A reissue of the classic Adrienne Rich selection, revised and expanded to cover the entirety of her career, with a new Introduction.
The Fact of a Doorframe is the ideal introduction to Rich's opus, from her formative lyricism in A Change of Word (1951), to the groundbreaking poems of Diving into the Wreck (1973), to the searching voice of Fox (2001).
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Adrienne Rich is the Blake of American letters. -- Nadine Gordimer
Rich's poems, volume after volume, have been the makings of one of the authentic, unpredictable, urgent, essential voices of our time. -- W. S. Merwin
[H]er dialectic fire produces poems of transcendent beauty. -- New York Times Book Review
Rich's poems, volume after volume, have been the makings of one of the authentic, unpredictable, urgent, essential voices of our time. -- W. S. Merwin
[H]er dialectic fire produces poems of transcendent beauty. -- New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Widely read, widely anthologized, widely interviewed and widely taught, Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) was for decades among the most influential writers of the feminist movement and one of the best-known American public intellectuals. She wrote two dozen volumes of poetry and more than a half-dozen of prose. Her constellation of honors includes a National Book Award for poetry for Tonight, No Poetry Will Serve, a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant in 1994, and a National Book Award for poetry in 1974 for Diving Into the Wreck. That volume, published in 1973, is considered her masterwork. Ms. Rich’s other volumes of poetry include The Dream of a Common Language, A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far, An Atlas of the Difficult World, The School Among the Ruins, and Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth. Her prose includes the essay collections On Lies, Secrets, and Silence; Blood, Bread, and Poetry; an influential essay, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” and the nonfiction book Of Woman Born, which examines the institution of motherhood as a socio-historic construct. In 2006, Rich was awarded the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters by the National Book Foundation. In 2010, she was honored with The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry's Lifetime Recognition Award.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was privileged to hear Rich read some of her poetry back in 1973 while living in Cambridge, Mass. All I remember of that evening is the image of a distinguished-looking, gray-haired woman dressed in black reading serious poetry that did not try to be funny or cute. I guess that may be why, when I went through a difficult divorce seven years ago, I found myself reading from this book late into the night, soaking up the unforgettable images, and somehow using these deep poems as a ladder of sorts to climb out of the hole of depression I found myself trapped in.
You know when you have been touched to the core by great poetry: Read, or better, record yourself reading 'Diving into the Wreck', then listen to it some night late when you are in a contemplative mood. Likewise, 'Shooting Script', 'Pierrot le Fou', 'Integrity' or any number of other poems in this book. Unforgettable mythic imagery; deep imagery that resonates with the psyche. It makes not one dime of difference whether you are male or female, since deep inside we're all in some profound sense androgynous.
From 'Shooting Script':
"But this is not the war I came to see, buying my ticket, stumbling through the darkness, finding my place among the sleepers and masturbators in the dark."
"Somewhere someone has that war stored up in metal canisters, a memory he cannot use, somewhere my innocence is proven with my guilt, but this would not be the war I fought in."
Here Rich is not talking about some external war, but a very personal war, her war. As with the great Bhagavad Gita, where the warrior Arjuna turns in anguish to his spiritual guide Sri Krishna for answers while on the field of battle, this battlefield in Rich's poem is the war within, the struggle for self-mastery that every human being must wage. It is a mythic war, inward toward the true kernel of the self.
The criticism sometime leveled at Rich is that she is feminist and overly political. Of course, she does not endorse the images of a culture in which if you're white, male, heterosexual, there is the implication that you 'own' the world and you get to decide what's history, what's literature. She rightly disputes that wisdom. And it's also questionable how one can avoid making a political statement if you write serious poetry; almost everything one does or says has political undertones.
While this particular edition is OK, to contain 50 years worth of Rich's poetry in just one slender volume such as this does not really do her justice. The edition I own is "Poems Selected and New: 1950-1984". That is a much better collection. This edition, for example, contains a much-abbreviated version of Shooting Script, and other key poems have been cut out. For this reason, I recommend that you look for the 1984 version of this book.
You know when you have been touched to the core by great poetry: Read, or better, record yourself reading 'Diving into the Wreck', then listen to it some night late when you are in a contemplative mood. Likewise, 'Shooting Script', 'Pierrot le Fou', 'Integrity' or any number of other poems in this book. Unforgettable mythic imagery; deep imagery that resonates with the psyche. It makes not one dime of difference whether you are male or female, since deep inside we're all in some profound sense androgynous.
From 'Shooting Script':
"But this is not the war I came to see, buying my ticket, stumbling through the darkness, finding my place among the sleepers and masturbators in the dark."
"Somewhere someone has that war stored up in metal canisters, a memory he cannot use, somewhere my innocence is proven with my guilt, but this would not be the war I fought in."
Here Rich is not talking about some external war, but a very personal war, her war. As with the great Bhagavad Gita, where the warrior Arjuna turns in anguish to his spiritual guide Sri Krishna for answers while on the field of battle, this battlefield in Rich's poem is the war within, the struggle for self-mastery that every human being must wage. It is a mythic war, inward toward the true kernel of the self.
The criticism sometime leveled at Rich is that she is feminist and overly political. Of course, she does not endorse the images of a culture in which if you're white, male, heterosexual, there is the implication that you 'own' the world and you get to decide what's history, what's literature. She rightly disputes that wisdom. And it's also questionable how one can avoid making a political statement if you write serious poetry; almost everything one does or says has political undertones.
While this particular edition is OK, to contain 50 years worth of Rich's poetry in just one slender volume such as this does not really do her justice. The edition I own is "Poems Selected and New: 1950-1984". That is a much better collection. This edition, for example, contains a much-abbreviated version of Shooting Script, and other key poems have been cut out. For this reason, I recommend that you look for the 1984 version of this book.
11 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By Craig Werner
Format:Paperback
Adrienne Rich is anything but a knee jerk feminist propagandist. She's one of America's most important poets, and this volume charts the first part of her journey. What's most striking about Rich is her refusal to settle into any comfort zone: political, psychological, aesthetic. She is most certainly a poet with a strong public voice, but she uses that voice in a way that challenges all of us who care about the meaning of creativity in a democratic society. The early volumes collected her present Rich as a poet who has absolutely mastered the formal demands of modernist poetry; her peers are Yeats, Frost and W.H. Auden. But, responding to the constraints of life in 50s and early 60s America, she recreated herself in books like Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law and The Will to Change. She experiments with the radical politics and art forms of the 60s, engages in the battles against white supremacy, patriarchy, and moral complacency in all its forms. And at each turn, she examines her own premises and poetry with a seriousness akin to that of James Baldwin or Toni Morrison. But mostly, she writes poems that will sink in deep and repay renewed visits over the decades: "Diving into the Wreck," "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers," "The Burning of Paper Instead of Children," "21 Love Poems." Read her and you'll know what her critics are afraid of.
4 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I first posted this under "The School Among the Ruins" but it really belongs here:
In 1988 my ardent feminist girlfriend gave me a copy of "The Fact of a Doorframe" (the 1984 edition) and told me not to speak to her again until I finished reading it. This seemed an odd request, but since I really wanted to speak to her again, I read it. Rich's uncompromising passion not only moved me; it started a process that changed my view of the world and ended up changing my life. I guess you should expect that from a writer this powerful.
P.S. I particularly love "Your Native Land, Your Life", "The Dream of a Common Language", and "What is Found There". ("What is Found There" is supposed to be essays and letters but it seems like poetry to me.)
In 1988 my ardent feminist girlfriend gave me a copy of "The Fact of a Doorframe" (the 1984 edition) and told me not to speak to her again until I finished reading it. This seemed an odd request, but since I really wanted to speak to her again, I read it. Rich's uncompromising passion not only moved me; it started a process that changed my view of the world and ended up changing my life. I guess you should expect that from a writer this powerful.
P.S. I particularly love "Your Native Land, Your Life", "The Dream of a Common Language", and "What is Found There". ("What is Found There" is supposed to be essays and letters but it seems like poetry to me.)
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
She's playing tennis with the net down
Terrible feminist propaganda that trashes any and all men even if they consider themselves to be feminist. Read more
Published on April 25, 2004
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lovely, sharp language
I don't read poetry on a regular basis, but I loved this book of work by Adrienne Rich. Every time I page through it I find something new to catch my eye.
Published on April 6, 2004 by "wilfulcait"
3.0 out of 5 stars
3 stars but would I have ever cared
bla bla bla, poetry for the poet. Nothing to interesting for college students and yet this author is touring colleges like the Grateful Dead in its hayday. Read more
Published on August 12, 2003 by Objective if the movie is good in my opinion
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