Adrienne Rich (16 May 1929 – 27 March 2012 / Baltimore, Maryland)

Adrienne Rich

Adrienne Cecile Rich is an American poet, essayist and feminist. She has been called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century."

Life and Career

Early Life

Adrienne Rich was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the older of two sisters. Her father, the renowned pathologist Arnold Rice Rich, was a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School, and her mother, Helen Jones Rich, was a concert pianist until she married. Her father was Jewish and her mother was a Southern Protestant; the girls were raised as Christians. Adrienne Rich's early poetic influence stemmed from her father who encouraged her to... more »

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Quotations

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  • As her sons have seen her: the mother in patriarchy: controlling, erotic, castrating, heart-suffering, guilt-ridden, and guilt-provoking; a marble brow, a huge breast, an avid cave; between her legs s...
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929), U.S. poet. Of Woman Born, ch. 8 (1976).
    16 person liked.
    4 person did not like.
  • My children cause me the most exquisite suffering of which I have any experience. It is the suffering of ambivalence: the murderous alternation between bitter resentment and raw-edged nerves, and blis...
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929), U.S. poet. Of Woman Born, ch. 1 (1976).
    17 person liked.
    3 person did not like.
  • The mother's battle for her child—with sickness, with poverty, with war, with all the forces of exploitation and callousness that cheapen human life—needs to become a common human battle, wa...
    Adrienne Rich (20th century), U.S. author. Of Women Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution (1976).
    21 person liked.
    1 person did not like.
  • It is ... crucial that we understand lesbian/feminism in the deepest, most radical sense: as that love for ourselves and other women, that commitment to the freedom of all of us, which transcends the ...
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929), U.S. poet. On Lies, Secrets, and Silence, foreword (1980).
    19 person liked.
    2 person did not like.
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Comments about Adrienne Rich

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  • Sadia Huma (12/12/2006 1:35:00 PM)

    i need critical analysis of implosions

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