One Hundred Great Poems By Women

by Carolyn Kizer

The winner of the 1985 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for "Yin" presents the second volume in this popular anthology series, showcasing relatively unknown poets as well as greats such as Emily Dickinson, Willa Cather, and Sylvia Plath.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies

200 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1998

About the author

Poet, essayist, and translator Carolyn Kizer was born in 1925 in Spokane, Washington. Raised by a prominent lawyer and highly educated mother, Kizer’s childhood was suffused with poetry. Of her development as a poet, she noted to the Poetry Society of America: “My parents were both romantics: father favored the poems of [John] Keats; mother went for [Walt] Whitman. No evening of my childhood passed without my being read to. But I think my choices of [Gertrude] Stein and [George Bernard] Shaw show that my tastes were different. I remember that when I was eleven or twelve I came storming home from school demanding, ‘Why didn't you ever tell me about [Alexander] Pope and [John] Dryden?’ They were stunned. Our library, copious as it was, didn't contain the works of either. These were lasting influences. I have continued to prefer, and write, poems that have what you might call ‘a sting in the tail.’ Add Catullus and Juvenal. I adored wit, irony, and intellectual precision.” Kizer’s work is known for just those traits. From her early poems in The Ungrateful Garden (1961) to the Pulitzer-prize winning Yin: New Poems (1984) to such later works as Pro Femina (2000), which satirizes liberated women writers by mimicking the hexameter used by the ancient misogynist poet Juvenal, and her retrospective Calm, Cool, and Collected: Poems 1960-2000 (2001), Kizer’s work has received acclaim for its intellectual rigor, formal mastery, and willingness to engage with political realities. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “Carolyn Kizer is a kind of institution... For over 40 years, she's made poems with a stern work ethic of literary thought and linguistic scrupulousness.” In an interview with Allan Jalon for the Los Angeles Times, Kizer described her own style: “I’m not a formalist, not a confessional poet, not strictly a free-verse poet.” Jalon described Kizer as, “Tough without being cold, sometimes satirical (she’s a great admirer of Alexander Pope),” and noted that “her work expresses a worldly largeness that repeatedly focuses on the points at which lives meet. ‘That’s my subject,’” concluded Kizer. “No matter how brief an encounter you have with anybody, you both change.”

Reviews

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poem starts with the author explaining all these kids running to town from the lake that they were all playing in and the sound of a bell brought them all together. All the kids murmuring and humming together in harmony. So the beginning is really just about the author explaining what the kids did after getting out of the lake. The middle the author explains and describes the surrounding of the kids and what they were doing. “The water ripples and slaps,The white boat at the dock;The fire crackles and snaps The little noise of the clock.” And last, the author gives us a picture or description of a mother or a girl coming out onto the porch and a description of nature and what it did to her mentally. The characters in the poem are a couple of kids, but the author doesn’t really go out of her way to say their names. Also there’s a girl that the author explains, but as a reader we don’t really know if she’s a mom, aunt, sister the author doesn’t explain who she is either. I would say that the story is set in a wooded area with a lake nearby a cabin. My favorite part was when the other describes the kids playing in the lake and how they were hitting the water. I like that sean because it really made me feel involved and the love of a close family. I would recommend this book to others if you like rhyming, and description.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been so long since I read poetry, and it was so refreshing to sit down with some poems tonight. It reminded me of Dead Poet Society meetings with my friends in high school. I loved many of the poems in this book, but I particularly loved how some of the oldest poems--from the seventeenth and eighteenth century--made me feel so connected with women of the past, as opposed to feeling the distance of time and changing styles.

[dl.bug ♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

had my mom help me check every author that the book mentions and there is a total 3/100 that are poc. i thrifted this book and will be returning it to the place i thrifted but i still finished it because there are beautiful works in here. two stars bc simply the editor should have shame to compile a list of great poems and talk about the erasure of a group from history and not include poc in like 90% of it.

[Brinley Stiles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my very favorite books and I've read it countless times. It's so beautiful and every time I read it I learn so much more. I think that everyone should read this book at some point in their life.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice collection of poems I have mostly read elsewhere and some others that were new to me. As far as anthologies go, it was fairly representative of a range of woman poets.