Collected Poems

The tigers in the panel that she made

Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

W. H. Auden selected Rich’s volume and brought to the world’s attention Rich’s first thorny questions, embedded in lyrics, addressing a culture’s disengagement with its embattled selves.

Rich began her public poetic career as the 1951 winner of the Yale Younger Poets Prize for her first collection, A Change of World.