“In the end, I don’t think we can separate art from overall human dignity and hope.”

So wrote Adrienne Rich in her 1997 refusal of President Clinton’s National Medal for the Arts. Rich's poetry and essays explore the tensions and dualities of Jewish, feminist, lesbian, and political identities in the United States. Check out our text, audio, and video resources for teaching Rich's pivotal poem "Diving into the Wreck," and turn students on to one of the most widely acclaimed and prominent American poets of the late twentieth century.