4 Must-Read Muriel Rukeyser Poems

Muriel Rukeyser was a poet and playwright. She also worked as a children’s book author over her five-decade career in literature. She’s considered to be one of the most important feminist poet of the 1960s and 70s. Her name is often mentioned alongside Anne Sexton’s and Adrien Rich’s.

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Effort at Speech Between Two People

‘Effort at Speech Between Two People’ by Muriel Rukeyser explores communication. The seven stanzas feature a conversation between two people struggling to get to know one another.

Muriel Rukeyser was an American poet who wrote about life, activism, and social issues. She cared about people and wanted to show their struggles in her poems. 'Effort at Speech Between Two People' is a poem about two people trying hard to talk and understand each other. They find it hard to share their true feelings. The poem shows how communication can be tough and takes a lot of effort.

Speak to me. Take my hand. What are you now?

I will tell you all. I will conceal nothing.

When I was three, a little child read a story about a rabbit

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The Poem as Mask

‘The Poem as Mask’ by Muriel Rukeyser is a powerful, feminist poem that speaks to the poet’s experiences in life and with her poetry.

When I wrote of the women in their dances and

wildness, it was a mask,

on their mountain, god-hunting, singing, in orgy,

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Then I Saw What the Calling Was

‘Then I Saw What the Calling Was’ by Muriel Rukeyser is a beautiful and complicated poem that speaks about life and experience.

All the voices of the wood called “Muriel!”

but it was soon solved; it was nothing, it was not for me.

The words were a little like Mortal and More and Endure

And a world like Real, a sound like Health or Hell.

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Who in One Lifetime

‘Who in One Lifetime’ by Muriel Rukeyser is a poem about resistance in the face of war and suffering. The speaker asserts that a woman referred to only as “she” is standing strong despite what she’s seen.

Who in one lifetime sees all causes lost,

Herself dismayed and helpless, cities down,

Love made monotonous fear and the sad-faced,

Inexorable armies and the falling plane,

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4 Must-Read Muriel Rukeyser Poems

Effort at Speech Between Two People

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