AUNT

JENNIFER
’S TIGERS
Adrienne Rich: A Voice Of Liberation 1929-2012
 About the poet

Adrienne Cecile Rich (May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an
American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the
most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th
century", and was credited with bringing "the oppression of women
and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse.“
She was born in Baltimore in May 16, 1929. Her father, the
renowned pathologist Arnold Rice Rich belonged to a Jewish family,
was the Chairman of Pathology at The Johns Hopkins Medical
School, and her mother, Helen Elizabeth (Jones) Rich (a Southern
Protestant), was a concert pianist (before she married) and a
composer.
Rich died on March 27, 2012, at the age of 82 in her Santa Cruz,
California home. Her son, Pablo Conrad, reported that her death
resulted from long-term rheumatoid arthritis.
Selected awards and honours-
1950: Yale Younger Poets Award for A Change of World.
1952: Guggenheim Fellowship
1960: National Institute of Arts and Letters Award
1970: Shelley Memorial Award
1974: National Book Award for Poetry (a split award) for Diving into the Wreck
1979: Honorary Doctorate Smith College
1986: Inaugural Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
1989: Honorary doctorate from Harvard University
1989: National Poetry Association Award for Distinguished Service to the Art of Poetry
1990: William Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement (for gay or lesbian wri ting)
1991: Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service
1991: Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1992: Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize
1992: Poets' Prize for Atlas of the Difficult World
1992: Frost Medal
1992: Academy of American Poets Fellowship
1994: MacArthur Fellowship
1996: Wallace Stevens Award
1997: National Medal of Arts (refused)
1999: Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lannan Foundation
2006: National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
2010: Lifetime Recognition Award from the Griffin Poetry Prize
 Rich's works
Non fiction books
Each year links to its corresponding "[year] in literature"
article:
1976: Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and
Institution. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-31284-3.
1979: On Lies, Secrets and Silence: Selected Prose,
1966–1978
1986: Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose, 1979–
1985 (Includes the noted essay: "Compulsory
Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence")
1993: What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and
Politics
2001: Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations.
W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-05045-5.
2007: Poetry and Commitment: An Essay
Poetry collections
1951: A Change of World. Yale University Press.
1955: The Diamond Cutters, and Other Poems. Harper.
1963: Snapshots of a daughter-in-law: poems, 1954-1962. Harper & Row.
1966: Necessities of life: poems, 1962-1965. W.W. Norton.
1967: Selected Poems. Chatto & Hogarth P Windus.
1969: Leaflets. W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-03-930419-5.
1971: The Will to Change: Poems 1968-1970. Norton.
1973: Diving into the Wreck. W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-31163-1.
1975: Poems: Selected and New, 1950-1974. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-04392-1.
1976: Twenty-one Love Poems. Effie's Press.
1978: The Dream of a Common Language. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-04502-4.
1982: A Wild Patience Has Taken Me this Far: Poems 1978-1981. W. W. Norton & Company,
Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-393-31037-5. (reprint 1993)
1983: Sources. Heyeck Press.
1984: The Fact of a Doorframe: Poems Selected and New, 1950-1984. W. W. Norton & Company,
Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-393-31075-7.
1986: Your Native Land, Your Life: Poems. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-02318-3.
1989: Time’s Power: Poems, 1985-1988. Norton. 1989. ISBN 978-0-393-02677-1.
1991: An Atlas of the Difficult World: Poems 1988-1991. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-03069-3.
1993: Collected Early Poems, 1950-1970. W. W. Norton & Company, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-
393-31385-7.
1995: Dark Fields of the Republic: Poems, 1991-1995. W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-03868-2.
1996: Selected poems, 1950-1995. Salmon Pub.. ISBN 978-1-897648-78-0.
1999: Midnight Salvage: Poems, 1995-1998. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-04682-3.
2001: Fox: Poems 1998-2000. W W Norton & Co Inc. ISBN 978-0-393-32377-1. (reprint 2003)
2004: The School Among the Ruins: Poems, 2000-2004. W. W. Norton & Co.. ISBN 978-0-393-
32755-7.
 6 Powerful Adrienne Rich Quotes
1. Great advice for Sports Illustrated swimsuit models right here:
"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."
2. Wise words for writers: "You must write, and read, as if your life
depended on it." 
3. Consider this in relationships: "Lying is done with words, and also
with silence."
4. The connections between women: "The connections between and
among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the
most potentially transforming force on the planet."
5. On war: "War is an absolute failure of imagination, scientific and
political. That a war can be represented as helping a people to 'feel
good' about themselves, or their country, is a measure of that failure."
6. Inspiration about activism: "If you are trying to transform a
brutalized society into one where people can live in dignity and hope,
you begin with the empowering of the most powerless. You build from
the ground up."
 Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers
Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.

Aunt Jennifer's finger fluttering through her wool

Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.

When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie

Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.
 Few Word meanings

Prance- To walk or move about spiritedly

Denizens-An inhabitant; a resident
Pace-A step made in walking
Sleek-Smooth and lustrous as if polished; glossy
Chivalric- of having the qualities idealized by
knighthood, such as bravery, courtesy, honour, and
gallantry
Massive-heavy
Panel - A flat, usually rectangular piece forming a
raised, recessed, or framed part of the surface in
which it is set
The tigers are
Ordeals- Aunt Jennifer's
A difficult means
or painful of escape from the things
experience
that upset her the most. These creatures are what the
protagonist uses to illustrate the side of her that no one is able
to see.
 SYMBOLS USED

Tigers-freedom and courage

Topaz-brightness and
hardness
Denizens-freedom
Wedding ring-oppression
 ANALYSIS

An Analysis of "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" It is difficult to depict a

primary poetic technique within this poem. The reason being that,
many devices are used to bring forth the message that Rich has
embedded within it. However, symbolism is the most prominent.
The poem is set in a traditional format, using simple rhyme and
meter to give the reader a sense of formality. Adrienne Rich's
"Aunt Jennifer's Tigers", depicts an audacious woman trapped
within a timid and suppressed life. Marriage and the culture that
supports it have effected the character in this poem greatly.
Reality seems inescapable because of the ring that "sits heavily
upon Aunt Jennifer's hand". The tapestry that Aunt Jennifer is
creating in the poem, is very symbolic of her potential. When you
picture a tiger, the words power, fluidity, nobility, and strength may
accompany that image. Those same words accompany the hidden
life of Aunt Jennifer. The first stanza opens the poem with a truly
bold image of tigers as "They pace in sleek chivalric certainty".
The tigers obviously have a very significant symbolic purpose in
Wedding Bands
 O U
Y
N K
H A
T