Book of Women Poets: From Antiquity to Now

I fell in love with this book when I lived for a time in the Barnstone 'barn' in Bloomington, Indiana, for a term in the early 1980s. I met both Aliki Barnstone, the editor of this text, as well as her father Willis Barnstone, a poet and scholar in his own right. Aliki Barnstone was a published poet as early as the age of nine. This was almost a guarantee for a lifelong love of poetry and literature, which comes through... Read Full Review

This is one of my favorite poetry anthologies because it covers such a wide expanse of time and includes women's voices from all over the world. This anthology has introduced me to so many women poets that I otherwise never would have met. It is incredible to realize that women have ALWAYS and everywhere been writing, and I am always inspired by the tradition of my mothers when I read this book. As Sappho said, "Someone,... Read Full Review

This is my all-time favorite anthology; I give it as a gift whenever I can. I like the idea of presenting voices that have not always gotten the attention they deserve, but even more than that I am amazed at the the sheer range of genius. There's hardly a dud in here. I particularly love the translation of Marina Tsveteyeva's "Poem of the End." The punctuation so accurately reflects the language and tone. I once saw... Read Full Review

I read it ... cover to cover ... a little at a time, over a month perhaps. Poetry suddenly took on another dimension for me. I selected this book because I've read a lot of poetry, and never really had a sense of the unique contribution of women to poetry. After reading this book, I could see that women had contributed entirely new ways to write about their experiences, and very little of it had ever found it's way into... Read Full Review

Okay, I'll admit that I am not the most educated when it comes to poetry, in spite of my english major. This anthology caught my eye because it spans the history of the written word, as evidenced by the title, and because it focuses on women poets. There are some fantastic poems in here, and it's actually made me appreciate a medium I had little patience with. The editors took on a gargantuan task, and I only wish that... Read Full Review