Adrienne Rich "The One Constant Research Paper

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However, Rich does not title the poem "Aunt Jennifer's Ring." Rather, Rich uses the title "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" to offer a sense of hope, transformation, and overcoming. Patriarchy can be overcome with self-awareness. Aunt Jennifer is creating embroidery or other weaving technique, which is representative of traditional women's work. The image on Aunt Jennifer's wool is that of tigers who "prance" and "do not fear the men beneath the tree." The tigers are "proud and unafraid." Aunt Jennifer projects her ideal self onto her embroidery, whereas her real self is burdened by the "massive weight of Uncle's wedding band" that weighs her hand down as she sews. In "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers," Rich creates a poem that is paradoxically filled with sorrow and human suffering as well as hope and transformation.

In "From an Atlas of the Difficult World," Adrienne Rich presents an image of universal suffering that shows that feminism is about human rights and not just about women's rights. In "From an Atlas of the Difficult World," Rich uses "concrete images" to "achieve both clarity of idea and fidelity to women's lives," (Emmitt 226). The poem is told in the first person singular, making it a poignantly personal poem. In this sense, "From an Atlas of the Difficult World" is different from "Aunt Jennifer's Ring." The poem in "From an Atlas of the Difficult World" is similar to "Diving into the Wreck" in that it is told from the first person perspective. In "From an Atlas of the Difficult World," Rich repeats the phrase, "I know you are reading this poem…" over and over to relate to the reader.

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Thus, the poem is not just about gender issues as some of the other Rich poems seem to be. The poem speaks to all of humanity, asking all readers to question their identities and roles. Even in "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" and in "Diving into the Wreck," Adrienne Rich is going beyond themes of feminism to explore a more universal human suffering that happens to have sexism as one of its symptoms.

"Adrienne Rich is one of the most important poets writing today, both for her style and her mission," (Emmitt 227). That mission is elucidating the causes of human suffering, and Rich locates that cause in the social construction of gender. The social construction of gender constrains human identity and self-expression. Rich displays a "relentless and urgent mission to articulate through singular poetics the personal and political issues of our time," (Bialosky 11). Although Rich's poetry, like "From an Atlas of the Difficult World," "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers," and "Diving into the Wreck" are personal, they are also political. They are about feminism and about universal human suffering. As Clark points out, Rick "is rarely if ever unattuned to the questions of authority, authenticity, and commensurability her practices provoke, but she refuses, again and again, to be vexed into silence by them," (Clark 48). Adrienne Rich has left an indelible stamp on poetry by conveying universal themes within the framework of gender issues. The more one encounters the poetry of Adrienne Rich, the more it becomes apparent that the poet had a strong universal humanistic vision.

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