Aunt Jennifer's Tigers is a poem written by American poet Adrienne Rich. It was first published in her anthology collection, A Change of World (1951).
In the poem, Aunt Jennifer is sewing tapestries of beautiful and vibrant tigers. The speaker contrasts the tigers against Jennifer's own situation: she is an unhappy woman trapped in her marriage. Unlike the tigers, she is not “courageous” or bold, but instead, lives under her husband’s rule. Jennifer eventually dies as a terrified woman defeated by the difficulties of her life, while the tigers live on in the image, forever joyful and free.
The poem is an example of Rich's early work, which was still inspired by poets like Yeats and Tennyson. Here, this influence shines through in the traditional meter and rhyme scheme of the poem, but Rich's later interest in feminist thematics is also apparent.
