Mastery of Metrical Substitution; Adrienne Rich
On a surface level, the poem is about Aunt Jennifer, who is knitting a scene on a quilt of tigers prancing about a tree with possible poachers beneath them. We learn in Stanza 2 that Aunt Jennifer is bearing a great burden, which is her potentially abusive husband. Then, Stanza 3 acts as a reflection, describing that when Aunt Jennifer dies, the tigers will continue prancing about in the scene on the quilt. This reflection and the use of Aunt Jennifer and perspective descriptions of the scene lead readers to believe that the speaker of this poem is a niece or nephew of Aunt Jennifer, or perhaps even Adrienne Rich herself. This poem is written in heroic couplets, being iambic pentameter with the use of metrical substitutions and three stanzas consisting of four lines each. Through iconic theory, the use of anapestic medial substitutions and a spondaic initial substitution allows Adrienne Rich to effectively contrast the two subjects of her poem; Aunt Jennifer and her tigers.
We first see Adrienne Rich using her anapestic medial substitution to bridge the gap between to subjects in Stanza 1, so we’ll look at the medial anapestic substitution in Line 2;
/ / | u / | u u / | u / | u /
“Bright topaz denizens in a world of green”.
The denizens, or inhabitants, are the tigers in their environment. When we observe an ecosystem, we find that the inhabitants and the environment are coercively intertwined with another. The anapestic medial substitution falling in the middle of the line effectively bridges the gap between the tigers and their environment. With this evidence of Rich using anapestic medial substitution to contrast two subjects in a line, we now can see that Aunt Jennifer and her tigers are connected in some way. This is proved in Line 6, which is arguably the most masterful line written by Adrienne Rich in Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers;
u / | u u / | u u / | u / | u /
“Find even the ivory needle hard to pull”,
We see here that there are two consecutive anapestic medial substitutions. This is significant because when reading Line 6, it feels as if the line drags through the middle, where the two anapestic medial substitutions are. Now consider this; when an object is being dragged, that means something is pulling it. We see Aunt Jennifer struggling to pull the ivory needle, and this is because of the weight of Uncle’s wedding band that rests on her hand. Adrienne Rich has brought us further into the depth of her iconic theory through metrical substitution by doubling down on the effect the substitution has on the line itself, and on the theme of the subject matter in the entire poem. The mastery required to use two consecutive anapestic medial substitutions is further proved as follows; Line 6 is the only line in the whole poem where there are two anapestic medial substitutions. Adrienne Rich uses them, once again, to bridge the gap, but this time on a more whole perspective. Line 6 is approximately in the middle of the poem, and in the first half, we are observing Aunt Jennifer knitting her panel. In the second half, we are introduced to the burden of her marital relationship. The consecutive anapestic medials in Line 6 occur in the middle of the line, blending together perfectly the first half of the poem, the scene of the tigers, and the last half, the burden that weighs Aunt Jennifer down. Notice, in the first half, there are no mentions of “weight”, “heavily”, or “ringed”, it’s all in the second half. Chivalric tigers on one side, then the bridge, then Aunt Jennifer’s heavy wedding band on the other. Literally, figuratively, and masterfully, the anapestic medial substitution is acting as a bridge between beginning and end, while simultaneously performing a contrast between Aunt Jennifer and her tigers.
There is one initial spondaic substitution in all of Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers. It comes in Line 2 of Stanza 1, and although it may appear that in Line 6 of Stanza 2 and Line 10 of Stanza 3 there are initial spondaic substitutions, that is not the case. We will see why when we look back at the scansion of Line 2;
/ / | u / | u u / | u / | u /
“Bright topaz denizens of a world of green”.
We see the initial spondaic substitution fall over, “Bright topaz”. Adrienne Rich uses this substitution in order to highlight the effect of the orange, effervescent gemstone that is a reflection of the tigers. The gemstone is bright, and so are the tigers in their world of green, accentuated by the use of this initial spondaic substitution. Next, we’ll look at Lines 6 and 10. It appears that the beginning of these lines should be an initial spondaic substitution, but due to the Law of Relative Accent, that is not possible. At the end of Line 1, we see a comma, opening the way for a pause and the ability to start Line 2 with two stresses. There is no comma enclosing Line 5, and if Line 6 were a spondaic initial substitution, we would have 3 consecutive stresses. However, by rule, we have to denote the middle syllable to be unstressed. Thus, Line 6 begins in iambic pentameter, and the same reasoning goes for Line 10. The question is, why would Adrienne Rich use her initial spondaic substitution, and lack thereof, in the way that she does? The answer is; the “Bright topaz” of the tigers reflect the light that Aunt Jennifer gives to her tigers. This spondaic initial substitution shines in the absence of the two other possible substitutions, in the same way that the tigers shine bright at the end of Aunt Jennifer’s tunnel. The tigers are the light that Aunt Jennifer searches for when enshrouded in the dark of her domestically fragile relationship. That is why Aunt Jennifer is knitting this scene, and that is what Adrienne Rich is using to reinforce her iconic theory in Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers.
With the use of metrical substitution, Adrienne Rich effectively encourages us to dive into the deeper meaning of Aunt Jennifer knitting this scene. On the surface, Aunt Jennifer is knitting something, for hobby or sport, whatever her projected reasoning is. Through iconic theory, Rich tells us that the real reason Aunt Jennifer is knitting this scene is to escape, to create a world in which she would much rather be. Aunt Jennifer consciously knows she can’t go on prancing proud and unafraid away from her husband, so her subconscious knits the chivalric tigers leisurely living on without fear. Iconic theory acts as the subconscious within the meter of this poem, something we aren’t able to always surface, but Adrienne Rich effectively bridges the gap between the surface and subconscious of her poem by using calculated metrical substitution.