Review
Anachronism by Barbara Block Adams
My Song For Solomon by Barbara Block Adams
No Choice by Margaret Atwood
Siren Song by Margaret Atwood
Bathsheba: Looking Forward, Looking Back by Grace Bauer
Note From The Imaginary Daughter by Grace Bauer
Bad Little Girl by Toni La Ree Bennett
Mezza Ragna by Toni La Ree Bennett
No Pastel Princess by Toni La Ree Bennett
Afterthought by Maxianne Berger
Brodsky by Judith Bishop
The Profession by Judith Bishop
Shelley's Death by Judith Bishop
To Mallarme by Judith Bishop
To Yevtushenko by Judith Bishop
Women At Forty by Kathleen Bogan
Hypocrite Swift by Louise Bogan
The Tenth Muse: The Prologue by Anne Bradstreet
But You Were Not A Babii Yar, Mr. Yevtushenko by Barbara Brent Brower
Una Jeffers To Her Husband, Robinson by Barbara Brent Brower
For Paul Laurence Dunbar by Linda Carter Brown
Winning The Prize by Penny Cagan
What It Must Be Like For Certain Wives To Read Their Well-known Husban by Yvette Carbeaux
Jacob by Phoebe Cary
When Lovely Woman Wants A Favor by Phoebe Cary
The Bride Of Quietness by Kelly Cherry
Gertrude To Hamlet by Kelly Cherry
Going Down On America: The Regional Poet by Kelly Cherry
Lady Macbeth On The Psych Ward by Kelly Cherry
Reading, Dreaming, Hiding by Kelly Cherry
To Catullus -- Highet by Kelly Cherry
Donna Julia's First Letter After Juan's Departure For Cadiz by Katharine Coles
A Poem With Capital Letters by Jane Cooper
An Argument With Wordsworth by Wendy Cope
John Clare by Wendy Cope
A Policeman's Lot by Wendy Cope
Tumps by Wendy Cope
Variation On Belloc's 'fatigue' by Wendy Cope
Waste Land Limericks: 1 by Wendy Cope
Waste Land Limericks: 2 by Wendy Cope
Waste Land Limericks: 3 by Wendy Cope
Waste Land Limericks: 4 by Wendy Cope
Waste Land Limericks: 5 by Wendy Cope
Dina's Happy Ending by Enid Dame
Esther by Enid Dame
Jael's Poem by Enid Dame
Noah'a Daughter by Enid Dame
To Mr. Poe, From His Beautiful Annabel Lee by Gray Davis
The Dead Flea by Karen Donnelly
Calypso: 2 by Hilda Doolittle
Crystal Bowl by Hilda Doolittle
Heliodora by Hilda Doolittle
Lais by Hilda Doolittle
Nossis by Hilda Doolittle
I Scream In America by Diane Engle
Answering To Rilke by Rhina Polonia Espaillat
Dialogue by Rhina Polonia Espaillat
For Robert Frost by Rhina Polonia Espaillat
Non Carpe Diem by Patricia Falk
Philomela, Sels. by Beth Fein
Coy Mistress by Annie Finch
Lamia To Lycius by Annie Finch
This Is Just To Say by Erica-lynn Gambino
After Horace: The Pastor's Wife Delivers Soup by Nola Garrett
Kohl by Nola Garrett
My Friend Melissa by Nola Garrett
Names Of Curtains by Nola Garrett
Leda by Chanda J. Glass
The Boys I Mean by Julia Goldberg
Lot's Wife by Anna Adreyevna Gorenko
Elevens by Marilyn Hacker
Riposte by Marilyn Hacker
Walking Through A Cornfield In The Middle Of Winter, I Stumble ... by Barbara Harr
For Homer's Mosquito by Ann Louise Hayes
Another Cynical Variation by Helen [pseud.]
129f. A Response To Shaxper's Sonnet 129 by Dorothy Hickson
The Dark Lady Learns That Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun by Mary Holtby
The Feminine If by Mary Holtby
Jenny To L. H. by Mary Holtby
Porphyria's Reply by Mary Holtby
To Donne Rhyming by Mary Holtby
To Edgar, From Helen by Mary Holtby
To Rabbie by Mary Holtby
The Tyger's Reply To Blake by Mary Holtby
Enough by Kathleen Ann Iddings
If It Be True by Esther Johnson
The Perfect Poet by Erica Mann Jong
Domestic Scenes From Lady Tennyson's Journal by Margaret Kay
Thoughts Of The Woman Much Missed by Margaret Kay
Light Lover by Aline Murray Kilmer
A Muse Of Water by Carolyn Kizer
Pro Femina: One by Carolyn Kizer
Pro Femina: Three by Carolyn Kizer
Pro Femina: Two by Carolyn Kizer
Miriam by Yala Korwin
Not A Voice by Yala Korwin
Annabel Lee Does A Post-mortem On The Hazards Of Romance With A Metric by Joyce La Mers
Observation By A Formerly Rose-lipt Maiden by Joyce La Mers
Penelope And Ulysses Settle A Domestic Dispute by Joyce La Mers
Bowling Green, Sewing Machine! by Peggy Landsman
Eves Apologie by Aemilia (bassano) Lanyer
A New Prayer For Daughters by Jean Leblanc
The Solitary Reaper Gets Her Words' Worth by Jean Leblanc
My Night With Philip Larkin by Rachel Loden
On Beria's Lap by Rachel Loden
Abigail by Barbara Loots
Aubade On Troost Avenue by Barbara Loots
Astigmatism by Amy Lowell
Lilith by Catherine Martin
Ann Wishes She'd Taken A Little More Heed by Katherine Mcalpine
Cynara Respondet by Katherine Mcalpine
Lucasta Remains Unconvinced by Katherine Mcalpine
Reply To A Dream Song by Katherine Mcalpine
That Ghastly Night In Dover by Katherine Mcalpine
Dido Of Tunisia by Phyllis Mcginley
Public Journal by Phyllis Mcginley
The Art Of Nature by Carol E. Miller
Poem by Carol E. Miller
After Many Years, Griselda Loses Patience by Kel Munger
The Red-haired Waitress by Kel Munger
The Language Of The Brag by Sharon Olds
Dylan, We Were Like Those Flimsy Moons by June Owens
Promises: On A Familiar Poem By Robert Frost by June Owens
A Small Quarrel With T. S. Eliot by June Owens
Sonnet To Percy In Italy, From England by June Owens
Thomas Hardy, Under Glass by June Owens
What I Heard by June Owens
Letter From Lesbia, Sels. by Dorothy Parker
Adam's Curse Revisited by Debra Pennington
On Gari Melchers' Writing (1905) In The Los Angeles County Museum by Helen A. Pinkerton
A Browning Toccata by D. A. Prince
His Coy Mistress Replies by D. A. Prince
La Belle Dame Sans Merci Offers Her Version by D. A. Prince
Modern Middlesex by D. A. Prince
Response To Thomas Gray By His Favourite Cat, Selima by D. A. Prince
A Word From Mrs. Wallace Stevens by Sima Rabinowitz
I Ask Myself If This Is The Start Of A Prose Poem by Naomi Rachel
Mark Strand by Naomi Rachel
Am Lit by Susan Blackwell Ramsey
The Muse Interrupts My Rant At Charles Bukowski Over His Popularity .. by Susan Blackwell Ramsey
The Lady That's Known As Lou Gives R. W. Service A Piece Of Her Mind by Elisavietta Ritchie
Caitlin To Dylan: In Memoriam by Margaret Rogers
Lucasta Replies To Richard Lovelace by Margaret Rogers
Pied Untidy by Margaret Rogers
Poets And Peacocoks by Margaret Rogers
Doubting Thomas by Verna Safran
Erato Erratum by Verna Safran
Mermaid's Song by Verna Safran
To Alcaeus by Sappho
Areopagitica by Joanne Seltzer
Lycidas by Joanne Seltzer
My Last Duchess Responds To Robert Browning by Joanne Seltzer
On The Coming Of Spring by Joanne Seltzer
Paradise Lost by Joanne Seltzer
Proposal To Robert Burns by Joanne Seltzer
Samson Agonistes by Joanne Seltzer
To A Friend Whose Work Has Come To Triumph by Anne Sexton
The Daughters Of Oedipus by Grace Simpson
The Lads Of The Village by Florence Margaret Smith
The Muse Says She's Finished by Judith Mickel Sornberger
Mary's Present by Laurel Speer
Milton's Women With Memories More Than 300 Years Old by Laurel Speer
Reason, My Dear Maria, Brings Us To Proximity by Laurel Speer
Walking A Lobster With Blake Along Speedway by Laurel Speer
Arachne Gives Thanks To Athena by A. E. Stallings
Daphne by A. E. Stallings
Eurydice Reveals Her Strength by A. E. Stallings
A Likely Story by A. E. Stallings
Medea, Homesick by A. E. Stallings
Whoso List To Hunt by A. E. Stallings
The Wife Of The Man Of Many Wiles by A. E. Stallings
At Auden's Museum by Stephanie Strickland
Beatrice by Sara Teasdale
Edward Lear by Lee Upton
The Gentleman's Study, In Answer To The Lady's Dressing-room by Miss W---- [pseud.]
Bodies You Broke by Lenore Baeli Wang
Life-binding by Lenore Baeli Wang
Annabel Lee by Carolyn Wells
The Blessed Damozel by Carolyn Wells
Lord A. Tennyson by Carolyn Wells
Lucy by Carolyn Wells
Mr. A. Swinburne by Carolyn Wells
Mr. D. G. Rossetti by Carolyn Wells
Mr. J. Keats by Carolyn Wells
Mr. John Milton by Carolyn Wells
Mr. P. Bysshe Shelley by Carolyn Wells
Mr. T. Gray by Carolyn Wells
Ophelia by Carolyn Wells
Pantoum To A Bearded Muse On Lines By Robert Graves by Kathleene West
Corinna's Not Going A-maying by Gail White
Medea's Soliloquy by Gail White
Rose Aylmer's Cousin by Gail White
Rossetti's Wife by Gail White
The Shropshire Lad's Fiancee by Gail White
Walt Whitman Encounters The Cosmos With The Cats Of New York by Gail White
Three-part Invention For Celan by Patricia Wilcox
Emma's Evensong by Anita Wintz
For Robert Bridges by Anita Wintz
One Way Of Looking At A Woman by Phyllis Witte
The Skin Of It by Phyllis Witte
Epitaph by Mary Wortley Montagu
A Synopsis Of Lord Lyttleton's 'advice To A Lady' by Mary Wortley Montagu
Verses Addressed To Imitator Of First Satire Of Horace by Mary Wortley Montagu
In Witness Of Women Poets by Susanna Elizabeth Zeidler
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
The Muse Strikes Back is a mainstream feminist poetry anthology, derivative by thematic design, in that the included poems all answer, respond to or parody poems by men. Therein lies its complicating and not uninteresting problem. For example A.E. Stalling's poem "Whoso List to Hunt," parodies Sir Thomas Wyatt's poem of the same title and Mary Holtby's "To Donne Rhyming" echoes John Donne's "The Sun Rising." So a reader must know (or go to the trouble to locate elsewhere, as none of the original poems responded to are printed in The Muse Strikes Back) the founding work to fully appreciate the anthology's inclusions. That's a sizable literary expectation given that the book covers a good hundred poets ranging from biblical literature and classical traditions, through the centuries and literary periods to the contemporary scene. The editors claim to have discovered "a venerable and ongoing tradition of spirited female backtalk," but this reviewer is less than convinced. A disproportionate several dozen of the anthology's poems are written by a handful of contributing poets with few prepublication acknowledgments. Their presence weakens the editors' claim of a venerable tradition. However The Muse Strikes Back has its delights. A number are period-piece Brit-Lit parodies - Mary Holtby's tweaks of Leigh Hunt and Shelley are especially funny, goofy bits of doggerel. Enid Dame's biblical restatements -"Noah's Daughter," "Esther," and others - are poems of beautiful language and shifting perspective. Laurel Speer's takes on Rilke, Shelley and Blake read fresh and smart. Barbara Harr's parody of Robert Bly ("Blue toads are dying all over Minnesota/ ...It is also good to be poor, and live in the hen house....") is good-natured and obvious, while Marilyn Hacker's reverie on James Wright is fraught with the deep voice of autobiographical torture, love and despair-a worthy response to her Ohio brother "...fifty-two when you died of cancer/ of the tongue, apologist of the lonely/ girls who were happened to near some bleak water." Other strong inclusions and interesting curiosities and occasional pieces include Anne Sexton's poem to her friend W.D. Snodgrass on his winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1960 and Erica Jong's teasingly jaunty "The Perfect Poet." But many of the anthology's inclusions respond to what's familiar by imitative versifying-without sufficiently fresh vision, poetry's clean cut, rearrangement and absorbing depth. Overall unevenness buries some seriously funny as well as serious poems. Identifying cadences and rote parallels trap June Owens' "Promises: On a Familiar Poem by Robert Frost": "What vows you made, I don't pretend to know,/ Or how the snow seemed to your horse...." and Erica-Lynn Gambino's "This Is Just to Say/ I have just/ asked you to/ get out of my/ apartment...." Such examples indicate the difficulties selecting fresh material for a project as respondent-based as this one. Regardless of its shortcomings, Women's Studies programs and library poetry collections will find The Muse Strikes Back of interest for reading and reference. -- From Independent Publisher
My Song For Solomon by Barbara Block Adams
No Choice by Margaret Atwood
Siren Song by Margaret Atwood
Bathsheba: Looking Forward, Looking Back by Grace Bauer
Note From The Imaginary Daughter by Grace Bauer
Bad Little Girl by Toni La Ree Bennett
Mezza Ragna by Toni La Ree Bennett
No Pastel Princess by Toni La Ree Bennett
Afterthought by Maxianne Berger
Brodsky by Judith Bishop
The Profession by Judith Bishop
Shelley's Death by Judith Bishop
To Mallarme by Judith Bishop
To Yevtushenko by Judith Bishop
Women At Forty by Kathleen Bogan
Hypocrite Swift by Louise Bogan
The Tenth Muse: The Prologue by Anne Bradstreet
But You Were Not A Babii Yar, Mr. Yevtushenko by Barbara Brent Brower
Una Jeffers To Her Husband, Robinson by Barbara Brent Brower
For Paul Laurence Dunbar by Linda Carter Brown
Winning The Prize by Penny Cagan
What It Must Be Like For Certain Wives To Read Their Well-known Husban by Yvette Carbeaux
Jacob by Phoebe Cary
When Lovely Woman Wants A Favor by Phoebe Cary
The Bride Of Quietness by Kelly Cherry
Gertrude To Hamlet by Kelly Cherry
Going Down On America: The Regional Poet by Kelly Cherry
Lady Macbeth On The Psych Ward by Kelly Cherry
Reading, Dreaming, Hiding by Kelly Cherry
To Catullus -- Highet by Kelly Cherry
Donna Julia's First Letter After Juan's Departure For Cadiz by Katharine Coles
A Poem With Capital Letters by Jane Cooper
An Argument With Wordsworth by Wendy Cope
John Clare by Wendy Cope
A Policeman's Lot by Wendy Cope
Tumps by Wendy Cope
Variation On Belloc's 'fatigue' by Wendy Cope
Waste Land Limericks: 1 by Wendy Cope
Waste Land Limericks: 2 by Wendy Cope
Waste Land Limericks: 3 by Wendy Cope
Waste Land Limericks: 4 by Wendy Cope
Waste Land Limericks: 5 by Wendy Cope
Dina's Happy Ending by Enid Dame
Esther by Enid Dame
Jael's Poem by Enid Dame
Noah'a Daughter by Enid Dame
To Mr. Poe, From His Beautiful Annabel Lee by Gray Davis
The Dead Flea by Karen Donnelly
Calypso: 2 by Hilda Doolittle
Crystal Bowl by Hilda Doolittle
Heliodora by Hilda Doolittle
Lais by Hilda Doolittle
Nossis by Hilda Doolittle
I Scream In America by Diane Engle
Answering To Rilke by Rhina Polonia Espaillat
Dialogue by Rhina Polonia Espaillat
For Robert Frost by Rhina Polonia Espaillat
Non Carpe Diem by Patricia Falk
Philomela, Sels. by Beth Fein
Coy Mistress by Annie Finch
Lamia To Lycius by Annie Finch
This Is Just To Say by Erica-lynn Gambino
After Horace: The Pastor's Wife Delivers Soup by Nola Garrett
Kohl by Nola Garrett
My Friend Melissa by Nola Garrett
Names Of Curtains by Nola Garrett
Leda by Chanda J. Glass
The Boys I Mean by Julia Goldberg
Lot's Wife by Anna Adreyevna Gorenko
Elevens by Marilyn Hacker
Riposte by Marilyn Hacker
Walking Through A Cornfield In The Middle Of Winter, I Stumble ... by Barbara Harr
For Homer's Mosquito by Ann Louise Hayes
Another Cynical Variation by Helen [pseud.]
129f. A Response To Shaxper's Sonnet 129 by Dorothy Hickson
The Dark Lady Learns That Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun by Mary Holtby
The Feminine If by Mary Holtby
Jenny To L. H. by Mary Holtby
Porphyria's Reply by Mary Holtby
To Donne Rhyming by Mary Holtby
To Edgar, From Helen by Mary Holtby
To Rabbie by Mary Holtby
The Tyger's Reply To Blake by Mary Holtby
Enough by Kathleen Ann Iddings
If It Be True by Esther Johnson
The Perfect Poet by Erica Mann Jong
Domestic Scenes From Lady Tennyson's Journal by Margaret Kay
Thoughts Of The Woman Much Missed by Margaret Kay
Light Lover by Aline Murray Kilmer
A Muse Of Water by Carolyn Kizer
Pro Femina: One by Carolyn Kizer
Pro Femina: Three by Carolyn Kizer
Pro Femina: Two by Carolyn Kizer
Miriam by Yala Korwin
Not A Voice by Yala Korwin
Annabel Lee Does A Post-mortem On The Hazards Of Romance With A Metric by Joyce La Mers
Observation By A Formerly Rose-lipt Maiden by Joyce La Mers
Penelope And Ulysses Settle A Domestic Dispute by Joyce La Mers
Bowling Green, Sewing Machine! by Peggy Landsman
Eves Apologie by Aemilia (bassano) Lanyer
A New Prayer For Daughters by Jean Leblanc
The Solitary Reaper Gets Her Words' Worth by Jean Leblanc
My Night With Philip Larkin by Rachel Loden
On Beria's Lap by Rachel Loden
Abigail by Barbara Loots
Aubade On Troost Avenue by Barbara Loots
Astigmatism by Amy Lowell
Lilith by Catherine Martin
Ann Wishes She'd Taken A Little More Heed by Katherine Mcalpine
Cynara Respondet by Katherine Mcalpine
Lucasta Remains Unconvinced by Katherine Mcalpine
Reply To A Dream Song by Katherine Mcalpine
That Ghastly Night In Dover by Katherine Mcalpine
Dido Of Tunisia by Phyllis Mcginley
Public Journal by Phyllis Mcginley
The Art Of Nature by Carol E. Miller
Poem by Carol E. Miller
After Many Years, Griselda Loses Patience by Kel Munger
The Red-haired Waitress by Kel Munger
The Language Of The Brag by Sharon Olds
Dylan, We Were Like Those Flimsy Moons by June Owens
Promises: On A Familiar Poem By Robert Frost by June Owens
A Small Quarrel With T. S. Eliot by June Owens
Sonnet To Percy In Italy, From England by June Owens
Thomas Hardy, Under Glass by June Owens
What I Heard by June Owens
Letter From Lesbia, Sels. by Dorothy Parker
Adam's Curse Revisited by Debra Pennington
On Gari Melchers' Writing (1905) In The Los Angeles County Museum by Helen A. Pinkerton
A Browning Toccata by D. A. Prince
His Coy Mistress Replies by D. A. Prince
La Belle Dame Sans Merci Offers Her Version by D. A. Prince
Modern Middlesex by D. A. Prince
Response To Thomas Gray By His Favourite Cat, Selima by D. A. Prince
A Word From Mrs. Wallace Stevens by Sima Rabinowitz
I Ask Myself If This Is The Start Of A Prose Poem by Naomi Rachel
Mark Strand by Naomi Rachel
Am Lit by Susan Blackwell Ramsey
The Muse Interrupts My Rant At Charles Bukowski Over His Popularity .. by Susan Blackwell Ramsey
The Lady That's Known As Lou Gives R. W. Service A Piece Of Her Mind by Elisavietta Ritchie
Caitlin To Dylan: In Memoriam by Margaret Rogers
Lucasta Replies To Richard Lovelace by Margaret Rogers
Pied Untidy by Margaret Rogers
Poets And Peacocoks by Margaret Rogers
Doubting Thomas by Verna Safran
Erato Erratum by Verna Safran
Mermaid's Song by Verna Safran
To Alcaeus by Sappho
Areopagitica by Joanne Seltzer
Lycidas by Joanne Seltzer
My Last Duchess Responds To Robert Browning by Joanne Seltzer
On The Coming Of Spring by Joanne Seltzer
Paradise Lost by Joanne Seltzer
Proposal To Robert Burns by Joanne Seltzer
Samson Agonistes by Joanne Seltzer
To A Friend Whose Work Has Come To Triumph by Anne Sexton
The Daughters Of Oedipus by Grace Simpson
The Lads Of The Village by Florence Margaret Smith
The Muse Says She's Finished by Judith Mickel Sornberger
Mary's Present by Laurel Speer
Milton's Women With Memories More Than 300 Years Old by Laurel Speer
Reason, My Dear Maria, Brings Us To Proximity by Laurel Speer
Walking A Lobster With Blake Along Speedway by Laurel Speer
Arachne Gives Thanks To Athena by A. E. Stallings
Daphne by A. E. Stallings
Eurydice Reveals Her Strength by A. E. Stallings
A Likely Story by A. E. Stallings
Medea, Homesick by A. E. Stallings
Whoso List To Hunt by A. E. Stallings
The Wife Of The Man Of Many Wiles by A. E. Stallings
At Auden's Museum by Stephanie Strickland
Beatrice by Sara Teasdale
Edward Lear by Lee Upton
The Gentleman's Study, In Answer To The Lady's Dressing-room by Miss W---- [pseud.]
Bodies You Broke by Lenore Baeli Wang
Life-binding by Lenore Baeli Wang
Annabel Lee by Carolyn Wells
The Blessed Damozel by Carolyn Wells
Lord A. Tennyson by Carolyn Wells
Lucy by Carolyn Wells
Mr. A. Swinburne by Carolyn Wells
Mr. D. G. Rossetti by Carolyn Wells
Mr. J. Keats by Carolyn Wells
Mr. John Milton by Carolyn Wells
Mr. P. Bysshe Shelley by Carolyn Wells
Mr. T. Gray by Carolyn Wells
Ophelia by Carolyn Wells
Pantoum To A Bearded Muse On Lines By Robert Graves by Kathleene West
Corinna's Not Going A-maying by Gail White
Medea's Soliloquy by Gail White
Rose Aylmer's Cousin by Gail White
Rossetti's Wife by Gail White
The Shropshire Lad's Fiancee by Gail White
Walt Whitman Encounters The Cosmos With The Cats Of New York by Gail White
Three-part Invention For Celan by Patricia Wilcox
Emma's Evensong by Anita Wintz
For Robert Bridges by Anita Wintz
One Way Of Looking At A Woman by Phyllis Witte
The Skin Of It by Phyllis Witte
Epitaph by Mary Wortley Montagu
A Synopsis Of Lord Lyttleton's 'advice To A Lady' by Mary Wortley Montagu
Verses Addressed To Imitator Of First Satire Of Horace by Mary Wortley Montagu
In Witness Of Women Poets by Susanna Elizabeth Zeidler
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
The Muse Strikes Back is a mainstream feminist poetry anthology, derivative by thematic design, in that the included poems all answer, respond to or parody poems by men. Therein lies its complicating and not uninteresting problem. For example A.E. Stalling's poem "Whoso List to Hunt," parodies Sir Thomas Wyatt's poem of the same title and Mary Holtby's "To Donne Rhyming" echoes John Donne's "The Sun Rising." So a reader must know (or go to the trouble to locate elsewhere, as none of the original poems responded to are printed in The Muse Strikes Back) the founding work to fully appreciate the anthology's inclusions. That's a sizable literary expectation given that the book covers a good hundred poets ranging from biblical literature and classical traditions, through the centuries and literary periods to the contemporary scene. The editors claim to have discovered "a venerable and ongoing tradition of spirited female backtalk," but this reviewer is less than convinced. A disproportionate several dozen of the anthology's poems are written by a handful of contributing poets with few prepublication acknowledgments. Their presence weakens the editors' claim of a venerable tradition. However The Muse Strikes Back has its delights. A number are period-piece Brit-Lit parodies - Mary Holtby's tweaks of Leigh Hunt and Shelley are especially funny, goofy bits of doggerel. Enid Dame's biblical restatements -"Noah's Daughter," "Esther," and others - are poems of beautiful language and shifting perspective. Laurel Speer's takes on Rilke, Shelley and Blake read fresh and smart. Barbara Harr's parody of Robert Bly ("Blue toads are dying all over Minnesota/ ...It is also good to be poor, and live in the hen house....") is good-natured and obvious, while Marilyn Hacker's reverie on James Wright is fraught with the deep voice of autobiographical torture, love and despair-a worthy response to her Ohio brother "...fifty-two when you died of cancer/ of the tongue, apologist of the lonely/ girls who were happened to near some bleak water." Other strong inclusions and interesting curiosities and occasional pieces include Anne Sexton's poem to her friend W.D. Snodgrass on his winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1960 and Erica Jong's teasingly jaunty "The Perfect Poet." But many of the anthology's inclusions respond to what's familiar by imitative versifying-without sufficiently fresh vision, poetry's clean cut, rearrangement and absorbing depth. Overall unevenness buries some seriously funny as well as serious poems. Identifying cadences and rote parallels trap June Owens' "Promises: On a Familiar Poem by Robert Frost": "What vows you made, I don't pretend to know,/ Or how the snow seemed to your horse...." and Erica-Lynn Gambino's "This Is Just to Say/ I have just/ asked you to/ get out of my/ apartment...." Such examples indicate the difficulties selecting fresh material for a project as respondent-based as this one. Regardless of its shortcomings, Women's Studies programs and library poetry collections will find The Muse Strikes Back of interest for reading and reference. -- From Independent Publisher
