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Analysis and comments on Aunt Jennifer's Tigers by Adrienne Rich

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Comment 5 of 25, added on April 10th, 2005 at 8:43 PM.

I Think that "Aunt JEnnifer's fingers fluttering through her wool find even
he ivory needle hard to pull" show another example of how she is trying to
be artistic but she's struggling. "the MASSIVE weight of Uncle's wedding
band sits HEAVILY..." when Ric uses these adjectives it gives the idea that
Aunt Jennifer's marriage is weighing her down artistically.

holly from United States
Comment 4 of 25, added on March 1st, 2005 at 9:41 AM.

"The massive weight of Uncle's wedding ring" and "Still ringed with ordeals
she was mastered by"... I think these passages suggest that marriage can be
constricting, not just for her, but any woman. She was alive and free to
be herself in her artwork, but not in real life.

Ilianna from United States
Comment 3 of 25, added on January 13th, 2005 at 12:26 PM.

Man, this song is really just about Tigers, literally. I don't think it's
any kind of weird metaphor. She just liked tigers!

K from United States
Comment 2 of 25, added on November 22nd, 2004 at 5:32 PM.

Aunt Jennifer's art is her mode of expressing her true feelings. Being
married to a man is a constriction on her freedoms. Living her part in a
man's world is forcing her into a role that she does not fill naturally.
Her nature is that of a free spirit, as the tigers are. Free to roam with a
grace that she cannot possess under the powers of a man.

Cheryl from United States
Comment 1 of 25, added on October 7th, 2004 at 5:03 AM.

Aunt Jennifer's Tigers, one of Rich's first published poems, was already a
token of the inner split she has always deeply thought of as the starting
point for the construction of her self. Aunt Jennifer, just like Rich, is
torn between the woman artist and the woman who has to define herself in a
men's world. Though she has the power to produce beauty, to be the tigers
in her canvas, she is quite violently retrained by a patriarchal ostracism
from the world of art, by double standards and the life she is expected to
lead. In the end, we readers witness the sublimation of art and of its
creator, as the tigers "go on prancing, proud and unafraid."

Thibaut from France

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Information about Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

Poet: Adrienne Rich
Poem: Aunt Jennifer's Tigers
Year: 1951
Added: Feb 20 2003
Viewed: 37079 times


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