A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now

by Aliki Barnstone

Paperback, 1992

Status

Available

Publication

Schocken (1992), Edition: Rev Sub, Paperback, 848 pages

Description

Spans four thousand years and the world's major civilization to anthologize verses by women ranging from Enheduanna, a second millennium B.C. Sumerian princess, to the medieval poets Marie de France and Florencia de Pinar, to noteworthy poets of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

User reviews

LibraryThing member Rubygarnet
I adore this anthology.
LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
Years ago I bought a book called Good Reading and to educate myself decided to make my way through the list of "100 Significant Books." I noted that of the 20 poets listed, only one, Emily Dickenson, was a woman. That made picking up this particular anthology of women poets irresistible. I found
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reading it that it had a value beyond the poems that made up the collection. For one--and this was reinforced by looking at the poetry section in the store recently--it's very hard to find a truly international collection of poetry; almost all the poets in anthologies sold in the United States wrote their works in English. Yet more than half of the poetry in this collection was not written in English--allowing me for the first time to get a truly world-wide sampling of the art with over fifty languages represented from every continent save Antarctica. I also found the short biographies that appeared after each poet's name enlightening. This wound up being just as valuable in terms of history as in literature. What particularly struck me was how personal the poetry read and the biographies reinforced that. Chinese poet Ts'ai Yen (175 - 239?) had been captured by the Huns, then had to leave her sons behind when she was let go. To then read her poem about her ordeal, "From 18 Verses Sung to a Tartar Reed Whistle" was a moving experience. Many of the lives of these poets were every bit as extraordinary as their poems.

The collection begins with what the book claims is "the world's first known writer" the Sumerian moon-priestess and princess Enheduanna (2285-2250 B.C.) and gives us the sweep of history up to today's living poets. Sometimes the attribution to a women poet is rather tenuous. Included for instance are many "anonymous" and "traditional" works with seeming female speakers and even such parts of the Bible as "The Song of Deborah" and "The Song of Songs." The introduction defines eleven poets as "key" and gives them extra space: Enheduanna of Sumeria, Sappho (who Plato called "the Tenth Muse"), the Chinese poets Yu Hsuan-chi of the T'ang Dynasty and Li Ching-chao of the Sung Dynasty, the Arabian Al-Khansa, the Hindu Mira Bai, Marie de France ("the great woman poet of Medieval Europe"), French Renaissance poet Louise Labe, the Mexican Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, and Americans Anne Bradstreet and Emily Dickenson.

In a way these were two books, because the experience of reading the non-English portions was definitely different than reading the ones not mediated by a translator. Even more than novels or plays poetry depends on the language it was written in for rhythm and rhyme and such effects as alliteration. I can't help but believe much was lost in these translations. I also feel poetry is benefited by familiarity and repetition. You "get" more. I think it was telling that in the Non-English portion of the book I recognized only three names--Sappho, Marie de France (who I had never actually read) and the Russian Anna Akhmatova. I think in that case, the poets had to push through more resistance to communicate with me. Despite that, there were definitely poems and poets that spoke to me. I loved the Ancient Egyptian "Hieroglyphic Texts" (probably helped they were translated by Ezra Pound), the "Song of Songs," modern Hebrew poet Dahlia Ravikovich's "Poem of Explanations," the poetry of Sappho, the erotic poems of Huang O, and the modern patriotic poem by Ch'iu Chi, the poems of disillusioned love by Louise Labe and everything included by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Anna Akhmatova's "Requium" and "Lot's Wife." And this very short simple verse attributed to Frau Ava of Melk (ca 1160) was a gem:

I am yours, you are mine. Of this we are certain. You are lodged in my heart, the small key is lost. You must stay there forever.

And yes, there was much more that was striking and beautiful--those were just my favorites in that section. Then we move on to English, and I'm in much more familiar territory. I can say I recognized almost a quarter of the poets, although I'd read less than a dozen of the poems before, though among them were several old favorites by Emily Dickenson (and several that were new to me I loved) and Amy Lowell's "Patterns," which is one of the works that first made me love traditional poetry. And I found new works to love by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, Edna St. Vincent Millay. What surprised me was how many modern works I loved, and two-thirds of the poetry in English were by poets still living at the time of publication. By and large I'm not a fan of modern poetry--at least not those more avant garde than say Robert Frost. It's true that at times even when I did like one poem by a modernistic poet I often didn't like her others. Nevertheless, I was surprised to find myself liking, even loving, poems by Mina Loy ("Poe"), Ruth Stone ("On the Mountains"), Gwendolyn Brooks ("We Real Cool" and "Boys Breaking Glass"), Denise Levertov ("Overheard over S.E. Asia" and "The Roamer"), several of the brutal but beautiful poems of Sylvia Plath, Diane Wakoski ("Belly Dancing"), everything included by Margaret Atwood, Sharon Olds ("Sex Without Love"), Louise Gluck ("Lamentations") and really--you have to see the poetry of Mary Ellen Solt. Definitely a special collection worth treasuring.
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LibraryThing member empress8411
Things We Learned by Reading This:
1. It is possible to have an anthology of poetry that actually includes authors from every continent and tradition and era
2. I’m not a fan of medieval poetry. Or most of the modern stuff
3. I adore Asian poetry, particularly Lady Ise and Izumi Shikibu
4. Ancient
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Sumerian poetry is worth reading.
5. This is a worth-while collection ad I would like to have a word with the person who tossed it on the junk heap my husband rescued it from.
Note: This review is about the 1980 Edition
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LibraryThing member therebelprince
One of my all-time favourite anthologies.

Physical description

848 p.; 9.2 inches

ISBN

0805209972 / 9780805209976

Local notes

poetry anthology
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