As I take up the task of reading and rereading these often prophetic poems, much becomes clear to me simply from the visible letters on the page—and yet I sense, too, that I cannot refuse an interpretation of what is inscribed beneath and within those letters in the invisible ink of Rich’s poetic genius.

Writing for The American Scholar, Sandra M. Gilbert shares a biographical essay about Adrienne Rich, rival of Sylvia Plath and “unofficial poet laureate of 20th-century American feminism,” whom we all love and admire.