 1979, and has a daughter, Aviva, born in 1983.

 From the second half of the 20th century to today; Before the nineties:

-Golden Age (U.S.); -Cold War; -Segregation ruled illegal in the U.S.; -Civil Rights movement; -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; -Vietnam War. From the nineties on: -New order in the world: ending of the Cold War; economic and political multi-polarization; Globalization; -Changing in the American society: consolidation of the position of African-Americans.

 Variety in uses of form, ranging from fixed forms such as

sonnets to metrical freedom. Asked about her poetical genre, she responds: There's no reason to subscribe authors to particular genres. I'm a writer, and I write in the form that most suits what I want to say. (Poetry Foundation). This is a post-modern and very contemporary approach in poetry; Lyricism and beauty; Dove puts a light on the small truths of life that have more meaning than the actual historical facts (STAMPER, A.); Sense of history and political scope; she treats historical events with a personal touch, addressing her grandparents life and marriage, the battles and triumphs of the Civil Rights era, etc.

 Singular approach in African-American poetry, using the folk

element of the black language as well as features of orality (STAMPER, A.); Musicality: song-like poetry with her own unique way of presenting that sort of speech in poems (STAMPER, A.); "I believe that language sings." (DOVE, Rita); Dove's poems "fall on the ears with solace (VENDLER, Helen); In a time when African-American poetry has been criticized for too much introspection, Rita Dove has taken an approach to emotion and the person as human. Doves poetry is not about being black, but about being alive. Dove appreciates the strength of black speech as essential to the American way. As far as African-American poets are concerned, Dove definitely believes the folk element of the black language is a creation of their own tradition. [] Dove, as a black poet, seems to have taken the ideas of the white literary world, and interpreted them in the culture of the black people. (STAMPER, Andy).

Heart to Heart It's neither red nor sweet. It doesn't melt or turn over, break or harden, so it can't feel pain, yearning, regret. It doesn't have a tip to spin on, it isn't even shapely just a thick clutch of muscle,

lopsided, mute. Still, I feel it inside its cage sounding a dull tattoo: I want, I want but I can't open it: there's no key. I can't wear it on my sleeve, or tell you from the bottom of it how I feel. Here, it's all yours, now but you'll have to take me, Too.

 Stamper, Andy. Rita Dove (1952- ) - Modern America -

1914 to present. Available in: http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/edit/dove .htm. Poetry Foundation. Available in: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/rita-dove. The Poetry Archive. Available in: http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/edit/dove .htm. WIKIPEDIA. Available in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Dove.