The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Rich, Adrienne. “What Kind of Times are These.” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51092/what-kind-of-times-are-these.

Note that all parenthetical citations refer to the line number from which the quotation is taken.

“What Kind of Times are These” is a four-stanza free-verse poem by American poet Adrienne Rich. It was written as a response to the WWII-era poem “To Those Who Follow in Our Wake,” by Bertolt Brecht, who claimed that “A conversation about trees is almost a crime” when there was so much human hardship happening in the world. Rich argues instead that such pursuits are “necessary” to retain one’s humanity and spirit.