Political= Personal

Adrienne Rich believed that politics is intertwined and innate in every human. Politics are derived from what and when humans are emotional about. In 1969 Rich explored this aspect with her readers in the poem “The Blue Ghazals” when she writes, “The moment when a feeling enters the body/ is political. This touch is political.” Emotions and passions elicit political activism. Rich embodied this message by voicing her concerns through her poetry. One example is in her poem “Implosions,” placed around the time of the Vietnam War, suggests her discomfort about continuing the Vietnam War. The speaker of the poem has ways in which to stop the war. Rich writes, “My hands are knotted in the rope / and I cannot sound the bell” and “The foot is in the wheel” (13-14, 17). In each phrase the speaker has a way to stop the death, but refuses. It is only after it is all said and done that the speaker asks, “I’ll have done nothing / even for you” (22-23). When writing this poem, Rich was advocating that the people that could stop the war, chose to hold it out despite the continuing death toll. Rich wants the people holding back to do something, to have humanity for those that are dying. This poem is a great example of how emotion has driven Rich herself to write about political moves she does not agree with. She has taken her own wisdom to heart to expose her emotions, and essentially political position, about the seemingly never-ending Vietnam War.

The inseparable nature of feeling and politics was not only held by Rich, but one of her contemporaries, Audre Lorde. Lorde wrote in her essay, Poems are Not Luxury’s, about the interconnection between everyday life and emotion to a female responsibility to take action based on those initial feelings. She advocates for active participation of females in order to make this world a better place for generations to come. Lorde writes, “For there are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt, of examining what our ideas really mean (feel like) on Sunday morning at 7 A.M., after brunch, during wild love, making war, giving birth; while we suffer the old longings, battle the old warnings and fears of being silent and impotent and alone, while tasting our new possibilities and strengths” (285). Essentially Lorde argues that there are no new concepts, only the way in which individuals perceive, experience, and act on the personal and intimate emotions. It is an individual’s responsibility to act on these feelings, which is in accordance with Rich’s view.

Lorde, Audre. “Poetry Is Not a Luxury.” Chrysalis: A Magazine of Female Culture, no. 3, 1977.

Rich, Adrienne Cecile. “The Blue Ghazals” The Will to Change: Poems 1968-1970. W.W. Norton and Company, 1971.

The School Among the Ruins

Rich, being continuously involved with politics, felt very strongly about the war in the Middle East.  While attempting to put the civilian’s lives into perspective for Americans, shows her empathy for the civilians of the Middle East in her 2001 poem “The School Among the Ruins.” She stresses that American’s cannot sympathize with the fear that other cities are experiencing.  America has never been the ground in which constant daily fighting takes place.  Rich writes, “Beirut. Baghdad. Sarajevo. Bethlehem. Kabul. Not of course here” (1).  Rich attempts to help Americans have empathy for the citizens of these countries.  She puts this sense of loss and fear into the perspective of their own personal lives when she writes, “Today this is your lesson: / write as clearly as you can / your name    home street    and number / down on this page / No you can’t go home yet” (49-53).  The teachers have to try and find families of the students because they are lost in the constant devastation of war.   Essentially Rich is asking America, “How would you feel if this story was of American children?” Fighting from war not only affects soldiers and politicians, but also children and daily lives of civilians. The uncertain setting in Rich’s poem confronts the idea that these children are having their lives pulled out from under them in exchange for a constant state of fear and hunger. 

Rich, Adrienne Cecile. The School Among the Ruins: Poems 2000-2004. New York: Norton, 2004.

When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-vision

In 1971 Rich wrote “When We Dead Awaken” exploring the idea that literature is as constrained for females as every other facet of life.  Rich analyzes past literary works and identifies that there is a constant among female writes.  When analyzing the works of Sylvia Plath and Diane Wakoski she writes, “It strikes me that in the work of both Man appears as, if not a dream, a fascination and a terror; and that the source of the fascination and the terror is, simply, Man’s power-to dominate, tyrannize, choose, or reject the woman” (348).  This power of man over woman is something that Rich finds in some of her earlier work as well.  Rich states that she was taught to write poetry so it pertained to everyone, which meant not to women (351).  Rich writes, “I hadn't found the courage yet to do without authorities, or even to use the pronoun “I” – woman in the poem is always “she” (357).  While using the pronoun “she” Rich was trying her best to set a distance between herself and the subject of her poems to ensure that her work could pertain to many. She attributes the liberation of women in the arts to the second wave of feminists. 

Adrienne, Rich Cecile. “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-vision.” Claims for Poetry. Ed Donald Hall.  Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1982.