Muriel Rukeyser (December 15, 1913 – February 12, 1980) was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism. Kenneth Rexroth said that she was the greatest poet of her "exact generation".
One of her most powerful pieces was a group of poems entitled The Book of the Dead (1938), documenting the details of the Hawk's Nest incident, an industrial disaster in which hundreds of miners died of silicosis.
Her poem "To be a Jew in the Twentieth Century" (1944), on the theme of Judaism as a gift, was adopted by the American Reform and Reconstructionist movements for their prayer books, something Rukeyser said "astonished" her, as she had remained distant from Judaism throughout her early life.
Read more about Muriel Rukeyser: Early Life, Activism and Writing, In Other Media, Works
Famous quotes by muriel rukeyser:
“Erasing the failure of weeks with level fingers,
she sleeks the fine hair, combing: ‘You’ll look fine tomorrow!”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)
“Speak to me. Take my hand. What are you now?
I will tell you all. I will conceal nothing.”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)
“Split by a tendril of revolt
stone cedes to blossom everywhere.”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)
“A work of art is one through which the consciousness of the artist is able to give its emotions to anyone who is prepared to receive them. There is no such thing as bad art.”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)
“I am haunted by interrupted acts,
introspective as a leper, enchanted
by a repulsive clew,
a gross and fugitive movement of the limbs.
Is this the love that shook the lights to flame?”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)