But it is also scholarly in its critique of the institutionalisation of motherhood, fragmentary in structure, frank and intimate in delineating Rich’s own experiences. Rich’s Of Woman Born is impassioned, much like Sexton’s poetry. Of note though, is Anne Sexton’s sensual 1969 poem, “In Celebration of My Uterus”: At the time Adrienne Rich’s Of Woman Born was published, in 1976, not much had been written about invisible but life-giving parts of the female anatomy. Its bodily functions, in particular menstruation and child bearing, are still shrouded in superstition. Its beauty is either eroticised or regarded with suspicion.

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Of woman born by adrienne rich