In English we have been studying Adrienne Rich poems from our Leaving Cert. course. Here is the next one on the list, Aunt Jennifer's Tigers.
This poem was another of her earlier ones. It is very structured compared to her latter poems. There are three verses each with four lines and every two rhyming; "Aunt Jennifer's fingers fluttering through her wool, Find even the ivory needle hard to pull". It tells to me the story of her aunt and uncles relationship. She tells it though as though she has only realised the truth of their relationship, now that her aunt has died, she looks back on her memories with a different insight. She looks at the tigers on the canvas as if they're the tigers her aunt wanted to be.
"Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen, Bright topaz denizens of a world of green...They do not fear the men beneath the tree,....Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid." This is her description of the tigers she sees. She makes them sound like big, bright, proud animals, almost regal. They are on the top, not afraid of the world around them ("men beneath the tree"). They are everything her aunt wasn't on the outside, but this is what her aunt made to almost personify her inner feelings.
The reasons for her not been able to be like this is because her husband or Adrienne's Uncle; "...the men beneath the tree...the massive weight of Uncle's wedding band, Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand...her terrified hands will lie, Still ringed with the ordeals she was mastered by." These lines effectively discibe their relationship. The adjectives used are strong and hold a certain toward her Uncle, like "massive", "terrified", "heavily" and especially "mastered". It suggests that her aunt was in an abusive relationship, that the marriage was unbreakable for some reason another; "still ringed with ordeals...". That hate to her Uncle is also shown by the fact that she doesn't give him a name throughout the whole poem, unlike "Aunt Jennifer". He is just seen as the poacher beneath the trees or simply as Uncle.
But I can fell that Rich admired her Aunt Jennifer for going through with it till the end, staying strong. "Aunt Jennifer's fingers fluttering through her wool, Find even the ivory needle hard to pull." These lines so that her aunt still "fluttered" through life though it was hard; "ivory needle hard to pull". So despite all the troubles in her life Rich's aunt still kept going and dreamt of being like her tigers.
The last two lines "The tigers in the panel that she made, Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid", say to me her Aunt will go on prancing and unafraid in her own memories, so matter the still ringed terrified hands that rest now.
This poem was a good one because it told a message of hidden abuse that goes on in everyday lives. It's almost like she is trying to give out a message to two different sets of people; one being people like her aunt, the ones that suffer in silence, telling them to keep believing in those "tigers", be a tiger.; and two the people like her, that don't leave it to late to notice these situations, help. I like those messages, ones of hope and reality.
Thank you,Roisin.P.
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