Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

Adrienne Rich - Coggle Diagram

- - - - 'Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen, / Bright topaz denizen of a world of green'
      - The lively verb 'prance' depicts the bouncing gait of the tigers, while the contrast of deep yellow 'topaz' and green helps us to imagine the tigers' vibrant colouring against the enveloping green backdrop of a jungle.
    - - ‘Bright topaz denizens of a world of green'
      - Here, Rich compares the vibrant yellow of the tigers' fur to the identical rich mustard tones of a topaz gem, so we can imagine their vivid colouring easily. This metaphor also emphasises the tigers' value, as they are likened to a precious gemstone.
    - - 'Aunt Jennifer's fingers fluttering through her wool/ Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.’
      - The alliteration of 'f' draws our attention to Aunt Jennifer's 'fluttering' fingers, which are moving quickly yet anxiously. It also links to 'Find', emphasising the difficulty she is having with her task.
    - - ‘They pace in sleek chivalric certainty’
      - The elegant sibilance here conveys the grace and effortless movement of the dignified tigers.
- - - - ‘I have seen the mob of late/ Standing sullen in the square/ Gazing with a sullen stare'
      - The sibilance here sounds sulky, even childish. This helps to convey the uncle’s disdain for the mob
- - - - ‘bombarded'
      - 'bombard' means to attack continuously with bombs, shells, or other missiles, reminding us that Curie's discoveries would later aid scientists develop the first nuclear mb, it is also a scientific term that means to direct a high-speed stream of particles at a substance. By exposing herself to the radioactive elements of radium and polonium, that is exactly what Curie was unwittingly doing.
    - - 'She died a famous woman denying/her wounds/ denying/ her wounds came from the same source as her power.’
      - The word 'wounds' makes us think of injuries, cuts, and lacerations, but also of hurt, grief and anguish. By repeating it, Rich emphasises Marie Curie's emotional and physical suffering, but also the wounds we all carry.
- - - - ‘like the Algerian/ who has walked from his village, burning// his whole body a cloud of pain and there are no words for this// except himself’
      - This astonishing simile illustrates Rich's point about the oppressor's language only serving the oppressor. Just as this poor man can only show his burned body to communicate his pain, so too can the pain of the wounded in an oppressed culture be seen, but not heard.
    - - ‘his whole body a cloud of pain'
      - This unsettling metaphor compares the man's severely burned body to a cloud. This helps to convey how the burns envelop his entire body and suggests that his body is still singed and smoking.
    - - 'lies'
      - Lies are something that most people find abhorrent. Lies are false and deceptive. By calling 'the oppressor's language' a 'knot of lies', Rich emphasises how useless language is to articulate the experiences of those who did not create the language in the first place.
- - - - ‘your eyes are stars of a different magnitude/ they reflect lights that spell out: EXIT'
      - This unusual image captures the moment when the exit sign is reflected in the man's eyes. It is also appropriate because he has already left this relationship emotionally.
    - - ‘The language of love-letters, of suicide notes'
      - This startling line encompasses Rich's entire relationship with Alfred Conrad, which began with love letters and ended with a suicide note. By placing these two phrases so closely together, Rich reminds us that both writings would contain the most intense kinds of human emotion possible.
    - - 'bombs'
      - 'Bomb' is a word that has the power to strike terror in our hearts. We see the word and think of explosions, deaths, terrorists, and wars. There are no positive connotations to this word, and in the context of assessing a relationship, this word suggests it will explode and cause emotional devastation.
    - - 'surrounded by a silence// that sounds like the silence of the place/ except that it came with us/ and is familiar’
      - Silence is a powerful word. The first 'silence' refers to the eerie silence of a ghost-town. The second silence refers to the deep silence between this couple, representing all the things they cannot say to one another. The repetition of this potent word helps to establish the inability of this couple to truly communicate anymore.