By Sarah Wyman | On January 11, 2018 | Updated October 25, 2021 | Comments (0)
The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974 – 1977 (1978) appeared early on in Adrienne Rich’s (1929 – 2012) long career and solidified her position as a leader who articulated the central ideas of the second wave U.S. feminist movement.
These poems, about and for women, envision an alternative to a patriarchal system in which men control the avenues of power and the definitions of female existence. In this analysis, we’ll discuss how this collection of poems continued to establish the primary concerns of Rich’s life’s work. These included the promotion of: Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On November 9, 2017 | Updated March 14, 2023 | Comments (2)
Prolific though she was, Pearl S. Buck wasn’t known as a poet. She produced only a limited number of poems, collected for publication as a slender illustrated volume, Words of Love (1974). Her verses are brief and direct, offering fleeting glimpses of the author’s inner world.
Following is a description from Words of Love (John Day Company, 1974) along with three poems. (photo at right courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Pearl S. Buck wrote no poetry for the public eye (though she permitted a few verses to appear in her biography). In her lifetime she published scores of novels, short stories, and essays. Her poetry, however, was her private domain, and the verses she wrote — her Words of Love — were inscribed in her treasure book, the journal she kept for her most intimate words and thoughts. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On September 8, 2017 | Updated December 18, 2022 | Comments (0)
The 1853 poem “To George Sand: A Desire” was a tribute by poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning to French author Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin, better known by her pen name, George Sand.
When this poem was published, Sand was nearly 50 years old (born in 1804), just two years older than Barrett Browning. But the poet considered Sand a model for boldness in writing and living.
The poem acknowledges Sand’s dual nature, and how she managed to wed intellect and emotion in her writings. Elizabeth Barrett Browning purposefully attributed brains to the feminine in Sand, and heart to the masculine, upending gender stereotypes. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On August 10, 2017 | Updated October 27, 2022 | Comments (0)
Of her first published collection, The Book of Repulsive Women (1915), Djuna Barnes said: “My first book of poems is a disgusting little item.” The five early poems by Djuna Barnes presented here illustrate the dark, morbid voice that became a hallmark of her writing style.
When, much later (1952) a publisher asked to reprint some of her early work, Barnes responded: “I feel it is a grave disservice to letters to reissue merely because one may have a name for later work — or for that unfortunately praised earlier work, or for the purpose of nostalgia or ‘history’ which might more happily be left interred.”
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By Nava Atlas | On July 30, 2017 | Updated November 14, 2022 | Comments (2)
Before attempting to publish novels, Charlotte Brontë undertook the task of finding a home for a collaborative book of poems by herself and her sisters, Anne and Emily Brontë.
Charlotte and Anne are considered fine poets, but Emily Brontë’s poems are considered the most moving and beautiful among the poetic work of the three sisters.
The trio took masculine-ish noms de plume (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne were Currer, Ellis, and Acton, respectively, and shared the surname Bell) when Charlotte undertook the mission of finding a publisher for a collected book of their poems.
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