The poem, "Aunt Jennifer's Tiger", by Adrienne Rich, is a poem about woman who is struggling to accept the indignities of her daily life, while focusing on attaining some sense of immortality once her life ends. Aunt Jennifer must find a way to deal with her unhappy and submissive place in life, and she does so by sewing exciting and memorable works of art. Sewing is her escape and in this case she imagines that she's in a jungle where wild animals rule and never show fear. The tigers Aunt Jennifer creates are beasts demanding respect, even from their predators. This demand for respect is something that Aunt Jennifer is incapable of doing for herself. .
The structure of the play "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" is built on the concept of give and take, showing a woman's ability to create an everlasting work of art while dealing with the humiliation of living a life that is built on hardship. In three small stanzas of just four lines each, the poem craftily builds toward the welcome conclusion that no matter how much life has to dish out to a person and bring a person down, each of us can still achieve some small measure of respect and immortality if we just have the discipline to do what we know we can do well. I agree with this conclusion; however, I feel as though Aunt Jennifer successfully overcame the load that she was forced to carry and created a small wedge of life everlasting for herself. I also believe that if a person can find out what it is that he does well, he can achieve it and create for himself something that will last long after he or she is gone.