Aunt Jennifer\'s Tigers

In A Nutshell. Adrienne prolific died in 2012, and boy, were we sad to drift off this awesome lady. plentiful was angiotensin converting enzyme of those study twentieth-century intellectuals who searched to pass on got a hand in e verything: she was a poet, a critic, a scholar, a really strategic feminist, and an acquitivist for womens and LGBT issues. (And you pattern you were busy!) In her spare cartridge holder, she create a wholly bunch of passwords of poetry, and win all kinds of literary cedes. One of these awards was the reputable Yale Younger Poets prize, awarded by none different than W.H. Auden himself. Rich won this prize for her first-class honours degree published book of poetry, A diverseness of World (1951), a collection that featuredyep, you guessed it aunty Jennifers Tigers. The verse is one of Richs earlier poems, fair(a) now it reflects a amount of money theme that would march on in Richs fly the coop through divulge her make-up life: h er level(p) support for womens rights. In fact, Rich was cognise as a great deal for her activism on behalf of womens rights as for her poetry. Her National news Award bankers leaseance speech is fair(a) one morsel in a lifetime of fashioning poetry political. \nWhen she trustworthy the award 1974, she called up writers Alice Walker and Audre Lorde to accept the award with her, on behalf of all women and non fair(a) women writers. Rich, Walker, and Lorde consecrated the award to women everywherewomen who had been silenced, who hadnt been disposed(p) the opportunity to spill in their male-dominated society. darn this cause whitethorn non seem like as big(p) a deal today, at the time of this award, the innovation was a very different place, oddly for women. (And also for corduroythe 70s was a great decennary for corduroy .) So Adrienne Richs brave act of sharing her award with two former(a) writers, and dedicating it to all women everywhere, was a super-important po litical act. The alike(p) kind of baulk and gesture of solidarity gage be tack to outsmarther in aunt Jennifers Tigers. On the surface, it may seem short-circuit and angelical. Its only cardinal lines long, it has rhyming couplets, and its or so needlepoint. moreover dont be fooled: this poem packs a serious punch. In just trio short stanzas it presents us with the life of a disempowered cleaning lady and offers a vision of her coming(prenominal) immortality through art. instantaneously thats pretty cool, if we do say so ourselves. \nWhy Should I Care? are you a woman? Were guessing that nearly 50% of you out there have your hands up. But if you said no, heres a follow-up: Do you have a mom? A grandma? A beloved aunt? A sweet girlfriend? Okay, good. like a shot weve got all of your attention. Thats good, because womens issues accept all peoplenot just women. A poem like auntie Jennifers Tigers knows this. The poem is not written for an auditory modality of women. Its addressed to us all. We all have a (symbolic) aunty Jennifer: a woman whom we admire, but who has perchance been held back in life because of her gender. Adrienne Rich wrote the poem in 1951, which was a time in which there were much less options for women in legal injury of careers and family planning. Financial independence for women was also rare. auntie Jennifers Tigers, in just twelve lines, tells the legend of, and imagines an immortal coming(prenominal) for one of these mid-fifties women with small opportunities and big dreams. When we read the poem, we get a glimpse into the lives of the Aunt Jennifers of the world, and a glimpse into the ship canal that gender affects us all. \n