Feminist Poetry

Hey y'all,

What are your favourite feminist poems?
Lately I'm into Adrienne Rich, her poem 'Diving Into the Wreck' is great! I am writing an essay about it, feministic approach :) Enjoy the poem

Diving into the Wreck

First having read the book of myths,
and loaded the camera,
and checked the edge of the knife-blade,
I put on
the body-armor of black rubber
the absurd flippers
the grave and awkward mask.
I am having to do this
not like Cousteau with his
assiduous team
aboard the sun-flooded schooner
but here alone.

There is a ladder.
The ladder is always there
hanging innocently
close to the side of the schooner.
We know what it is for,
we who have used it.
Otherwise
it is a piece of maritime floss
some sundry equipment.

I go down.


....

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15228

--

Emily Dickinson, "They Shut me Up in Prose"

Thanks, that one is great!

Carol Ann Duffy (my favourite poet!):

Valentine

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.

....

http://www.carolannduffy.co.uk/

--

I like the poem but I never saw it as a feminist poem, what do you think is feminist about it?

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/jour...html?id=177368 Article from the Poetry Foundation about contemporary women's poetry (and just how some of it is feminist or criticism of poetry that may not be feminist enough.)

Adolescence II by Rita Dove:
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets...ove/poems/2201

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tinustijger

I like the poem but I never saw it as a feminist poem, what do you think is feminist about it?

---

Sorry that is not the complete poem. I think a moderator has replaced the rest with a link for some reason. I'll try again.

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/865.html

Click the link, it's worth it ;)

Stevie Smith is a poet who observed the world from an educated woman's point of view. I'm sure she never thought of herself as a feminist, but she has an independent female voice.
Here is some of her prose that captures her look on life;

Married to a tiger.

Why do some women like to be bullied, I think to myself, lying at full lengh to enjoy the hot soft water. Now, at home where my aunt and I live, the wives are so often delighted to tell you how splendidly bullying there husbands are, and how they put the foot down here and there, and no, they will not let them play bridge in the afternoon and they will not let them smoke, "My dear husband does not like to see me smoke", thereis a great deal of pride in their voices when they say this, I have often noticed it, it is as if they would say, you may not think it but I am married to a tiger. No, I did not think it, for certainly I cannot penetrate this excellent disguise that this tiger has adopted, for certainly no better disguise exists anywhere than the disguise of a Bottle Green husband. "My dear," say the jungle tiger-bucks, "I shall go to thetiger reunion festival as a Bottle Green husband, you won't know me."

Although it is prose, it is trying to fall into verse

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheDave

.... a moderator has replaced the rest with a link for some reason. ....

---

http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=17515

--

Ah. Thanks for informing me :)

I hate Carol Ann Duffy's poetry. my dog could write better poetry than that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kelby_lake

I hate Carol Ann Duffy's poetry. my dog could write better poetry than that.

---

I doubt that: she seems incredibly skilled to me. This would explain why she is now the poet laureate and your dog remains, sadly, anonymous. :p:

http://nauplion.net/Medusa.html

Medusa is one of my favourite poems by duffy. I think everyone's felt that way at one time or another.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by meh!

I doubt that: she seems incredibly skilled to me. This would explain why she is now the poet laureate and your dog remains, sadly, anonymous. :p:

---

Au contraire! ‘Twould be folly to dispute that a dog who deigneth not to write, gaineth no grand repute! :idea:

I daresay this Duffy’s met her match. :brow: Or, in the immortal words of Marianne Moore (most assuredly, a female poetess ;)) – I, too, dislike it. Give her a look-see, if you’ve not already.

Absolutely anything by Sappho, no contest, but Anne Sexton has some pretty remarkable works as well. If you have even a vague interest in feminist poetry, and have not read Sappho - read her, read her, read her!