The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-1977 [Paperback]

Adrienne Rich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 1993

"Rich's poems do not demand the willing suspension of disbelief. They demand belief, and it is a measure of her success as a poet that most of the time they get it. . . . The affirmation and the occasional moments of pure joy in these poems are quiet but fully earned."--Margaret Atwood, New York Times Book Review

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Adrienne Rich's new poems are important because they come so close to achieving the dream they're all at least partly about. The Dream of a Common Language explores the contours of a woman's heart and mind in language for everybody—language whose plainness, laughter, questions and nobility everyone can respond to. . . . No one is writing better or more needed verse than this.” (Boston Evening Globe )

About the Author

Adrienne Rich's honors include the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. She lives in California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reissue edition (April 17, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393310337
• ISBN-13: 978-0393310337
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #301,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this if you don't like poetry., October 14, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Christine Gralow; San Francisco, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-1977 (Paperback)

Adrienne Rich is a poet for everyone - especially those who say they don't like poetry - and the Dream of a Common Language is her most fascinating and accessible collection to date. Think poetry is boring, pretentious or hackneyed? Open up to "Love Poems" and find 32 sultry and pain-stakingly honest celebrations of lesbian love and urban survival. Rich has recently been receiving the wide recognition she deserves, and she will perhaps be the one to convince Americans to open their poetry books again.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emotional Catharsis through Poetry, August 29, 2007

By 

Julie Jordan Scott "Writer, Life Coach - Owne... (Bakersfield, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-1977 (Paperback)

I sat in a cushy green chair at Barnes and Noble reading these poems by Adrienne Rich and something unexplainable - almost impossible to put words to - happened to me.

I connected deeply to her messages, the words she wrote when I was a teen, might as well have been written right in the here and now. A lone tear slid down my face as I read about a woman in her 40's, like me, who was dying, not like me, who had a friend, like me, who wasn't sure how to support her in her time of need, universal.

I have experienced a lot of loss this year. The poetry of Adrienne Rich reached into my heart and let me express it more.

Isn't that what good poetry is supposed to be? A catalyst to awakening, cathartic, enriching?

Rich writes of power, female power.

She writes a poem about Paula Becker and Clara Westhoff (bride to Rainer Rilke, another favorite poet of mine.)

My favorite is "Transcendent Etude" which is, indeed, transcendent.

"No one ever told us we had to study our lives, make our lives a study..."

Study these poems and dive deeper into your life. You will not regret it.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book makes even pain beautiful., August 21, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-1977 (Paperback)

In The Dream of a Common Language, the poetry of Adrienne Rich reaches a realm of pure beauty. Rich cuts away the verbal excesses sometimes found in her other works and leaves the vibrant words to stand alone in their powerful simplicity. The reader finds herself emerged in the common language of love, pain, hope, and longing. Only when the final poem has been read, is she able to emerge, gasping, and view the world through vision forever altered by having seen through the eyes of Adrienne Rich