Twenty-one Love Poems

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A pale blue chapbook with black text.

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The title page, with an illustration of a green vine above the title.

Adrienne Rich’s Twenty-one Love Poems explores the depths of a romantic relationship between two women, marking the first time Rich wrote openly about what would become one of the great themes in her powerful body of work. This sequence of sonnets was first published as a limited edition chapbook by Effie’s Press in 1976; the Poetry Center’s copy is from the 1977 second edition. These poems would also appear in Rich’s book The Dream of a Common Language in 1978.

Adrienne Rich. Twenty-One Love Poems. Emeryville, California: Effie’s Press, 1977.

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The text of poem VI.

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The text of poem XII.

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The text of poem XVI.