100 Essential Modern Poems by Women
Parisi, former editor of Poetry magazine, covers a gratifying stretch of literary and social terrain in his lively introduction to this distinctive anthology. Not only does he discuss the major contributions women poets have made to modern English-language poetry in terms of formal innovation but he also traces the link between changes in women’s lives and liberating poetic experimentation and self-expression. And the explication does not end there. Parisi and coeditor Welton provide strikingly descriptive, genuinely informative, and zestfully interpretative profiles of each poet, from trailblazers Emily Dickinson, Amy Lowell (a large woman with large ambitions), and Mina Loy to Edna St. Vincent Millay, Elizabeth Bishop, down-to-earth New Zealander Fleur Adcock, Amy Clampitt, Sharon Olds (notable for her brave if often painful candor), Lucille Clifton (who writes in a minimalist style to maximum effect), Ellen Bryant Voight (a well-grounded poet), and Louise Erdrich. The 100 diverse and dynamic poets are splendidly well chosen, as are the poems, creating an unusually useful and pleasurable volume that can serve as both primer and catalyst to further reading. --Donna Seaman