Sampson - She is fierce: brave, bold and beautiful poems by women

For my daughters Contents Sue Hardy-DawsonAmineh Abou KerechSylvia PlathHollie McNishLiz LochheadFrances CornfordKatherine MansfieldGeorge EliotKate ClanchyShukria RezaeiImtiaz DharkerAisha BorjaDeborah AlmaPippa LittleLady Dorothea Du BoisAnne HunterImtiaz DharkerKathleen RaineGillian ClarkeLesley IngramRuth AwololaLiz BerryKate TempestHelen BurkeJean TeppermanRhian EdwardsLaura GreyHelen Maria WilliamsElizabeth JenningsMary LeaporPolly ClarkHannah MoreMoya CannonCatherine Maria FanshaweSapphoJackie KayVictoria GatehouseMary Jean ChanAnne HalleyMargaret AtwoodCarol Ann DuffyMary Elizabeth ColeridgeChristina RossettiElizabeth SiddalFrances CornfordAstrid Hjertenaes Andersen Translated by Nadia Christensen Elizabeth Barrett BrowningChristina RossettiJenny JosephGertrude SteinElse Lasker-Schler Translated by James Sheard Katherine MansfieldAnne BradstreetAmy LowellAlice OswaldElaine FeinsteinLouise BoganFleur AdcockAlice MeynellEdith NesbitMary WebbHera Lindsay BirdYrsa Daley-WardElizabeth BishopElizabeth SiddalSara TeasdaleKatherine MansfieldEmily BrontDorothy WordsworthAnne BrontMary OliverChristina RossettiChrissie GittinsMary WebbElizabeth Barrett BrowningGrace NicholsRukiya KhatunDi SlaneyKatharine TowersWendy PrattMargaret CavendishFrancesca BeardAlison BrackenburyCharlotte BrontLola RidgeAmy LowellVita Sackville-WestUrsula BethellRemi GravesEdith Sdergran Translated by Malena Mrling and Jonas Ellerstrm Wendy CopeSusan CoolidgeRachel FieldVita Sackville-WestJean IngelowJean LittleOlive RunnerVahni CapildeoLola RidgeH.D.Hadewijch of AntwerpWinifred HoltbyJan DeanEmily DickinsonElma MitchellEileen MylesEmily BrontRebecca ElsonMaya AngelouDorothy ParkerEpheliaDora GreenwellSylvia PlathAnna WickhamSelina NwuluLucille CliftonAbigail CookKristina CloseKathleen FraserKatie ByfordEmily DickinsonEmma LazarusSojourner TruthElla Wheeler WilcoxFrances Ellen Watkins HarperJan DeanMichaela MorganMarion BernsteinLady Mary ChudleighLiz BrownleeMaya AngelouFinn ButlerCharlotte MewAlice WalkerVittoria ColonnaPauli MurrayDorothy ParkerNikita GillKaylin HaughtJenny JosephCharlotte MewMabel Esther AllanColette BryceSara TeasdaleChristina RossettiStevie SmithMay Riley SmithHelen DunmorePam AyresEdith NesbitEmily Dickinson Introduction Its an exciting time for poetry. Slams and performances are attracting huge audiences; book sales are booming; some of todays biggest online superstars are poets. Women are at the forefront of this movement: winning prizes, headlining festivals, topping bestseller lists and connecting with thousands of readers in digital spaces. It has not always been so. Anthologies have traditionally been dominated by male voices, seasoned with a mere scattering of women usually, the same few names. And yet women wondered at and worshipped by male poets danced through and dominated those pages.

It puzzled me, so I started reading. Womens songs have always formed a part of oral traditions, though these were often not recorded. Female poets were active in the ancient world but, for the most part, their work was not preserved and some like Sapphos was edited or suppressed later. Throughout history and into our own times, women have faced educational, religious and social limitations on their freedom both to write and especially to publish. During most eras, it was almost exclusively aristocratic women who had the leisure, learning and liberty to become known as poets. For centuries it was considered shocking for women to lift their eyes from the housework and seek employment outside the home, and especially for them to trespass in the male arena of literature.

Women writers were condemned, or mocked. Parents worried in case potential husbands were put off by their bookish daughters. It has been hard for women especially if they are also mothers to find time to work, and to get that work taken seriously. We will never know how many women wrote but didnt dare publish, or exactly how many published under pseudonyms (often mens names), as George Eliot and the Bront sisters felt that they must. It was often felt that women should stick to certain subjects family, friendship, dutiful religion and the prettier corners of nature and they have written beautifully and powerfully about all these. However, in the poems gathered here and elsewhere, female poets consider every possible subject: science and our magnificent universe; politics and protest; bodies and belief; myths and mental health; war and displacement.

I have included brief biographies of the poets and what women they were, and are! From suffragettes and freed slaves to schoolgirls, I was fascinated to uncover their stories, many of which were new to me and will, I think, be new to you. Some of these women faced poverty, war, physical and mental illness, oppressive societies and cruelty, but they spun from their experiences wonderful poetry that will speak to readers for generations to come. Poetry is personal, so any anthology must carry a sincere apology for omissions. I have never found the process of whittling down a longlist more agonizing there were hundreds of poems loved and lost in the process. I hope you will find in this book a diverse but representative choir of voices many of which have been unheard for too long and there will be something unfamiliar and intriguing for every reader. Ana Sampson My roots spread Roots and Growing Up Here are poems about where and who we come from. Ana Sampson My roots spread Roots and Growing Up Here are poems about where and who we come from.

In some of these verses, the poets explore the notion of home, tracing their own deep roots, and the experience of displacement when those roots are torn up. Others conjure up childhood, from the smell of school to the giddiness of garden games. Here are sisters: a little Katherine Mansfield fluttering fantasy feathers, and George Eliot movingly mourning her brothers affection after twenty sad years of silence between them. Here are mothers: Sylvia Plath pregnant with promises that must now be kept; Hollie McNish spinning stories about her mysterious babys midnight adventures; Frances Cornford banishing bedtime terrors. We see them bidding that first farewell at the school gate or the others that come later, when their children fly the nest. And here, too, are daughters: unravelling their futures with a flourish, or sifting the treasures handed down to them by the generations of women that came before.