Aunt Jennifer's Tigers by Adrienne Rich
"Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" is a poem by Adrienne Rich that explores the contrasting themes of female oppression and artistic expression. Featured in Rich's first collection, the poem employs a structured form with meter and rhyming couplets, showcasing her technical skill. The titular character, Aunt Jennifer, creates vibrant and fearless tigers in needlepoint, which symbolize strength and freedom. In stark contrast, Aunt Jennifer herself is depicted as burdened by the constraints of marriage, represented by the weight of her wedding band as she sews. The poem reflects on the enduring nature of art, suggesting that while Aunt Jennifer faces lifelong challenges, her artistic creations will remain "proud and unafraid" even after her death. Through this work, Rich hints at feminist themes that would later permeate her poetry, portraying the struggle for identity and autonomy against societal expectations. The poem invites readers to consider the interplay between personal suffering and artistic resilience, making it a poignant reflection on the complexities of women's lives in a patriarchal context.
On this Page
Aunt Jennifer's Tigers by Adrienne Rich
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1951 (collected in A Change of World, 1951)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
“Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers,” which appeared in Rich’s first collection of poems, is typical of her early work, illustrating the modest poetic ambitions for which she was praised by Auden. Technically, the work displays flawless craftsmanship, with a carefully regulated meter and rhyming couplets. Only later did Rich recognize how formalism functioned as she writes, “asbestos gloves,” enabling her to grasp potentially dangerous materials without putting herself at risk, as in this poem.
The formalism of “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” hides the more disturbing aspects of the poem and subordinates the theme of Aunt Jennifer’s “ordeals” in marriage to the more “poetic” theme of the transcendence of art. The first verse of the poem describes the fearless tigers Aunt Jennifer creates in needlepoint. Their freedom and dignity is contrasted in the second verse to the restrictions of marriage, symbolized by the wedding band that weighs down Aunt Jennifer’s fingers as she sews. The themes are resolved in the final, third, verse: Even death will not free Aunt Jennifer from her “ordeals,” but the tigers she has created will continue to appear “proud and unafraid.”
While the poem is technically brilliant, the themes that art endures beyond human life and that suffering may be redeemed through art are hardly original. Rich, however, uses an inventive image to recast these conventional themes in a new way and even hints, in the image of Aunt Jennifer weighed down by an oppressive marriage, at the feminism that would permeate her later work. Yet the poem remains quite impersonal; the reader sees Aunt Jennifer but is scarcely aware of the voice of the poem’s narrator. For the reader, it is as though the picture is framed by an invisible hand, in contrast to Rich’s later work, where the reader cannot help being aware of the poet’s personal presence.
Bibliography
Dickie, Margaret. Stein, Bishop, and Rich: Lyrics of Love, War, and Peace. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.
Gwiazda, Piotr. “’Nothing Else Left to Read’: Poetry and Audience in Adrienne Rich’s ’An Atlas of the Difficult World.’” Journal of Modern Literature 28, no. 2 (Winter, 2005): 165-188.
Halpern, Nick. Everyday and Prophetic: The Poetry of Lowell, Ammons, Merrill, and Rich. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.
Keyes, Claire. The Aesthetics of Power: The Poetry of Adrienne Rich. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1986.
O’Reilly, Andrea. From Motherhood and Mothering: The Legacy of Adrienne Rich’s “Of Woman Born.” New York: State University of New York Press, 2004.
Ostriker, Alice. Writing Like a Woman. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1983.
Spencer, Luke. “That Light of Outrage: The Historicism of Adrienne Rich.” English: Journal of the English Association 51, no. 200 (Summer, 2002): 145-160.
Yorke, Liz. Adrienne Rich: Passion, Politics, and the Body. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1998.