I'm not up to full Blog Speed yet so please forgive my plodding pace whilst I ease myself back into training.
It's time for a new poem in Life's Candle ( which is down there in the right hand column) & the one I would like to share with you is a poem that is embedded in my mind. 'Aunt Jennifer's Tigers' by Adrienne Rich is short, but it will say a multitude of things to you.
A lot of people have written thousands of words about this poem - some good, but much twaddle. I no longer spend much time reading 'lit.crit.' because my life is getting shorter by the minute plus I have this egotistical habit of knowing what I myself think. In any case, no matter what is written, no essay will ever be as powerful as this poem.
I always think of Rousseau's painting when I read about Aunt Jennifer. The tiger doesn't remotely resemble the imagery of the poem, but the expression of the painting tolls a bell I can't ignore. Anxiety?
Henri Rousseau 'Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!) 1891
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3 comments:
wow that is amazing! I love that!
Thank you for posting great poetry for us to think about! I love that one---it conjurs so many images (and actually memories of my grandmother's needlework.)
Lula could have an up and coming career in practical interior design! Glad you're back to blogging, Jennifer.
Elizabeth,
It's SO lovely to 'see' you again :-)
I'm delighted that you love this poem too. For me it's a sticker - by which I mean it's stuck in my mind. I think poetry really does sustain you when this happens. When say, you're feeling low or anxious, a line from a poem will appear in your mind & then you know that you're not the only person to have felt this way.
I had to persevere with the modern poets, but now I'm so glad that I did.
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