Knitting Tigers or Hidden Message? Wider Reading (Poetry) 11: Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

"Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" is a poem by Adrienne Rich. Rich was an American poet and feminist, and is widely considered to be one of the most influential and widely read poets of the 20th Century. She was commended by the famous poet W.H. Auden, and is frequently credited with bringing the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of the poetic community. Rich also acknowledged that lesbianism was, for her, as much a political issue as a personal one.

This poem is a prime example of Rich's talent and strong feelings about treatment of women. She uses strong imagery such as "bright topaz denizens of a world of green" to initially convey the image of a woman embroidering a fancy tapestry. However, underneath the initial aesthetic facade lie two stanzas depicting a scared and oppressed woman, frantically embroidering under the domineering weight of her husband. This atmosphere of male oppression in conveyed through adjectives such as "massive," "terrified," and "heavily."

It seems that Aunt Jennifer is unable to form an identity for herself, so it attempting to create one through her tapestry, in which she embroiders images of strong, colourful, powerful cats, which she undoubtedly wishes she could be. And it seems that she has succeeded, as, in the last stanza of this poem which weaves words as one weaves thread, Rich tells us that her tigers will survive, even after the terrified woman who created them has gone.

Aunt Jennifer's Tigers - Identity Quotations

A Sharp Chain in the Mouth... Wider Reading (Drama) 10: Equus

When a deranged boy, Alan Strang, blinds six horses with a metal spike he is sentenced to psychiatric treatment. Dr Dysart is the man given the task of uncovering what happened the night Strang committed his crime, but in doing so will open up his own wounds. For Dysart struggles to define sanity, and justify his marriage, his career, and his life of normality; ultimately he must ask himself: is it patient of psychiatrist whose life is being laid bare? The most shocking play of its day, Equus uses an act of violence to explore faith, insanity, and how the materialism of modern life can destroy humanity's capacity for pain and passion.

In his play, Peter Shaffer explores many themes which can be related to the struggle for identity. The foremost of these is the struggle for religious identity experienced by Alan Strang. Alan and his family's relations are primarily influenced and disturbed by their very different points of view concerning religion and divinity. His mother is very religious, and effectively forces Alan to accept it by reading the Bible to him every night. In contrast, his father shuns religion. Alan himself subscribes to neither of these beliefs; his own occupy him far more. Indeed, many of his actions, including those concerning horses, resemble rites of passage.

While Alan's obsession with horses and "Equus" borders on the fanatically religious, a sexual element is also present. It seems that his worship of the equine is an attempt to placate his own muddled feelings, such as his inability to perform sexually with his girlfriend. This failed encounter in the stable is primarily what leads to his attack on the horses, blinding them as he believes they condemn him for his sexual activity. Sexuality in this play represents passion, and it is this passion for life which Alan gains in his worship, which differentiates him so greatly from his psychiatrist Dysart, who is ensnared by society. Dysart realizes the barenness of his life, but it is only when faced with Alan as a passionate worshipper that he understands what he does not possess.

Equus - Identity Quotations

No Place for Us My Dear... Wider Reading (Poetry) 9: Refugee Blues

In his poem, W.H.Auden transcribes the heartrending lament of two refugees who have fled their country in the face of Hitler and his growing influence. The couple are now ostracized within an unfamiliar community.

Throughout his poem, Auden weaves an increasing sense of not belonging, with the feeling of isolation magnified by imagery such as "I saw a door opened and a cat let in," along with short, disconnected stanzas.

Prevalent too is the more direct poke at the poor treatment inflicted on immigrants, both today, then, and throughout history. Our narrator is isolated within the community and fears for their own safety.

It seems that, in fleeing one kind of torment, namely a corrupt nation, they have discovered another in the form of an intolerant society.

Refugee Blues - Identity Quotations

Thoughtful Mr Fox. Wider Reading (Poetry) 8: The Thought-Fox

Ted Hughes was an English poet, born in 1930. He was the Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death in 1998, and was married to the American poet Sylvia Plath until her famous oven-suicide. Many people, including numerous feminists, claim he was responsible for her death, though Hughes himself refused to take any part in the debate.

"The Thought-Fox" is the developed offspring of Hughes' earlier work, much of which is rooted in nature and concerns the innocent savagery of animals. The poem is essentially a poem about writing a poem. The fox appears in the clearing like an idea entering the head, and its footprints left in the snow appear as writing on the page. At first it is blurred and undefined, like an idea, and the writer's task is to coax it out and develop it. The imagery of this poem causes the reader to picture the fox actually jumping through the eyes of the poet. This means that the fox enters the cavern of the mind as it would enter its own lair, bringing with it the hot animal smell of its body and all the excitement and triumph of the achieved vision.

The primary identity struggle here is the individual struggle of the writer, as his identity seems to be second to poetic inspiration, which fills the head as effectively as snow fills a clearing. The "fox" described within appears to have its own intuitive, sensual identity which the writer himself cannot possess.

The Thought-Fox Identity Quotations