Aunt Jeniffer's tigers
From ZuluNotes - Free Leaving Cert Notes
Contents |
Poem
Stanza One
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.
Stanza 2
Aunt Jennifer's finger fluttering through her wool 5
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.
Stanza 3
When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by. 10
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.
Synopsis
Stanza One The first stanza describes the screen of tigers that the aunt has knitted. The tigers' youthful energy is emphasised in them 'prancing across the screen' and the fact 'they do not fear the men beneath the tree' symbolises that the tigers have confidence.
Stanza Two This is all in contrast to the Aunt whose fingers 'flutter' while knitting. This suggests her fraility, unlike the youthful tigers. The Aunt also has the burden of Uncle's wedding band upon her hand 'weighed down by uncles wedding band'. Here Rich is suggesting that the constraints of marriage hold women back in life and makes things harder to do, 'finding the knitting needle hard to pull'.
Stanza Three Now the Aunt has died, however the tigers she knitted will still exist. Even though the aunt is dead, she is still terrified and mastered by her marriage's 'ordeals' which are represented by her wedding ring. In contrast to the tigers, they will never be afriad or mastered and will carry on living 'proud and unafraid'
Analysis
Stanza One The first stanza describes the screen the aunt has knitted: ‘Aunt Jennifer’s tigers prance across the screen / Bright topaz denizens of a world of green’.The tigers are depicted as ‘bright’ and shining, their fur a glowing shade of ‘topaz’. The fact that they ‘prance’ through their jungle environment emphasises not only their youthful energy but also their confidence that they are masters of this green domain. Their ‘sleek’ powerful bodies move with ‘certainty’, with an arrogance that is reminiscent of a mediaeval lord on horseback. (This comparison is suggested by Rich’s use of the word ‘chivalric’ to describe the tigers’ pacing).They have no fear of the human beings the aunt has also included in the screen:‘They do not fear the men beneath the tree’.
Stanza Two There is a marked contrast between these powerful, confident beasts and the weak and wasted woman who has knitted them. Aunt Jennifer’s fingers ‘flutter’ as she knits, indicating that she has the shaking hands of an old woman: ‘Aunt Jennifer’s fingers fluttering through her wool / Find even the ivory needle hard to pull’. She is so weak that even the act of knitting is a strain to her. The hand she knits with seems weighed down by her wedding ring:‘The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band / Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand’. This suggests that much of Aunt Jennifer’s weariness stems from the fact that she is married. (Marriage, it is important to note, is often portrayed in an extremely negative light in Rich’s work). It is years of being married to her husband as much as old age itself that has left her weak and weary.
Stanza Three This stanza imagines the situation after Aunt Jennifer’s death.The Aunt, of course, will be lying dead in her grave. The tigers she knitted, however, will still exist. Their grandeur will still be visible to all who see the panel she so artfully constructed: ‘The tigers in the panel that she made / Will go on prancing’.Aunt Jennifer, according to the speaker, has been terrified and mastered by her marriage, by the ‘ordeals’ of marriage.These ordeals are represented by her wedding ring: ‘her terrified hands will lie / Still ringed by ordeals she was mastered by’. In contrast the tigers she knitted will be neither afraid of nor ‘mastered’ by anything. Instead they will live on,‘proud and unafraid’, just as Aunt Jennifer knitted them.
Themes
Marriage As with so many of Rich’s poems ‘Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers’ presents an extremely negative view of marriage. Marriage is presented as an ‘ordeal’ through which women are controlled and ‘mastered’ by their husbands. Aunt Jennifer, it seems, has been kept down and oppressed by marriage, a fact symbolised by the ‘wedding band’ that weighs so heavily on her finger. A similar view of marriage as an institution that oppresses and enslaves women can be seen in ‘From a Survivor’ and ‘Trying to Talk with a Man’. It is also hinted at in ‘Living in Sin’, though the couple in that poem are not actually married but are simply living together.
Art and Life ‘Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers’ also makes a powerful comparison between art and life.Though Aunt Jennifer is presented as a timid and oppressed individual the screen she so skilfully creates is brimming with colour, confidence and energy. The tigers she has knitted stalk powerfully and arrogantly through their jungle scene. The contrast with poor putupon Aunt Jennifer could not be clearer. The poem celebrates the ability of the artist or craftsman to create something powerful and glorious out of even the most dismal of circumstances. It also celebrates the ability of a work of art to outlive the person who created it.Though Aunt Jennifer will soon be dead, the screen she created will continue to exist. As long as these tigers continue to prance across their screen then a part of Aunt Jennifer will always be alive.
‘Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers’ was written when Rich was barely out of her teens.Yet her skill and expertise as a poet is very much in evidence. The poem is written in a perfect metrical form known as ‘iambic tetrameter’, which gives the poem its lilting regular rhythm. The poem has a perfectly regular rhyme scheme, rhyming AABB throughout. Rich’s skilful use of alliteration also contributes to the poem’s music.We see this in line 4 with its repeated ‘c’ sound (‘chivalric certainty’), in line 5 with its repeated ‘f’ sound (‘fingers fluttering’) and in line 8 with its repeated ‘h’ sound: ‘heavily…hand’).
