RIP Adrienne Rich (1929-2012)

[MorpheusSandman]

She was not a personal favorite poet of mine, but there's no denying her stature and influence. The poetry world certainly lost one of its giants, and I felt like she deserved a memorial thread. Here's a link to one of her more widely read and anthologized poems, Planetarium.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Her contributions to theory and criticism can't be overlooked, either.

[MorpheusSandman]

I haven't read any of her criticism. Any suggestions?

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

My suggestion? Don't read it. I hate theory and criticism, but I had to read it for classes. I'll haul my Norton anthology of criticism and some other books and see which essays are listed. She dealt mostly with feminism and gender/sexuality issues.

Edit: Looking through old syllabi, I found this essay, which I actually did find interesting: "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence." I'm sure you can find it on the internets somewhere.

[tailor STATELY]

MorpheusSandman: Thank you for the link. Enjoyed the poem very much. And just to tweek the noses of my betters I'll wiki, wiki, wiki,...

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY

[OrphanPip]

I like Rich, she reminds me a lot of Bishop in some ways. I think her work is characterized by an aesthetic that privileges first-hand experience and a kind of Romantic obsession with the power of describing surging (or spiralling) emotions.

"Diving into the Wreck" is quite a good poem, you can listen to Rich read it here:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15228

[JBI]

Alas, sad to see her go, though I will confess I find her poetry rather mediocre. It's hard to take someone who believes so soundly in the political power of his/her verse very seriously. Still, it is sad to see anybody died, and perhaps those who remember her as a person will find solace in the fact that she didn't seem to compromise her political positions and desires, even in the face of setting back her poetic development.

[MorpheusSandman]

"Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence." I'm sure you can find it on the internets somewhere.

Thanks for the suggestion.

MorpheusSandman: Thank you for the link. Enjoyed the poem very much.

My favorite of hers that I've read is Orion, but seeing as it's under copywrite I can't find it online...

[tailor STATELY]

Found it here: http://mooochelle.tumblr.com/post/35...-adrienne-rich

A very simple form, yet grand in its simplicity.

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY

[MorpheusSandman]

^ What I love about that is it's wonderful ambiguity, how it effortlessly and naturally plays off the idea of her looking up at the constellation, while also offering herself sexually to it. So there's that wonderful juxtaposition of meanings, one that implies a distant voyeurism, the other that implies an intimate relationship, which echoes even more so when describing her domestic life. That feeling of living your life while being outside of it and looking in. It's a great poem, methinks.

[MorpheusSandman]

It's hard to take someone who believes so soundly in the political power of his/her verse very seriously.

I've never been one much for politics, but is believing in the political power of her poetry any sillier than Blake believing in the philosophical power of his poetry?

[JBI]

I've never been one much for politics, but is believing in the political power of her poetry any sillier than Blake believing in the philosophical power of his poetry?

How much did Blake believe in his own poetry's power to change the world? Perhaps in his early career, but by the time he published Experience, I would wager he became a very interior and private poet. He didn't expect his cryptic poems to change the world.

The closest one could come in that era would be Shelley I guess, but even he seems to have been a loud yeller who would change his ideas every 20 minutes.

[MorpheusSandman]

Fair enough. Maybe it's just because Blake seems so forceful in his convictions it's hard for me to believe that he believed his efforts were completely futile. It seems like every time he had a set back he just dug deeper into his revolutionary thoughts and personalized allegory. Maybe we might say that he secretly held out hope that it might make a difference somewhere along the line, but probably knew it was too late to happen in his own lifetime.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I'm thinking if we want to name poets who had a naive belief in the power of their poetry, Walt Whitman would be very high on that list. He thought his poetry was going to, quite literally, change America.

[OrphanPip]

I don't know if Rich believed her poetry could effect political change. She certainly believed her activism (and that art was part of that activism) could achieve political change, which they did. Her view of art I think has to do with that mantra of "the personal is political," in that because she believes art comes from a personal place she believes art is inextricably related to politics. She primarily viewed her poetic mission as giving voice to an other, in the hopes that those reading would be able to achieve greater understanding of others or some would find solace in the expression of similar experiences they have not seen represented before. I think when we look at it in this way, rather than saying she believed a poem would change the world, it is a reasonable position. I don't agree that poetry has to speak to the experiences of the marginalized to be good, but there is something engaging about Rich's perspective.

"Jane Alexander
The National Endowment for the Arts, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington 20506

Dear Jane Alexander,

I just spoke with a young man from your office, who informed me that I had been chosen to be one of twelve recipients of the National Medal for the Arts at a ceremony at the White House in the fall. I told him at once that I could not accept such an award from President Clinton or this White House because the very meaning of art, as I understand it, is incompatible with the cynical politics of this administration. I want to clarify to you what I meant by my refusal.

Anyone familiar with my work from the early Sixties on knows that I believe in art's social presence--as breaker of official silences, as voice for those whose voices are disregarded, and as a human birthright. In my lifetime I have seen the space for the arts opened by movements for social justice, the power of art to break despair. Over the past two decades I have witnessed the increasingly brutal impact of racial and economic injustice in our country.

There is no simple formula for the relationship of art to justice. But I do know that art--in my own case the art of poetry--means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of power which holds it hostage. The radical disparities of wealth and power in America are widening at a devastating rate. A President cannot meaningfully honor certain token artists while the people at large are so dishonored. I know you have been engaged in a serious and disheartening struggle to save government funding for the arts, against those whose fear and suspicion of art is nakedly repressive. In the end, I don't think we can separate art from overall human dignity and hope. My concern for my country is inextricable from my concerns as an artist. I could not participate in a ritual which would feel so hypocritical to me.

Sincerely,
Adrienne Rich

cc: President Clinton"