Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Adrienne Rich

I first read Adrienne Rich in a Women's Studies class @ UGA. Like the essays I read, her poems offer insight into Womens issues. According to the website, Rich faced similar struggles to many of the other women we have studied (i.e. Conflicting roles as mother vs. artist). Later, she became a leader in the Womens rights movement. I found this interesting: “In 1956, she began dating her poems to underscore their existence within a context, and to argue against the idea that poetry existed separately from the poet's life.” (http://www.english.illinois.edu/Maps/poets/m_r/rich/bio.htm). Rich wrote about legitimate experiences, not just her own, but of other women.

I especially like “Power”. The last line is the most telling for me: “her wounds came from the same source as her power.” Marie Curie’s experience is related to that of women everywhere who are deprived from power (or if they have power, they often become “wounded” from it) in a male dominated society. I love that she chose to write about a historical figure, a woman, who like many of the women poets we’ve studied, wasn’t given the recognition she deserved in her lifetime.

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