Adrienne Rich (1929-2012) was for decades among the most influential writers of the feminist movement and one of the best-known American public intellectuals. Recipiant of the National Book Award and a MacArthur Fellowship, among numerous other honours. Widely read and hugely influential, her career as a poet, essayist, and feminist spanned seven decades.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Adrienne Rich whose poetry is "distinguished by an unswerving progressive vision and a dazzling, empathic ferocity" (The New York Times) was the singular voice of her generation. She brought discussions of gender, race and class to the forefront of poetical discourse, pushing formal boundaries and consistently examining both self and society. This volume traces the evolution of Rich's poetry, from her earliest, formally exact and decorous work to her later poems, which became increasingly radical in both form and content. Displaying the entire body of Rich's poetry, The Collected Poems gathers and commemorates all Rich's boldly political, formally ambitious, thoughtful and lucid work.