When still a senior at Radcliffe, Adrienne Rich was selected as a Yale Younger Poet. The judge, W.H. Auden, wrote the introduction to her first book of poems. Thus Rich's career was launched by one of the most distinguished poets of the twentieth century, someone Rich herself admired and emulated. Adrienne Rich's early mentors were men, and her early poetry consequently adopted a strong male persona. In her development as artist, woman, and activist, however, Rich emerged as a leading voice of modern feminism--a voice which rejects a male-dominated world, forcing new definitions of power, new possibilities for women, and profound repercussions for society.In The Aesthetics of Power, Claire Keyes examines the shape and scope of Rich's poetry as it applies to Rich's female aesthetic. Keyes uncovers the process by which Rich embraces, then rejects, accepted uses of power, achieving a vision of beneficent female power. In her early poems, Adrienne Rich accepts certain traditions associated with the divisions of power according to sex. Later, Rich continually defines and redefines power until she can reject power-as-force (patriarchal power) for the power-to-transform, which, for her, is the truly significant and essential power.Surveying Rich's poetry and prose from 1951 to the present, this book traces the development of Adrienne Rich's new understanding of the power of the poet and the power of woman. Sharing Rich's feminist sensibilities, yet at times critical of her more radical positions, Claire Keyes draws a portrait of an artist who was molded by the complex political and social climate of post-World War II America. It is a portrait that reveals the creative growth of an artist, and the personal growth of a powerful and controversial woman.

The Aesthetics of Power: The Poetry of Adrienne Rich

Literature & Fiction

Keyes, Claire

History & Criticism

Univ of Georgia Pr

When still a senior at Radcliffe, Adrienne Rich was selected as a Yale Younger Poet. The judge, W.H. Auden, wrote the introduction to her first book of poems. Thus Rich's career was launched by one of the most distinguished poets of the twentieth century, someone Rich herself admired and emulated. Adrienne Rich's early mentors were men, and her early poetry consequently adopted a strong male persona. In her development as artist, woman, and activist, however, Rich emerged as a leading voice of modern feminism―a voice which rejects a male-dominated world, forcing new definitions of power, new possibilities for women, and profound repercussions for society. In The Aesthetics of Power, Claire Keyes examines the shape and scope of Rich's poetry as it applies to Rich's female aesthetic. Keyes uncovers the process by which Rich embraces, then rejects, accepted uses of power, achieving a vision of beneficent female power. In her early poems, Adrienne Rich accepts certain traditions associated with the divisions of power according to sex. Later, Rich continually defines and redefines power until she can reject power-as-force (patriarchal power) for the power-to-transform, which, for her, is the truly significant and essential power. Surveying Rich's poetry and prose from 1951 to the present, this book traces the development of Adrienne Rich's new understanding of the power of the poet and the power of woman. Sharing Rich's feminist sensibilities, yet at times critical of her more radical positions, Claire Keyes draws a portrait of an artist who was molded by the complex political and social climate of post-World War II America. It is a portrait that reveals the creative growth of an artist, and the personal growth of a powerful and controversial woman.

University of Georgia Press

Rising and Falling was the winning manuscript in the 1999 Poetry Chapbook Competition sponsored by Columbine Poets of Denver, Colorado. The poems are all centered around the theme of rising and falling, literally, figuratively and spiritually.  Their geography varies from New England to Ireland and from Greece to Savannah, Georgia.  The volume coheres in its gestures to connect the rhythms of experience, whatever they may be.

Rising and Falling

Riverstone Press

"We live dangerously," Claire Keyes writes in her incisive collection WHAT DIAMONDS CAN DO. And we find out what they can do: gleam; focus sharply; cut. These poems are diamond-like in their gloss, density, and richness, evoking life's dangers and joys without fear.

What Diamonds Can Do

Poetry

WordTech Communications LLC

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Keyes, Claire. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Keyes, Claire

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Keyes, Claire. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Aesthetics of Power: The Poetry of Adrienne Rich

The Aesthetics of Power: The Poetry of Adrienne Rich

Rising and Falling

What Diamonds Can Do