Adrienne Rich was a prolific writer of both poetry and prose. In this lesson plan, selections spanning the course of her career have been chosen to give students a taste of her work and an idea of what issues were most important to her.
Critics and readers alike see Rich's works as explorations issues of identity, sexuality, and politics. Her poetic accomplishments reflected her life-long pursuit of social justice, her role in the anti-war movement, and her radical feminism. Despite the weighty topics her writings explore, Rich is also well known for using cadences of everyday speech, enjambment, and irregular line and stanza lengths, working to turn what has traditionally been...