Rich, Adrienne (Vol. 6) - Rich, Adrienne 1929–
Rich, Adrienne 1929–
Adrienne Rich, an American poet and critic, won the National Book Award in 1974 for Diving Into the Wreck. Another poet has written that her work displays "complete mastery, absolute assurance of movement and tone." (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 9-12, rev. ed.)
There is much craft [in Adrienne Rich's "Implosions"], and, just as unusual, much humility. Here the poet is telling us how she feels, not instructing us in how we ought to feel. She commands our assent all the more by refusing to court it. Our first impression when we read this is not likely to be, "Aha, protest poetry"; we will be thinking of things which resist categorization. Good poems, poems like this one, always fight free of labelling. Such individuality cannot be copied, but we can only hope that it can be emulated. The age is dominated by faceless collectivities, and in such a milieu the poet's most cogent protest lies not merely in what...
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