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"Time in the hand is not control of time,
Nor shattered fragments of an instrument
A proof against the wind; the wind will rise,
We can only close the shutters."
Adrienne Rich (b. 1929), U.S. poet. Storm Warnings (l. 18-21). . .
Norton Introduction to Poetry, The. J. Paul Hunter, ed. (3d ed., 1986) W. W. Norton & Company. |
"Weather abroad
and weather in the heart alike come on
Regardless of prediction."
Adrienne Rich (b. 1929), U.S. poet. Storm Warnings (l. 12-14). . .
Norton Introduction to Poetry, The. J. Paul Hunter, ed. (3d ed., 1986) W. W. Norton & Company. |
"The glass has been falling all the afternoon"
Adrienne Rich (b. 1929), U.S. poet. Storm Warnings (l. 1). . .
Norton Introduction to Poetry, The. J. Paul Hunter, ed. (3d ed., 1986) W. W. Norton & Company. |
"The will to change begins in the body not in the mind
My politics is in my body, accruing and expanding with every act of resistance and each of my failures."
Adrienne Rich (b. 1929), U.S. poet and feminist. "Tear Gas," lines 38-39 (1969). |
"Now, again, poetry
violent, arcane, common,
hewn of the commonest living substance
into archway, portal, frame
I grasp for you, your bloodstained splinters, your
ancient and stubborn poise
Mas the earth trembles—
burning out from the grain"
Adrienne Rich (b. 1929), U.S. poet. The Fact of a Doorframe, st. 3, The Fact of a Doorframe (1974). |
"A life I didn't choose
chose me: even
my tools are the wrong ones
for what I have to do."
Adrienne Rich (b. 1929), U.S. poet, essayist, and lesbian feminist. The Roofwalker, lines 22-25 (1961).
Later in the 1960s and the 1970s, Rich developed into a prominent feminist; in the mid-1970s, she also "came out" as a lesbian. When she wrote this poem, she was married and raising three young sons. |
"it was not enough to be for abolition/while the spirit of the masters
flickered in the abolitionist's heart
...
With whom do you believe your lot is cast?"
Adrienne Rich (b. 1929), U.S. poet and feminist. "The Spirit of Place," section 1, lines 21-23 and 27 (1980). |
"To work and suffer is to be at home.
All else is scenery ..."
Adrienne Rich (b. 1929), U.S. poet, essayist, and lesbian feminist. "The Tourist and the Town," lines 31-32 (1955). |
"There is a mystery that floats between
The tourist and the town. Imagination
Estranges it from her. She need not suffer
Or die here. It is none of her affair,
Its calm heroic vistas make no claim."
Adrienne Rich (b. 1929), U.S. poet and feminist. "The Tourist and the Town," lines 17-21 (1955). |
"... passion for survival is the great theme of women's poetry."
Adrienne Rich (b. 1929), U.S. poet, essayist, and feminist. The Work of a Common Woman, by Judy Grahn, introductory essay (1978). |
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