An Atlas of the Difficult World

“An Atlas of the Difficult World” is a war poem, or more specifically a poem written during a time of war. The perspective comes not from those who fight the war or from those who support and conduct the war. Rather, Rich draws on her own experiences during the 1960s, when the US was engaged in an unpopular war. She interrogates why the country finds itself committed, only a generation later, to another war whose goals seem out of step with the country’s ideals. 

The poem explores complex and philosophical questions: how to define a nation at war; how to come to terms with a government acting out of sync with the beliefs and hopes of its people; how to be a patriot during a war that does not reflect the historical and cultural aspirations of the country; and how to be angry but refuse to abandon faith. Rich loves her country enough to see it honestly and argues that it is time for true patriots to awaken: “A patriot is a citizen trying to wake / from the burnt-out dreams of innocence” (Line XI.30). 

The poem’s perspective is broad. Rich is determined to capture nothing less than the spirit and