Chapter 8: Muriel Rukeyser

Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980)

Muriel Rukeyser was born in New York City and attended Vassar College and Columbia University. Rukeyser's first volume of poetry, Theory of Flight (1935), was a winner of the Yale University Younger Poet Series. Other works include The Soul and Body of John Brown (1940); Wake Island (1942); Beast in View (1944); The Green Wave (1948); Elegies (1949); Orpheus (1949); Selected Poems (1951); Waterlily Fire: Poems 1935-1962 (1962); The Speed of Darkness (1968); Breaking Open (1973), in which "Myth," "Waiting for Icarus," and "Ballad of Orange and Grape" appear; The Gates (1976), in which "Ms. Lot" appears; Collected Poems (1978); Out of Silence: Selected Poems (1992); and A Muriel Rukeyser Reader (1994). Rukeyser's poetry speaks out against injustice, despotism, exploitation, racism, and sexism. Along with her political engagement, she tended also to be mystical, humane, and passionate. She is considered one of the major American feminist poets of this century. Author Links The Academy of American Poets - Poetry Exhibits - Muriel Rukeyser This site provides basic biographical information about Rukeyser and a selected bibliography. Muriel Rukeyser's Poetry of Witness This site consists of an essay on Rukeyser's poetry by Anne Herzog.

"Ms. Lot" The Academy of American Poets - Poetry Exhibits - Muriel Rukeyser Muriel Rukeyser's Poetry of Witness

© 2000-2001 by Prentice-Hall, Inc. A Pearson Company Distance Learning at Prentice Hall Legal Notice