Adrienne Rich

It was in 1966 that Rich first became involved with the civil rights movement and began

moving within anti-war and feminist activist groups. The same year she

published, Necessities of Life. It was followed by another volume, Leaflets, in 1969.

The volume Necessities of Life showed a deepening subjectivity. But it did not mean

withdrawal to her like Emily Dickinson. Instead, Rich got into a more searching engagement

with people and with social forces.

She became involved in anti-war, civil rights and feminist activism. As a protest against the
Vietnam-American War in 1968, she signed the ‘Writers and Editors War Tax Protest’,
pledging not to pay taxes. Her writings reflected her radical views on politics. This
celebrated writer refused to accept the National Medal of Arts in protest to the House of
Representatives’ vote to end the National Endowment for the Arts in 1997.This illustrious
poet turned down an invitation from President Bush in 2003 for a poetry event at the White
House in protest to the Iraq war.

“Face to Face” shows a world still scarred by human relationships. The poem presents the
complex contradictions and conflict in human relationships.
Face to Face (From Necessities of Life – 1966)
Never to be lonely like that—
The Early American figure on the beach
in black coat and knee-breeches
scanning the didactic storm in privacy,

The first stanza presents a picture of a lonely man – one of the forefathers of America standing
on the seashore wearing a black coat and knee-breeches. The poet repeatedly uses images of
American historical past to give a contrast of what America had intended in the noble past
and how its actions at the time of the poem being written are completely different. The
American forefather looks at the stormy sea and reads a didactic message from it. The poet
implies that the founding fathers of America had pursued all morals purposes. The first line
hints that that loneliness of the founding fathers- a thirst for the ideal will never be found
again.

never to hear the prairie wolves

in their lunar hilarity
circling one’s little all, one’s claim
to be Law and Prophets

Like the first stanza this stanza too begins with a negation that the prairie wolves would no
longer roam the prairies with happiness. “lunar hilarity” conjures a picture of wolves howling
to each other in the night with a moon in the sky. They are circling round a prey- this is the
literal image. The last line is an ironic remark on the country’s claim to be Law and prophets.
The poet implies that the current politicians have become as wolves circling round a prey
however small and insignificant it is(one’s little all). By claiming that they are the holders and
implementers of law and prophets the politicians hunt people like wolves.

for all that lawlessness,

never to whet the appetite
weeks early, for a face, a hand
longed-for and dreaded—

The poet condemns the lawlessness of these politicians who should have maintained the law.
Like the first two stanzas here too she uses the word never- she wishes that the evil politicians
may never raise their appetite even weeks before hunting a face that they do not like. Here
the image of the wolves hunting is continued from the second stanza.

How people used to meet!

starved, intense, the old
Christmas gifts saved up till spring,
and the old plain words,
She contrasts the people from the past with the current politicians. She longs for the days
when people were honest and worked hard- were “starved, intense.” People spoke to each
other in simple words and Christmas gifts were so precious that they were saved for use till
the springtime. People valued each other’s relationships and also the hard earned fruits of
labour reflected in the Christmas gifts. Hence relationships were genuine and people easily
understood each other in the past.

and each with his God-given secret,

spelled out through months of snow and silence,
burning under the bleached scalp; behind dry lips
a loaded gun.

Here the longing for the past in the previous stanza continues. The founding fathers of
America had worked hard in snow and silence while the sun bleached their scalp. Each person
was precious having learnt the “God-given secret” through hard work in all climatic
conditions.
The last line could mean that they had to protect themselves with guns. It also refers to the
current superficial relationships where people are so cruel to teach other that even their lips
are as loaded guns, ready to hurt each other with words. The main theme of the poem is the
violence in human relationships. The poet elucidates this by contrasting relationships of the
past with the present ones.
Nightbreak (From Leaflets – 1969- poem written in 1968))
In her effort to create a new life, Rich establishes a fundamental connection between
herself and all people – hurt and destruction to others is hurt and destruction to herself. No
longer is she an isolated individual but part of the human family, and her identification with
oppressed people is intensified.
The structure of the poem supports its content. It is as jagged as anger is.

Something broken Something

I need by Someone
I love Next year
will I remember what
this anger unreal
yet
has to be gone through
The sun to set (Bible -Ephesians – 4:26,27 – Never let the sun
on this anger set on your anger or else you will give the
I go on devil a foothold)
head down into it
The mountain pulsing
Into the oildrum drops
the ball of fire

The poet begins with the statement that something is broken. What is broken is revealed only
at the end of the poem. The frailty of human relationships is hinted at here when she says it
is by someone she loves has broken it. She feels an unreal anger and is unable to overcome
it. She wonders if she will remember the anger the next year. At this we understand that it is
a permanently broken relationship. There is no hope of healing it. The last part of the stanza
alludes to the Biblical verse in Ephesians 4:26, 27 that we should overcome our anger before
sunset. She tries to follow the verse and drown her anger. But even while it goes down like
the sun between the mountains, it burns and hurts and sizzles like a ball of fire thrown into a
drum of oil.

Time is quite doesn’t break things

Or even wound Things are in danger
from people The frail clay lamps
of Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia – the ancient country
row on row under glass between the Euphrates and the
in the ethnological section Tigris rivers)
little hollows for dried-
up oil The refugees
with their identical
tales of escape I don’t collect
what I can’t use I need
what can be broken.

The second stanza connects with the first in that she had hoped to forget her anger in a year.
Time is quite and doesn’t break things. Only people break things. To support this argument
that “Things are in danger from people” she gives two examples. The first is the
Mesopotamian clay lamps collected in the museum. Noone can use them because they are
broken. Similarly the refugees are broken in that they have lost their individuality and all have
similar tales. The poet then dramatically declares that she will not collect what she can’t use.
She needs what is fragile (and breakable) not something harsh and already broken. This
means that she wants a relationship that can survive unbroken even though it is fragile.
In the bed the pieces fly together
and the rifts fill or else
my body is a list of wounds
symmetrically placed
a village
blown open by planes
that did not finish the job
The enemy has withdrawn
between raids become invisible
there are
no agencies
of relief
the darkness becomes utter
Sleep cracked and flaking
sifts over the shaken target

In the third stanza she presents her body to be a scene of a battlefield, The war has occurred,
and aeroplanes have bombarded the village (her body) but they did not finish the job. She is
alive but sorely wounded. The people in the village have no choice but to hide during the
aeroplane raids. Similarly the poet can only try to be invisible. She is the target and she cannot
even sleep for all the wounds she has suffered in her relationship. There is no relief.

What breaks is night

not day The white
scar splitting
over the east
The crack weeping
Time for the pieces
to move
dumbly back
toward each other.

In the third stanza the poet was trying to sleep in her bed. Here in the last stanza, the night
is over. The usual phrase in use is Break of Day. But here she says what breaks is night. The
breaking of the night is visible as a white scar in the sky, when light breaks through the clouds
in the east. Even the sky seems to weep with the poet. The last four lines signal it is time for
the poet to pull herself together. At night she had been so many pieces arranged on the bed.
Now she has to become one entity as the night is over. The words “dumbly back” indicate
that the poet is still dull and unhappy and goes through the job of waking up in the morning
in sadly and reluctantly.