Poems from the Women's Movement (American Poets Project) [Hardcover]

Honor Moore (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2009 | Series: American Poets Project (Book 28)

THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT OF THE 1960s, 70s, AND 80s generated an extraordinary outpouring of poetry that captured an age of expectancy, of defiant purpose, and exuberant exploration. Here, brought together for the first time, are the poems that gave voice to a revolution, including works by Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, Muriel Rukeyser, Anne Sexton, Sonia Sanchez, Lucille Clifton, May Swenson, Alice Walker, Anne Waldman, Sharon Olds, and many others.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* In 1965, Sylvia Plath’s posthumous Ariel took the literary world by storm with its fierce and undeniably female voice. For the next 15 years, America saw a historic outpouring of women’s poetry supported by and supporting the women’s movement. As editor Moore points out, poetry was vital to the movement, articulating previously unexpressed lives, empowering others as the poets found their own power. The young women then—their fervent beauty is well captured in the cover image—are grandmothers now; their feminism was declared unfashionable years ago, though abuses they sought to correct continue. Women poets are still read, reviewed, and taught less often than their male counterparts, and young women writers avoid seeming “strident,” a literary crime apparently worse than throttling the muse in the service of worldly ambition. Into such circumstances these direct, vibrant, potent, passionate, wild, strong, free, and freeing poems come less like a breath of fresh air than a strong wind. Women of that era will remember Marge Piercy’s “Rape Poem,” (“Rape fattens on the fantasies of the normal male / like a maggot in garbage”), Adrienne Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck” (“I come to explore the wreck. / The words are purposes. / The words are maps”), and Rita Mae Brown’s “Sappho’s Reply” (“An army of lovers shall not fail”). And all who missed these missiles and epistles then will find them still demanding and invigorating. --Patricia Monaghan

About the Author

Honor Moore is the author of the poetry collections Red Shoes, Darling, and Memoir, and has edited Amy Lowell: Selected Poems, volume #12 in the American Poet Project. She is the author most recently of the critically acclaimed memoir The Bishop’s Daughter. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Library of America; First Edition edition (April 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598530429
• ISBN-13: 978-1598530421
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #662,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Feminist, Powerful, and Soul-Wrenching, December 6, 2009

By 

K. Vestal (NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Poems from the Women's Movement (American Poets Project) (Hardcover)

Poetic voices of about 60 different women of the 1960s, '70s, and '80s. Poignant, stabbing, sensual, painful, shocking, harsh, delightful, emotional, raw, powerful, and soul-wrenching. Reaches into the depths of woman's soul, exposing what is very familiar, yet kept hidden, perhaps even to ourselves. A feminist library is now incomplete without this volume of poetry. Recommended for every feminist, those who love poetry and those who don't.

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book of Poems, October 10, 2011

By 

R. J. Schmigel (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Poems from the Women's Movement (American Poets Project) (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful book. It should be in every library. Forget the gender or women's lib implications, these are beautiful works of poetry.

5.0 out of 5 stars Women's Movement Poetry, July 23, 2010

By 

D. A. Holiday (Albany, New York United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Poems from the Women's Movement (American Poets Project) (Hardcover)

I discovered many good poems, by women, in this collection, which was in excellent condition. Both men and women should read the book, and if you're a male and you're a writer of poetry, you should certainly have a few collections by women in your personal library and this book should be among them. Good read.