Rita Dove

1833 Words8 Pages
Scripts, stories, and poetry that practically overflow from bookshelves, Rita Dove is a well-renowned poet and writer who has done more than just made a name for herself. Known widely for her never fully ended poems, she has a way of keeping her work new and always unpredictable to her readers. Her love for reading and insatiable hunger for knowledge lead her to be a Pulitzer Prize winner and author of the poem “Adolescence II”. A great poet that is constantly growing and producing literature, Rita Dove is a writer born from the Modernist and Postmodern Era, in which her greatest poem “Adolescence II” was written, a poem that includes autobiographical instances of her own struggle through puberty, exhibiting the objectification and the personal…show more content…
Excelling in academics from preschool to summa cum laude from Miami University. Rita Frances Dove was born to Elvira Hord and Ray Dove on August 28, 1952 in the small town of Akron, Ohio. Dove was raised in what she called a ‘“fairly traditional upwardly mobile black family”(Wheeler 243). All the children in the household were expected to strive for academic, cultural, and moral excellence. Dove’s parents did everything in their power to make sure their children were as well-rounded as possible, particularly in music. This exposure to the arts, lead her to gain interest in other literary art forms, particularly writing. As a child, Dove was described as a homebody, more content with reading and writing short stories than playing with others (Wheeler 243). Despite her passion for writing, she never saw it as a formidable career until her junior year in high school, when her english teacher took her to see John Ciardi at a book signing. This moment sparked an epiphany in the young girl as she made the connection between her work and its relation to professional writing (Wheeler 243). This moment lead to an increase in her writing and her drive to be a poet. Throughout college Dove drew influence from personal experiences, her family, and German language and heritage; even going as far to as to study abroad in order to better appreciate Germany and all it had to offer (Wheeler 243). It was during her time in college that Dove began having personal turmoil and difficulty expressing herself in the wake of the black arts movement. She struggled with how her racial identity as a cultural mulatto fit within the black community as well as acknowledging and taking pride in her womanhood and femininity. Despite the plethora of the personal hardships she endured, Dove’s hard work and dedication to her career paid of exponentially in the end
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