Poetry As Social Challenge in Term Paper

At this point, the emerging women's movement during the 1960s provided Rich with the ratification she needed. The movement articulated the very feelings of conflict she was experiencing on a personal, sexual and cultural level. This also allowed her to participate in a dialogue with her environment via the platform developed by the social movements arising during this time. Whereas her first poetry was therefore formal and unemotional, both her own development and that in the society of time allowed her poetry to become more uniquely her own than it ever was before. It is from this platform that Rich was able to begin writing poetry not only to voice her own experiences and feelings, but also to inspire others to abandon social complacency.

Another important development in Rich's life is her family's movement to New York in 1966. Here she began to teach in a remedial English program for the disadvantaged, including the poor, black and third world students wishing to enter college. This brought her into contact with the political issue of cultural codes of expression, language and power. These are also issues that resonated strongly with the themes of her work.

In terms of artistic influence, Rich exchanged her past formal influences for works such as those by James Baldwin and Simone de Beauvoir. She became increasingly involved in the women's movement during this time, as its investigations into social injustice, inequality and oppression gave voice to her feelings, even while she was able to use them as a platform for her work.

Adrienne Richs poetry can then be said to be created at exactly the correct time. Because her words are so powerful, she became one of the most compelling voices for the women's movement during this time. Like Hughes, Rich also argued against the separation of the poet's life from his or her work. Her work is powerful because it is so intensely personal.The deep meaning that the themes and connections of her poetry have for her is clear in the poetry itself. It is this paradigm that serves to make her a powerfully inspiring voice.

To emphasize the importance of the poet's connection with his or her work, Rich began to date her poems in 1956 (Pope). In terms of style, she also began to incorporate contemporary rhythms and themes from other art forms. For Rich, the most inspiring force in this regard was the cinema, in which she found the techniques of jump cuts and collage to be the most inspiring. Rich and the society around her developed concomitantly to become an inspiring force against the desolation and complacence instilled by the patriarchic paradigm.

Sources

Academy of American Poets. "Langston Hughes." 1997-2007. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/83

Academy of American Poets. "Adrienne Rich." 1997-2007. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/49

Books and Writers. "Langston Hughes (1902-1967). http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/lhughes.htm

Pope, Deborah. "Rich's Life and Career." From the Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States. Copyright © 1995 by Oxford University Press. Available online: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/rich/bio.htm

Rampersad, Arnold. "Hughes's Life and Career." From the Oxford Companion to African-American Literature. Copyright © 1997 by Oxford University Press. Available online: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/hughes/life.htm.....