Poetry Chapter 6 - Aunt Jennifers Tigers

Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers is a famous poem by poet Adrienne Rich. To help students such as you understand this poem better, we have come up with Class 12 English NCERT Solutions- Flamingo- Chapter 6: Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers. These solutions provided by UrbanPro will explain this poem’s feminist concerns through the personification of Aunt Jennifer and her tigers. The poet speaks about the current modern world where the males still hold the most dominating power in society. Adrienne Rich uses the characters to depict herself from the shackles of this prejudice.

Summary

Aunt Jennifer’s tigers prance across a screen,

Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.

They do not fear the men beneath the tree;

They pace in sleek chivalric certainty

In the first stanza, the poet explains that Aunt Jennifer is making a piece of cloth with embroidery over it. The fabric is possibly a wall hanging or a table-cloth. She has embroidered a tiger running through the jungle, perceived to be afraid of men that populate the world.

Aunt Jennifer pictures the tiger to be as bright as topaz that shines in the backdrop of the green jungle. This bright glow depicts the fearlessness and elegance of men. Therefore, in this poem, it has been interpreted that Aunt Jennifer, who is sewing a piece of cloth, is leading an unhappy married life.

Aunt Jennifer’s fingers fluttering through her wool

Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.

The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band

Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand

In the second stanza, Aunt Jennifer is portrayed to be trembling while making the piece of cloth. The wedding ring on her fingers feels very heavy to her. This depicts the fear she has for her husband, the poets, “Uncle”. Her husband has a very dominating behaviour, which makes her scared of doing embroidery work.

The wedding ring on her fingers feels heavy like a weighty burden. This portrays Aunt Jennifer to be suffering from an unhappy marriage.

When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie

Still ringed with ordeals, she was mastered by.

The tigers in the panel that she made

Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

The third stanza depicts the desire of Aunt Jennifer to break free from this male-dominating world and be like a tiger, fearless and beautiful. But unfortunately, since society and the world itself is patriarchal, this dream seems to impossible for her, and she, therefore, finds death to be the only escape.

Themes

Aunt Jennifer has many bad experiences and memories related to her wedding ring, due to her unhappy marriage, the dominating behaviour of her husband, and the male population in general in society. Death is viewed as a positive light in this context, as it is the only way for Aunt Jennifer to escape from this patriarchal society and be free. However, she will still be carrying the wedding ring, which will always remain as a burden to her, and will remind her of the vileness of this world that she experienced throughout her marriage.

Literary Devices

The rhyming style of this poem is AABB, followed throughout all the stanzas. Alliterations, Anaphors, and Metaphors have been used multiple times in this poem.

To find answers to all your questions related to this poem and to score well in your upcoming exams, you can refer to Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers NCERT Solutions and Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers Questions and Answers NCERT.