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, Aunt Jennifer's Tigers Summary
The speaker tells us about her Aunt Jennifer's needlework tapestry, which features beautiful
bright tigers prancing. Snazzy! The tigers are strong and have no fears, so they've got that
going for them. Aunt Jennifer, though, is not so free. The speaker tells us about the
metaphorical weight of Aunt Jennifer's wedding band, and implies that her marriage was
unhappy and held her back from the life that she wanted to live. The speaker then tells us
that, when Aunt Jennifer is dead, she will still wear the ring that symbolizes the marriage
that trapped her. Major bummer. But, the speaker says, silver lining alert! The tigers will
keep prancing in her needlework, and Aunt Jennifer will be immortalized through her art.
Stanza 1 Summary
Lines 1-2
Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
• Okay, everybody. We're going to take our time with this. Let's begin with the first
two words, shall we? "Aunt Jennifer." What do we learn from these two words?
Well, we learn a couple of things: we have a speaker who has an aunt named
Jennifer. (Duh.) Also, the speaker speaks to us in a pretty familiar way—it's almost
like she assumes that we already know who Aunt Jennifer is. She doesn't say, for
example "my Aunt Jennifer." She just says the more intimate "Aunt Jennifer." This
makes us think that the speaker is young, maybe even a child.
• (By the way, the poem never indicates that the speaker is female, but we are going
to go ahead and refer to her as "she" throughout, just to make everyone's lives
easier.)
• So, we've got a speaker, and we've got an Aunt Jennifer, and we feel pretty close to
them already, don't you? The next word of the poem is "tigers." Lions and tigers and
bears, oh my! Aunt Jennifer has tigers? We need to find out more about this
woman…
• We keep find out that these tigers "prance across a screen." Total bummer. The
tigers aren't real. Maybe they're on TV. Or maybe they're part of some art project.
Either way, we now know that these tigers aren't in iron cages, just scattered
throughout the house (that would be… wild). We'll need to keep reading to find out
more.
• The tigers don't seem particularly fierce—they're "prancing" across the tapestry, and
"prancing" is a pretty lighthearted word. (Think about it: nobody "prances" through
the line at the DMV, do they?) So to sum up: we have some happy, chill tigers on our
hands.
• Know what else we have here? Personification. In other words, the speaker is
ascribing a human attribute like "prancing" to a non-human thing like an animal, or a
representation of an animal,
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, Aunt Jennifer's Tigers Summary
The speaker tells us about her Aunt Jennifer's needlework tapestry, which features beautiful
bright tigers prancing. Snazzy! The tigers are strong and have no fears, so they've got that
going for them. Aunt Jennifer, though, is not so free. The speaker tells us about the
metaphorical weight of Aunt Jennifer's wedding band, and implies that her marriage was
unhappy and held her back from the life that she wanted to live. The speaker then tells us
that, when Aunt Jennifer is dead, she will still wear the ring that symbolizes the marriage
that trapped her. Major bummer. But, the speaker says, silver lining alert! The tigers will
keep prancing in her needlework, and Aunt Jennifer will be immortalized through her art.
Stanza 1 Summary
Lines 1-2
Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
• Okay, everybody. We're going to take our time with this. Let's begin with the first
two words, shall we? "Aunt Jennifer." What do we learn from these two words?
Well, we learn a couple of things: we have a speaker who has an aunt named
Jennifer. (Duh.) Also, the speaker speaks to us in a pretty familiar way—it's almost
like she assumes that we already know who Aunt Jennifer is. She doesn't say, for
example "my Aunt Jennifer." She just says the more intimate "Aunt Jennifer." This
makes us think that the speaker is young, maybe even a child.
• (By the way, the poem never indicates that the speaker is female, but we are going
to go ahead and refer to her as "she" throughout, just to make everyone's lives
easier.)
• So, we've got a speaker, and we've got an Aunt Jennifer, and we feel pretty close to
them already, don't you? The next word of the poem is "tigers." Lions and tigers and
bears, oh my! Aunt Jennifer has tigers? We need to find out more about this
woman…
• We keep find out that these tigers "prance across a screen." Total bummer. The
tigers aren't real. Maybe they're on TV. Or maybe they're part of some art project.
Either way, we now know that these tigers aren't in iron cages, just scattered
throughout the house (that would be… wild). We'll need to keep reading to find out
more.
• The tigers don't seem particularly fierce—they're "prancing" across the tapestry, and
"prancing" is a pretty lighthearted word. (Think about it: nobody "prances" through
the line at the DMV, do they?) So to sum up: we have some happy, chill tigers on our
hands.
• Know what else we have here? Personification. In other words, the speaker is
ascribing a human attribute like "prancing" to a non-human thing like an animal, or a
representation of an animal,
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