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