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The Fact of a Doorframe: Poems Selected and New 1950-1984

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Adrienne Rich (b. 1929) has developed into one of the United States' best known poets. She won the National Book Award in 1974 and received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1994. Her book, "The Fact of a Doorframe" consists of a selection she has made from her first nine volumes of poetry written between 1950 and 1983.

I found it interesting to read this book in sequence (from cover to cover) to see the development of Ms Rich's themes as a poet. The early collections, through the mid-1960s, focus on descriptions of nature and on Rich's unhappy marriage experience. For the most part, the poetry is in traditional verse forms There is a concreteness and an accessiblity to them that will carry over into Ms. Rich's later work. I enjoyed the the early poem "At a Bach Concert" (several of Rich's poems feature her reflections on music) and her 1960 poem "Propsective Immigrants Please Note" This poem basically is a commentary on Emma Lazarus's poem, "The New Collussus" America itself, for Rich, makes no promises. She writes: "The door itself/makes no promises./It is only a door."

In the middle portions of the book, the poems become more overtly political and polemical in character. There are sharp criticisms of the War in Vietnam, of the Cold War, of the treatment of Native Americans in the United States, and of environmental desecration. This tendency in Ms Rich's poetry appears, as far as I can tell, somewhat before her focus on womens' issues and on same-sex sexual relationships. The poetry remains predominantly traditional in format although it becomes more experimental and stylistaclly free. It is didactic and clear to read.

The poetry begins to speak distinctly of womens' issues and of lesbian relationships in the collections of the late 1960s. The poems are sometimes sharp in tone, rejecting of men in many instances, and celebrate the commradeship and shared experiences of women and the tenderness that Rich finds in same-sex sexual experiences. The emphasis on mostly left political activism also continues. I found impressive Rich's long sonnet sequence "Twenty-One Love Poems" and the poem "A Woman Dead in her Forties" from the 1978 collection "A Dream of a Common Language. I also enjoyed her tribute to the Novelist Ellen Glasgow, in a late poem in the collection, "The Education of a Novelist." I enjoyed her poem on Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, much as I love that work (Ms Rich does not), and her two translations from the Yiddish poet Kadia Molodowsky. Ms Rich's poetic voice is not limited to feminist issues.

I think this is a good collection to get to understand the work of Ms. Rich. It works better than a poem or two in an anthology. In addition,as good poetry will do, the collection allows the reader to trace the development of the thoughts and feelings of some people in our country at a particular time in its poetry. Rich's poetry is a good bellweather of its age. The poetry has an earthiness an immediateness and an accesibility that will make it worth reading even for those who shy away from modern poetry.

Perhaps the constant praise of Rich is a bit silly, but she really does take exception to all that is objectionable in contemporary America. This is, of course, a threat to some, but I enjoyed reading this book for the most part. As a lyric poet, Rich is undeniably mediocre, and the usual comparisons that she and her adulating collegiate readers make between her and Emily Dickinson is offensive and ridiculous. However, she speaks her mind, and is an important voice in Lesbian poetry, particularly love poems. If she can't compare in poet greatness with other lesbian poets like Elizabeth Bishop, and can't hold a wet match next to HD, this is not to be regretted. Rich is an unusual poet, one who is determined to write political poetry, even when a different writer might perhaps know better.

In Fact of a Doorframe, the evolution of Rich's writing and her life can been followed- rfom the structured, immpersonal poetry in the beginning of her career, to the flaming and introspective poetry of the 70s and 80s, her poetry covers the full range of emotion and topic. She is an amazing poet.

When I read Rich's poems I often find myself imagining her as an elderly woman, firm, lonely, and frustrated in her observations. I think in my initial readings of her I must have zeroed in on the poems with less of a feminist agenda. I really enjoyed those that I found. Rereading her I can see quite a bit more of a divide between the sexes and she seems very unsettled in her view of men. I would imagine male readers would most likely be put off by this. Gender is a big deal to Rich, I'd be lying if I said otherwise. Because we have an inundation of ruminations like those today, her message might be somewhat dated--especially to younger people, but if you consider the era in which these poems were written, it was a timely subject. To quote one of the last line in "From an Old House in America": "Any woman's death diminishes me." I know some people panned the newest additions to this collection (1950-2001) and feel Rich is a bit of a man-hater. I don't get the feeling that she herself is, but her poetry can certainly go bitter quickly.

Needless to say, Rich was assigned reading in college (most likely Women and Literature...), but it was one of the few poetry books that I enjoyed and have actually picked up in later years. I think some of her less political and more personal poems are striking and very beautiful. These are like little intermittent gems and make the collection worthwhile for me. My favorite poem is very short, and sort of William Carlos Williams in fashion. It's called Picnic. Five lines from it:

the chicken bones scattered
for the fox we'll never see
the children playing in the caves
My death is folded in my pocket
like a nylon raincoat

Very wistful and stark. I guess I'm mostly struck by how lonely she sounds. That's something I think we can all identify with.

The great thing about this collection is that you can follow Rich's progress as she grows and changes and learns more about herself. Her early writing is a bit stiff and has never been a favorite of mine, but when you can see it and compare it to what she writes later, you can really see how far she has come and how much she has changed.

This book includes a wide range of her poems and will allow any reader to get a feel for her poetry without having to go and buy lots of different books by her.

There are those who get angry with her for being "too political", but I'm one who believes that ALL poetry is political. If it is not overtly political in what it SAYS then it is political in what it does NOT say. Just as inaction can often be a form of action, so all poetry is a form of political speech. Poetry is the way poets explain their world-views. Some may see the world in happy go lucky, upbeat stanzas, while others see the world a little more clearly.

To me, Rich's main accomplishment is that she comes across as being absolutely honest in everything she writes. That's an uncommon thing...even in poetry.

I found Rich's poetry to be a bit sloggy in content, with her writing poems about how she doesn't like Beethoven's ninth (after Stravinsky and untold others had already condemned it) and those silly things like the 'floating sonnet'. Still, she is the best of a bad lot, making most other radical feminist lesbian poets look particularly starved for imagination. I managed to find someone to give this book away to. Hope she enjoys it.

This tremendous collection is a threat to cowardly white males everywhere. The incredible variety of utterance and the almost unbelievable courage shown by these poems testifies to the greatness of Adrienne Rich and the paucity of invention of typical white male poets in comparison. This is a truly important book.