Denton Independent School District / Overview



Last name, Student PhillipsIB English III – A4December 28, 2012 IOP Formal OutlineThesis: Though Adrienne Rich started off writing in a more conservative poetic style, she gradually came to adopt the powerful, charged, yet personal and intimate poetic style she is remembered for today, a transformation that is best reflected by changes in her usage of structure (meter, rhyme scheme, and enjambment) from “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”, an early poem, to “Diving into the Wreck”, one of her later works.Context – Brief explanation of Rich’s life and identity as a poet and activist, using the Gale resource Adrienne Rich by Michael J. Tyrkus and Michael Bronski as primary source for biographical informationTopic Sentence – Rich viewed her initial poetry with a certain amount of dissatisfaction, and only felt that she had found her voice as a poet later on in her career, after she had undergone the stylistic transformations that caused her poetry to be more personal and politically chargedRich described her early poetry as, “at best, facile and ungrounded imitations of other poets …. an exercise in style” (Rizza).This quote by Rich shows that she is well-aware of her transformation as a poet, and approved of it. One can gather that she was discontented with these initial poems and struggled to find her identity as a poet by experimenting with different poetic devices, such as structural devices.When viewed as an ars poetica, “Diving into the Wreck” can be interpreted as Rich narrating her journey from the early days of nondescript poetry to her discovery of her own distinctive style, a discovery she notes with great happiness and relief. At the end, the speaker thoughts are marked by self-realization – “I am she, I am he” (line 71). Rich has found her distinctive voice by “diving into the wreck”, which is the canon of poetry, and emerging with her unique personal ic Sentence: Rich’s poems “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” and “Diving into the Wreck”, when compared stylistically, exemplify Rich’s development in her usage of structural devicesShow timeline of Rich’s life on PowerPoint, which supports the following points:“Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” is from Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law, Rich’s third book of poetry. In it, Rich began to “shift away from her hallmarks of formalism and emotional control” (Pope), exploring themes that were closer to her heart, such as oppression faced by women, and experimenting with structural devices “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” was written too early in Rich’s career to reflect the full extent of her stylistic transformation. However, it represents a beginning point from which her usage of poetic devices became increasingly liberal, as her works took on greater emotion and more controversial themesRefer back to timeline of Rich’s life on PowerPoint, which also supports these points:“Diving into the Wreck” was written in 1971, and is considered one of Rich’s defining works. Stylistically, it reflects Rich’s signature liberal use of structural devices to express great emotion and powerful, political themes.It was written after 1956, the year in which Rich began dating her poetry, because she wanted to emphasize the connection between her works and the events going on in her life as she was writing them. Rich “stopped using regular stanzas, meters, and rhymes in the 1950s, and since then … associated looser poetic forms with greater artistic freedom” ( HYPERLINK "" LitFinder Contemporary Collection). Thus, “Diving into the Wreck” represents a point when Rich had fully realized her identity as a writer and had shifted into the more structurally liberal, emotional poetry that she gained renown for.These facts make the two poems ideal for a comparison that reflects Rich’s poetic developmentTopic Sentence: In “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”, Rich’s usage of structural devices is fairly traditionalShow annotated copy of “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” on PowerPoint. The poem will be marked for meter, rhyme scheme, and various other structural features such as lines per stanza. The following facts on structure will become patent upon observation of the annotated poem:The meter is iambic pentameter, known for being one of the most commonly used meters in traditional verse. It is a fairly basic meter, and there are no changes in meter throughout the poem. Iambic pentameter remains constant.The rhyme scheme, too, is unvarying: throughout the poem: it is aabbccddeeff. Enjambment exists, but it is such that it is does not have effect on the reading of the poem, because of the traditional unvarying rhyme schemeLine length does not varyThere are three stanzas of four lines each, so there is no variation there, eitherThere are no caesurasIn addition to having closed form structurally, the poem is thematically accessible. Its main idea is clear, and the tone and mood remain fairly similar throughout. Rich does not take much of a risk with the poem ic Sentence: Unlike “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”, in “Diving into the Wreck”, Rich takes great liberty with structural devices, which lends the poem a much more emotional, intimate feel.Show annotated copy of “Diving into the Wreck” on PowerPoint. The poem will be marked for meter, rhyme scheme, and other structural features, so that the following facts on structure are made obviousMeter, rhyme scheme, line length, rhythm, and stanza length all vary greatly in the poemEnjambment and caesuras are found throughout the poem. They lend emotion to the poem and develop mood.Rich’s stylistic freedom in “Diving into the Wreck” allows expression of a greater range of emotion and subtlety in tone and mood. Rich takes a risk structurally, and employs symbolism and connotation more heavily, which lends itself well to the complex, multilayered meaning of the poem. In addition to this, the poem is much more intimate than “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”, because the speaker speaks in the first person, so the reader becomes thoroughly entrenched in the action of the poem. The increased intimacy, subtlety, thematic associations, and emotional depth of this poem represent a significant difference from “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”, and they largely arise from Rich’s liberal use of structural devices.ConclusionWorks CitedRizza, Michael James. "The ‘split' in Aunt Jennifer's Tigers." The Explicator 67.1 (2008): 63+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 28 Dec. 2013. "Adrienne Rich." Gay & Lesbian Biography. Ed. Michael J. Tyrkus and Michael Bronski. Detroit: St. James Press, 1997. Literature Resource Center. Web. 28 Dec. 2013. Nelson, Cary. "Rich's Life and Career--by Deborah Pope." Modern American Poetry - Adrienne Rich. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. <;. Rich, Adrienne. "'Aunt Jennifer's Tigers." SFGate: San Francisco Bay Area - News, Sports, Business, Entertainment, Classifieds - SFGate. San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Mar. 2012. Web. 23 Jan. 2013. <;. Rich, Adrienne. "Diving Into the Wreck." . The Academy of American Poets, n.d. 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