Adrienne Rich (born 1929), perhaps more than any other contemporary poet, crystallized in her work and life the deeply complex, awakening consciousness of modern women.

The daughter of Arnold Rich, a professor of medicine, and Helen, a trained composer and pianist, Adrienne Rich described her early upbringing as "white and middle-class ... full of books, with a father who encouraged me to read and write." From her father's well-stocked library she was reading such writers as Rosetti, Swinburne, Tennyson, Keats, and Blake before officially attending grade school. In fact, since both her parents believed that they could educate their children better than a public school, neither she nor her sister was sent to class until fourth grade. However, by the time Rich graduated from high school she was writing concise and carefully constructed poetry.

In 1951, the year Rich turned 22 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Radcliffe College, A Change of...