ref1
Remember me when I am gone away
ref1
Roads around mountains
ref1
School parted us; we never found again
ref1
See that lovely juniper, pressed so hard
ref1
She draws the cliffs of Llanberis
ref1
She follows me about my House of Life
ref1
She gave me childhood’s flowers
ref1
she sorts the drawer
ref1
She was wearing coral taffeta trousers
ref1
Sleep, pretty lady, the night is enfolding you
ref1
Some of what we love we stumble upon
ref1
Sometimes as an antidote
ref1
Speak of the North! A lonely moor
ref1
Start with the legs
ref1
Such love I cannot analyse
ref1
Suppose I took out a slender ketch
ref1
That man over there say
ref1
The art of losing isn’t hard to master
ref1
The boys have football and skate ramps
ref1
The clouds had made a crimson crown
ref1
The gap between your teeth became my ambition
ref1
The gulls are mad-in-love with the river
ref1
The house was just twinkling in the moon light
ref1
The spirits of children are remote and wise
ref1
The sun has burst the sky
ref1
The young are walking on the riverbank
ref1
Then I said to the elegant ladies
ref1
There, Sun birds chipper
ref1
There is no Frigate like a Book
ref1
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground
ref1
There’s no dew left on the daisies and clover
ref1
these hips are big hips
ref1
They told me
ref1
They were narrow, beautiful
ref1
They wore light dresses and their arms were bare
ref1
This is the one song everyone would like to learn
ref1
This mind crawls like a pregnant cat; like traffic
ref1
This poem is dangerous: it should not be left
ref1
Three years ago to the hour, the day she was born
ref1
To Artemisia. – ’Tis to her we sing
ref1
To sin by silence, when we should protest
ref1
TODAY I will not live up to my potential
ref1
Wanted a husband who doesn’t suppose
ref1
We all remember school, of course
ref1
We have calcium in our bones
ref1
What crowding thoughts around me wake
ref1
What way does the wind come? What way does he go?
ref1
Whatever it was they were looking for, they liked
ref1
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
ref1
When last we parted, thou wert young and fair
ref1
When the fraying skeins of silver birch
ref1
When you came, you were like red wine and honey
ref1
Why did you come, with your enkindled eyes
ref1
Why wears my lady a trailing gown
ref1
Wife and servant are the same
ref1
With the wasp at the innermost heart of a peach
ref1
With what attentive courtesy he bent
ref1
You go at night into immensity
ref1
You may write me down in history
ref1
You were three when we moved north
ref1
You who want
ref1
Your plain faces are lovely as bunting
ref1
Index of Poets
Adcock, Fleur
ref1
Allan, Mabel Esther
ref1
Alma, Deborah
ref1
Andersen, Astrid Hjertenaes
ref1
Angelou, Maya
ref1, ref2
Atwood, Margaret
ref1
Awolola, Ruth
ref1
Ayres, Pam
ref1
Beard, Francesca
ref1
Bernstein, Marion
ref1
Berry, Liz
ref1
Bethell, Ursula
ref1
Bird, Hera Lindsay
ref1
Bishop, Elizabeth
ref1
Bogan, Louise
ref1
Borja, Aisha
ref1
Brackenbury, Alison
ref1
Bradstreet, Anne
ref1
Brontë, Anne
ref1
Brontë, Charlotte
ref1
Brontë, Emily
ref1, ref2
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
ref1, ref2
Brownlee, Liz
ref1
Bryce, Colette
ref1
Burke, Helen
ref1
Butler, Finn
ref1
Byford, Katie
ref1
Cannon, Moya
ref1
Capildeo, Vahni
ref1
Cavendish, Margaret
ref1
Chan, Mary Jean
ref1
Chudleigh, Lady Mary
ref1
Clanchy, Kate
ref1
Clark, Polly
ref1
Clarke, Gillian
Clifton, Lucille
ref1
Close, Kristina
ref1
Coleridge, Mary Elizabeth
ref1
Colonna, Vittoria
ref1
Cook, Abigail
ref1
Coolidge, Susan
ref1
Cope, Wendy
ref1
Cornford, Frances
ref1, ref2
Daley-Ward, Yrsa
ref1
Dean, Jan
ref1, ref2
Dharker, Imtiaz
ref1, ref2
Dickinson, Emily
ref1, ref2, ref3
H.D.
ref1
Du Bois, Lady Dorothea
ref1
Duffy, Carol Ann
ref1
Dunmore, Helen
ref1
Edwards, Rhian
ref1
Eliot, George
ref1
Elson, Rebecca
ref1
‘Ephelia’
ref1
Fanshawe, Catherine Maria
ref1
Feinstein, Elaine
ref1
Field, Rachel
ref1
Fraser, Kathleen
ref1
Gatehouse, Victoria
ref1
Gill, Nikita
ref1
Gittins, Chrissie
ref1
Graves, Remi
ref1
Greenwell, Dora
ref1
Grey, Laura
ref1
Hadewijch of Antwerp
ref1
H
alley, Anne
ref1
Hardy-Dawson, Sue
ref1
Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins
ref1
Haught, Kaylin
ref1
Holtby, Winifred
ref1
Hunter, Anne
ref1
Ingelow, Jean
ref1
Ingram, Lesley
ref1
Jennings, Elizabeth
ref1
Joseph, Jenny
ref1, ref2
Kay, Jackie
ref1
Kerech, Amineh Abou
ref1
Khatun, Rukiya
ref1
Lasker-Schüler, Else
ref1
Lazarus, Emma
ref1
Leapor, Mary
ref1
Little, Jean
ref1
ref1
Lochhead, Liz
ref1
Lowell, Amy
ref1, ref2
McNish, Hollie
ref1
Mansfield, Katherine
ref1, ref2, ref3
Mew, Charlotte
ref1, ref2
Meynell, Alice
ref1
Mitchell, Elma
ref1
More, Hannah
ref1
Morgan, Michaela
ref1
Murray, Pauli
ref1
Myles, Eileen
ref1
Nesbit, Edith
ref1, ref2
Nichols, Grace
ref1
Nwulu, Selina
ref1
Oliver, Mary
ref1
Oswald, Alice
ref1
Parker, Dorothy
ref1, ref2
Plath, Sylvia
ref1, ref2
Pratt, Wendy
ref1
Raine, Kathleen
ref1
Rezaei, Shukria
ref1
Ridge, Lola
ref1, ref2
Rossetti, Christina
ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Runner, Olive
ref1
Sackville-West, Vita
ref1, ref2
Sappho
ref1
Siddal, Elizabeth
ref1, ref2
Slaney, Di
ref1
Smith, May Riley
ref1
Smith, Stevie
ref1
Södergran, Edith
ref1
Stein, Gertrude
ref1
Teasdale, Sara
ref1, ref2
Tempest, Kate
ref1
Tepperman, Jean
ref1
Towers, Katharine
ref1
Truth, Sojourner
ref1
Walker, Alice
ref1
Webb, Mary
ref1, ref2
Wickham, Anna
ref1
Wilcox, Ella Wheeler
ref1
Williams, Helen Maria
ref1
Wordsworth, Dorothy
ref1
Acknowledgements
I want to thank every poet who has allowed me to include their work in this anthology. There has never been a more enjoyable job (even though I cried quite a lot!). Thank you for writing such wonderfully thought-provoking and moving poems. A salute, too, to the women poets of the past who are included here, and the many others I read during my research. Your work has not been forgotten.
Enormous thanks to Gaby Morgan for letting me do this, and making the book better every time she touched it. Thanks also to everyone at Macmillan, especially my publicist Amber Ivatt, marketing guru Kat McKenna, and Simran Sandhu for her tireless work tracking down the most obscure of permissions. Thank you to all my bookish friends – particularly Toby Buchan – for advice and encouragement, and to the whole team at Quercus, especially Olivia Mead for putting up with me talking endlessly about this anthology.
Thanks always to my brave and brilliant parents for their unfailing support. You made parenting look easy, though I now know it isn’t. And thanks most of all to my husband Mark, who photocopied like a demon on my behalf, and cooked and child-wrangled while I cloistered myself to finish this anthology: you’re great.
The compiler and publisher would like to thank the following for permission to use their copyright material:
Abou Kerech, Amineh: ‘To Make a Homeland’ from England: Poems from a School edited by Kate Clanchy (Picador, 2018). Copyright © Amineh Abou Kerech. Used with permission of the publisher; Adcock, Fleur: ‘Kissing’ from Poems 1960-2000 (Bloodaxe Books, 2000). Copyright © Fleur Adcock. Used with permission of the publisher; Alma, Deborah: ‘I Am My Own Parent’ first published in True Tales of the Countryside by Deborah Alma (The Emma Press, 2015). Copyright © Deborah Alma, 2015. Used with permission of the author; Angelou, Maya: ‘Still I Rise’ and ‘Phenomenal Woman’ from And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou (little, brown, 1986) and And Still I Rise: A Selection of Poems Read by the Author by Maya Angelou (Penguin Random House, 1978). Copyright © Maya Angelou. Used by permission of little, brown and Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved; Atwood, Margaret: ‘Siren Song’ by Margaret Atwood. Copyright © Margaret Atwood, 1974. Reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London on behalf of O. W. Toad Ltd; Awolola, Ruth: ‘On Forgetting That I Am a Tree’ first published in Rising Stars: New Young Voices in Poetry (Otter-Barry Books, 2017). Copyright © Ruth Awolola. Used with permission of the author; Ayres, Pam: ‘Woodland Burial’ from Surgically Enhanced by Pam Ayres (Hodder & Stoughton, 2006). Copyright © Pam Ayres, 2006. Reproduced by permission of Sheil Land Associates; Beard, Francesca: ‘Power of the Other’ by Francesca Beard. Copyright © Francesca Beard. Used by permission of the author; Berry, Liz: ‘5th Dudley Girl Guides’ from Black Country by Liz Berry (Chatto & Windus, 2014). Copyright © 2014. Reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Ltd; Bishop, Elizabeth: ‘One Art’ from Poems by Elizabeth Bishop (Chatto & Windus, 2004/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2011). Copyright © The Alice H. Methfessel Trust. Publishers Note and Compilation copyright © Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Reproduced with permission from Chatto & Windus and Farrar, Straus & Giroux; Bogan, Louise: ‘Song for the Last Act’ from The Blue Estuaries: Poems 1923-1968 by Louise Bogan. Copyright © 1968 by Louise Bogan, renewed 1996 by Ruth Limmer. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Borja, Aisha: ‘Bridge’ from England: Poems from a School edited by Kate Clanchy (Picador, 2018). Copyright © Aisha Borja. Used with permission of the publisher; Brackenbury, Alison: ‘Friday Afternoon’ from Skies (Carcanet Press, 2016). Copyright © Alison Brackenbury, 2016. Reproduced by permission of the publisher; Brownlee, Liz: ‘The Battle of the Sexes’ first printed in A Poem For Every Day of the Year ed. Allie Esiri (Macmillan Children’s Books, 2017). Copyright © Liz Brownlee. Used by kind permission of the author; Burke, Helen: ‘Lacing Boots’ from Today the Birds Will Sing: Collected Poems (Valley Press, 2017). Copyright © Helen Burke, 2017. Reproduced by permission of Valley Press Ltd; Butler, Finn: ‘Saltwater’ by Finn Butler. Copyright © Finn Butler. Used by permission of the author; Bryce, Colette: ‘The Brits’ from The Whole and Rain-domed Universe (Picador, 2014). Copyright © Colette Bryce. Used with permission of the publisher; Byford, Katie: ‘Not Andromeda’ from Hallelujah for 50ft Women edited by Raving Beauties (Bloodaxe Books, 2015). Copyright © Katie Byford. Used with permission of the author; Cannon, Moya: ‘Introductions’ from Carrying the Songs by Moya Cannon (Carcanet Press, 2007). Copyright © Moya Cannon. Used with permission of the author and the publisher; Capildeo, Vahni: ‘To Sleep, Possum to Dream’ from Utter (Peepal Tree, 2013). Copyright © Vahni Capildeo 2013. Used by permission of the author and the publisher; Chan, Mary Jean: ‘Practice’ from A Hurry of English by Mary Jean Chan (Ignition Press, 2018). Copyrig
ht© Mary Jean Chan. Reproduced by permission of the author c/o Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd., 20 Powis Mews, London W11 1JN; Clanchy, Kate: ‘Timetable’ from Slattern (Picador, 2001). Copyright © Kate Clanchy. Reproduced by permission of the author c/o Rogers, Coleridge & White, 20 Powis Mews, London, W11 1JN; Clark, Polly: ‘Friends’ from Farewell My Lovely (Bloodaxe Books, 2009). Copyright © Polly Clark. Used by permission of the publisher; Clarke, Gillian: ‘Mali’ from Collected Poems (Carcanet Press, 1997). Copyright © Gillian Clarke. Used with permission of the publisher; Clifton, Lucille: ‘Homage to My Hips’ from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 (BOA Editions, 1980). Copyright © Lucille Clifton. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd; Close, Kristina: ‘And then he said: When did your arms get so big?’ first published in Hallelujah for 50ft Women (Bloodaxe Books, 2015). Copyright © Kristina Close. Used by permission of the author; Cook, Abigail: ‘My Body’ first published in Rising Stars: New Young Voices in Poetry (Otter-Barry Books, 2017). Copyright © Abigail Cook. Used with permission of the author; Cope, Wendy: ‘The Orange’ from Two Cures for Love (Faber and Faber, 2009). Copyright © Wendy Cope. Used by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd; Cornford, Frances: ‘Ode on the Whole Duty of Parents’ and ‘The Guitarist Tunes Up’ from Frances Cornford’s Selected Poems edited by Jane Dowson (Enitharmon Press, 1996). Copyright © Frances Cornford. Used by permission of the publisher; Daley-Ward, Yrsa: ‘heat’ from BONE (Penguin, 2017). Copyright © Yrsa Daley-Ward. Used by permission of the publisher and the author; Dean, Jan: ‘Three Good Things’ first published in A Poem for Every Day of the Year (Macmillan Children’s Books, 2017) and ‘Rosa Parks’ first published in Reaching the Stars: Poems About Extraordinary Women and Girls (Macmillan Children’s Books, 2017). Copyright © Jan Dean, 2017. Used with permission of the author; Dharker, Imtiaz: ‘How to Cut a Pomegranate’ from The Terrorist at my Table (Bloodaxe Books, 2006) and ‘Flight Radar’ from Luck is the Hook (Bloodaxe Books, 2009). Copyright © Imtiaz Dharker 2006. Used by permission of the publisher; Doolittle, Hilda (H.D.): ‘The Moon in Your Hands’ from H.D. Selected Poems (Carcanet Press, 1997) and Collected Poems 1912-1944 (New Directions Publishing, 1982). Copyright © The Estate of Hilda Doolittle, 1982. Reprinted by permission of Carcanet Press and New Directions Publishing Corp; Duffy, Carol Ann: ‘Valentine’ from New Selected Poems 1984-2004 by Carol Ann Duffy (Picador, 2011). Copyright © Carol Ann Duffy. Reproduced by permission of the author c/o Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd., 20 Powis Mews, London W11 1JN; Dunmore, Helen: ‘September Rain’ from Inside the Wave (Bloodaxe Books, 2017). Copyright © Helen Dunmore. Used by permission of the publisher; Edwards, Rhian: ‘Polly’ from Clueless Dogs by Rhian Edwards (Seren, 2012). Copyright © Rhian Edwards. Used by permission of the publisher; Elson, Rebecca: ‘Antidote to the Fear of Death’ from A Responsibility to Awe (Carcanet Press, 2001). Copyright © Rebecca Elson. Used by permission of the publisher; Esther Allan, Mabel: ‘Immensity’ from Chaos of the Night edited by Catherine Reilly (Virago, 2007). Copyright © The Estate of Mabel Esther Allan. Used with permission of the publisher; Feinstein, Elaine: ‘Anniversary’ from Elaine Feinstein - Collected Poems and Translations (Carcanet Press, 2002). Copyright © Elaine Feinstein. Used by permission of the publisher; Fraser, Kathleen: ‘Poem in Which My Legs Are Accepted’ from Stilts, Somersaults & Headstands by Kathleen Fraser. Copyright © Kathleen Fraser. All rights renewed and reserved. Used by permission of Marian Reiner for the author; Gatehouse, Victoria: ‘Phosphorescence’ first published in The Emma Press Anthology of Mildly Erotic Verse ed. Rachel Piercey and Emma Wright (The Emma Press, 2016). Copyright © Victoria Gatehouse. Used with permission of the author; Gill, Nikita: ‘93 Percent Stardust’ from Your Soul is a River (Thought Catalog Books, 2016). Copyright © Nikita Gill. Used with permission of the author; Gittins, Chrissie: ‘The Unseen Life of Trees’ by Chrissie Gittins. Copyright © Chrissie Gittins. Used by permission of the author; Graves, Remi: ‘It Is Everywhere’ by Remi Graves. Copyright © Remi Graves. Reproduced by permission of the author; Halley, Anne: ‘A Pride of Ladies’ from Between Wars and Other Poems (University of Massachusetts Press, 1965). Copyright © 1965 by the University of Massachusetts Press. Used with permission of the publisher; Hardy-Dawson, Sue: ‘Diaspora’ by Sue Hardy-Dawson. Copyright©Sue Hardy-Dawson. Reprinted by permission of the author; Haught, Kaylin: ‘God Says Yes To Me’ from The Palm of Your Hand ed. Steve Kowit (Tilbury House Publishers, 1995). Copyright © Kaylin Haught; Hjertenaes Anderson, Astrid: ‘Before the sun goes down’ translated by Nadia Christensen. Original Norwegian from Pastoraler (H. Aschehoug & Co, 1960). Translation from A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now ed. Alexi Barnstone and Willis Barnstone (Random House, 1992). Copyright © Nadia Christensen. Used with kind permission of the translator; Ingram, Lesley: ‘The Pale Horse’ first published in And Other Poems by Josephine Corcoran (And Other Poems Blog, 2013). Copyright © Lesley Ingram. Used by permission of the author; Jennings, Elizabeth: ‘Friendship’ from The Collected Poems (Carcanet Press, 2012). Copyright © Elizabeth Jennings. Used by permission of David Higham Associates as representatives of the Literary Estate of Elizabeth Jennings; Joseph, Jenny: ‘The Sun Has Burst the Sky’ and ‘Warning’ from Selected Poems (Bloodaxe, 1992). Copyright © Jenny Joseph. Reproduced with permission of Johnson & Alcock Ltd; Kay, Jackie: ‘Fiere’ from Fiere by Jackie Kay (Picador, 2011). Copyright © 2011, Jackie Kay. Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited; Khatun, Rukiya: ‘Sylhet’ from England: Poems from a School edited by Kate Clanchy (Picador, 2018). Copyright © Rukiya Khatun. Used with permission of the publisher; Lasker-Schüler, Else: ‘Reconciliation’ by Else Lasker-Schüler, translated by James Sheard. Copyright © James Sheard. Used by permission of the translator; Lindsay Bird, Hera: ‘Love Comes Back’ first published in Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press, Wellington, New Zealand, 2016). Copyright © Hera Lindsay Bird. Used by permission of the publisher; Little, Jean: ‘Today’ from Hey World, Here I Am! Written by Jean Little and illustrated by Sue Trendell. Text copyright © Jean Little 1986. Used by permission of Kids Can Press Ltd., Toronto, Canada; Little, Pippa: ‘Huge Blue’ from Overwintering (Carcanet Press, 2012). Copyright © Pippa Little. Used by permission of the publisher; Lochhead, Liz: ‘A Glasgow Nonsense Rhyme for Molly’ from Fugitive Colours (Polygon, 2016). Copyright © Liz Lochhead. Used by permission of the author; McNish, Hollie: ‘Milk-Jug Jackers’ from Nobody Told Me (Blackfriars, 2016). Copyright © Hollie McNish. Used by permission of the publisher; Mitchell, Elma: ‘This Poem . . .’ from People Etcetera: Poems New and Selected (Peterloo Pets, 1987) by Elma Mitchell. Copyright © The Elma Mitchell Estate, used with permission; Morgan, Michaela: ‘My First Day at School’ from Reaching the Stars: Poems About Extraordinary Women and Girls (Macmillan Children’s Books, 2017). Copyright© Michaela Morgan. Used with permission of the author; Murray, Pauli: ‘Ruth’ from Dark testament: and other poems. Copyright © The Estate of Pauli Murray. Reproduced by permission of The Sheedy Literacy Agency on behalf of The Estate of Pauli Murray; Myles, Eileen: ‘Uppity’ from Snowflake/Different Streets (Wave Books, 2012). Copyright © Eileen Myles. Used with permission of the author; Nichols, Grace: ‘For Forest’ from Come On Into My Tropical Garden (A & C Black, 1988). Copyright © Grace Nichols. Reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London on behalf of Grace Nichols; Nwulu, Selina: ‘Tough Dragons’ from The Secrets I Let Slip (Burning Eye Books, 2015). Copyright © Selina Nwulu. Used by kind permission of the author; Oliver, Mary: ‘Breakage’ from Why I Wake Early by Mary Oliver (Beacon press Boston, 2004). Copyright © Mary Oliver. Reprinted by permission of the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency Inc; Oswald, Alice: ‘Wedding’ from The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile by Alice Oswald (Faber and Faber, 1996). Copyright © Alice Oswald. Used by permission from the publisher and the agent; Parker, Dorothy: ‘Lullaby’ and ‘Inventory’ from The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker, edited by Marion Meade. Copyright © 1926 and 28, renewed © 1954/56 respectively. Used by permission
of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved; Plath, Sylvia: ‘Metaphors’ and ‘Mirrors’ from Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath (Faber and Faber, 2002). Copyright © The Literary Estate of Sylvia Plath; Pratt, Wendy: ‘Nan Hardwicke Turns Into a Hare’ first published in Nan Hardwicke Turns Into a Hare (Prolebooks, 2011). Copyright © Wendy Pratt. Used by permission of the author; Raine, Kathleen: ‘Heirloom’ from Collected Poems (Golgonooza Press, 2000). Copyright © The Literary Estate of Kathleen Raine. Reprinted by permission of the publisher; Rezaei, Shukria: ‘A Glass of Tea’ from England: Poems from a School edited by Kate Clanchy (Picador, 2018). Copyright © Shukria Rezaei. Used with permission of the publisher; Sackville-West, Vita: extract from ‘The Land’ and ‘Full Moon’ by Vita Sackville-West. Copyright © Vita Sackville-West 1926. Reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London on behalf of The Beneficiaries of the Estate of Vita Sackville-West; Slaney, Di: ‘How to knit a sheep’ from Reward for Winter (Valley Press, 2016). Copyright © Di Slaney. Used with permission of the author; Smith, Stevie: ‘Not Waving but Drowning’ from Collected Poems and Drawings by Stevie Smith (Faber and Faber, 2015). Copyright © Stevie Smith. Used with permission of the publisher; Tempest, Kate: ‘Thirteen’ from Hold Your Own (Picador, 2014). Copyright © Kate Tempest. Used by permission of Johnson & Alcock on behalf of the author; Tepperman, Jean: ‘Witch’ by Jean Tepperman. Copyright © Jean Tepperman. Used with kind permission of the author; Towers, Katharine: ‘Nerval and the Lobster’ from The Remedies (Picador, 2014). Copyright © Katharine Towers. Used with permission of the publisher; Walker, Alice: ‘Before I Leave the Stage’ from The World Will Follow Joy: Turning Madness into Flowers (The New Press, 2014). Copyright © Alice Walker. Used with permission from the agent on behalf of the author.