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Adrienne Rich Quotes

Poet

Adrienne Rich was an American poet known for her profound poetry and feminist perspective. Her works explored themes such as gender, politics, and social justice, having a profound impact on contemporary poetry.

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Famous Adrienne Rich Quotes

“[The poet] is endowed to speak for those who do not have the gift of language, or to see for those who - for whatever reasons - are less conscious of what they are living through. It is as though the risks of the poet's existence can be put to some use beyond her own survival.”

Reason Use Speak Language Existence Risk Poet Survival Conscious

Author:Adrienne Rich

“I do not think [poetry] is more, or less, necessary than food, shelter, health, education, decent working conditions. It is as necessary.”

Thinking Poetry Conditions Poet Decent Poetry Is Shelter Health Education Working Conditions

Book:What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics (Expanded Edition)

Source: What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics (Expanded Edition)

“The necessity of poetry has to be stated over and over, but only to those who have reason to fear its power, or those who still believe that language is 'only words' and that an old language is good enough for our descriptions of the world we are trying to transform.”

World Trying Believe Stills Reason Enough Poetry Language Poet Description Good Enough Social Change

Book:On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose 1966-1978

Source: On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose 1966-1978

“Can you remember? when we thought the poets taught how to live?”

Life Remember Poetry Taught Poet Remember When

Book:Your Native Land, Your Life

Source: Your Native Land, Your Life

“... passion for survival is the great theme of women's poetry.”

Poetry Passion Poet Survival Theme

Book:On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose 1966-1978

Source: On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose 1966-1978

“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand--a center of gravity.”

Source: What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics (Expanded Edition)

“... in a history of spiritual rupture, a social compact built on fantasy and collective secrets, poetry becomes more necessary than ever: it keeps the underground aquifers flowing; it is the liquid voice that can wear through stone.”

Spiritual Spirit Poetry Social Voice Secret Fantasy Poet Built Stones Collectives Poetry Is Liquid Compact Rupture Aquifers

Book:What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics (Expanded Edition)

Source: What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics (Expanded Edition)

“As a very young poet, I had been brought up on that dogma that politics was bad for poetry.”

Young Poet Dogma

Author:Adrienne Rich

“Over many years so many poets have touched my imagination and opened paths for me - it hardly makes sense to list them. I have always read a great deal of poetry.”

Years Imagination Deals Path Poet Lists Make Sense Touched My Imagination

Author:Adrienne Rich

“I think poets should work in the non-literary, non-academic world, get to know more than a workshop or a university.”

Thinking Knows World Should Poet University Academic Workshops

Author:Adrienne Rich

“In 1945, just at the end of World War II, the American poet Muriel Rukeyser wrote a remarkable book called The Life of Poetry. In it she says that on any particular day in the world, if poetry ceased to exist, it would immediately be reinvented on that same day.”

Ifs World Book War Ends Particular Poet War Of The Worlds Remarkable World War Ii World War I

Author:Adrienne Rich

“I think many poets, including myself, write both for the voice and for the page. I certainly write for the person alone in the library, who pulls down a book and it opens to a poem. I am also very conscious of what it means to read these poems aloud.”

Thinking Writing Mean Persons Book Voice Poet Pages Conscious Library Including

Author:Adrienne Rich

“You have to give your art everything you can - I don't mean only writing, but studying other poets and poetics, thinking, reading what poets have written other than their poetry.”

Thinking Giving Writing Mean Art Reading Study Written Poet

Author:Adrienne Rich

About the Author

Born: May 16, 1929
Died: March 27, 2012
Known for: Poet
Quotes: 327

Books & Sources

Your Native Land, Your LifeRelated source material

Of woman born motherhood as experience and institutionRelated source material

Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and InstitutionRelated source material

Arts of the Possible: Essays and ConversationsRelated source material

On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose 1966-1978Related source material

What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics (Expanded Edition)Related source material

Diving Into the WreckRelated source material

The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-1977Related source material

Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose 1979-1985Related source material

On Lies, Secrets, and Silence. Selected Prose 1966-1978Related source material

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