Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1951

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Poem Analysis

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Further Reading & Resources

Related Poems

“Diving into the Wreck” by Adrienne Rich (1973)

“Diving into the Wreck” is probably Rich’s most famous poem. Written at the high point in her career, it is important to compare this poem’s ideas with those in “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers.” Rich delves into sexuality and identity; this poem can also be interpreted as examining her divorce and her feelings about her own experience with marriage. In this sense, this poem is a matured continuation of the themes put forward in her early work.

“Lullaby” by W. H. Auden (1940)

Though Rich spent much of her career trying to counter Auden’s praise of her work as controlled and modest, Auden certainly influenced Rich’s early work. A poet needs to appeal to the judge’s poetic taste to win a prestigious early award. Auden’s preference for Rich’s A Change of World in the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award shows his influence on her work. Auden wrote “Lullaby” shortly after meeting his lifelong partner, Chester Kallman, and celebrates the love and devotion between two men. Auden was openly gay in a time in America when being gay could cost everything. Rich followed Auden’s lead in her own career as a proud lesbian.

“Recreation” by Audre Lourde (1997)

Lourde and Rich were close friends and moved in the same activist circles in the 1970s. Lourde’s writing contradicts Rich’s, though, since she writes from a more inclusive and intersectional version of radical feminism. This poem is useful in context of Rich’s work because it is a love poem about women coming together and drawing inspiration from each other’s bodies; in this way, it offers an answer to the central conflict in “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers.”

Further Literary Resources

“Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” by Adrienne Rich (1980)

This essay is often taught in literature and gender studies courses as part of the rigorous discourse about LGBTQ participation in feminism. Its concepts have found a special resurgence with the internet and social media—with the term comphet going viral. Rich makes compelling arguments about how society prioritizes heterosexuality as the norm, leading to patriarchal violence against women, especially women who identify as not straight. At the time, this essay was controversial because heterosexual feminists found the argument ostracizing. Several decades after its publication, the essay is controversial because Rich’s views on sex/gender are outdated (and were challenged even in the 1980s).

“How social media challenged Compulsory Heterosexuality and gave lesbians a fresh start” by Carmen Mas Franco (2021)

Franco gives a nuanced exploration of Rich’s famous essay and how it can be read today. In the article, Franco argues that “Compulsory Heterosexuality” remains essential reading for queer communities and helped her come out as a lesbian. She further argues that readers can enjoy Rich’s writing and feel connected with it while challenging some of her trans-exclusionary opinions. The essay reminds us that Rich was both complex and a product of her time and place in society. Though she could have worked against the gender essentialism popular in Second Wave feminist discourse (like her colleagues bell hooks and Audre Lourde), her opinions in the 1980s do not define her entire career.

“The Many Lives of Adrienne Rich” by Stephanie Burt (2020)

Burt’s tribute to Rich—written nearly a decade after her death—shows the complex and often conflicted nature of Rich’s life and writing. The article covers her personal life and career, touching on her internal conflicts with identity. It helps contextualize the topics in her writing and the choices she made as a poet and essayist.