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The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Women Poets : Eleven British Writers
240 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 16, 2021
There sure were poems
November 27, 2020
It's quite hard to meaningfully rate this collection. Some of the poets it featured I really like and reading this prompted me to seek more of their work (Stevie Smith!). However there were also poets that were not my trash (sorry, Jeni Couzyn). Poetry anthologies have not been something I read much of, precisely for this reason. I want to get a full picture of the poet so I can say for sure whether I like them or not. So why did I read this? It was on my dad's bookshelf and I'd finished my other single-poet collections. QED.
Introduction
"The consequence of choosing 'happiness' would be losing the ability to write, and of choosing poetry would be early suicide. This was not so much an idea as a tangible feeling within my life of the tug of opposing energies.
Yet the great men poets have often had dedicated wives who have served them all their lives, freeing them to serve 'the Muse' without domestic or secretarial burdens, and many have had mistresses as well."
I've read this before, but it's still true, still gutting.
Stevie Smith
"[...] the worst that my gentle relatives would do to me was this, they would call me 'Miss Baby'. That cut the ground from under my imperious stamping feet, that shredded the imperial purple of my infant rage ... Then the loving hands would lift me up, and everything was now over, and quite all right."
God Speaks:
"I made Man with too many faults. Yet I love him.
And if he wishes, I have a home above for him.
I should like him to be happy. I am genial.
He should not paint me as if I were abominable."
Dear Muse:
"I only wish sometimes you would speak louder,
But perhaps you will do so when you are prouder."
What Poems Are Made Of:
"Could any of them make an affectionate partner and not tease? -
Oh, the affectionate sensitive mind is not easy to please."
I rode with my darling...
"Loved I once my darling? I love him not now.
Had I a mother beloved? She lies far away.
A sister, a loving heart? My aunt a noble lady?
All all is silent in the dark wood at night."
Kathleen Raine
"It is the words we have by heart that are ours, are part of us in a way that words we merely read, enjoy and forget, never can be. I am glad that I grew up in a world in which the memorising of the great literature - Shakespeare and the Bible especially - was an essential part of the education."
I wish mine had been!
"And if Blake is right in declaring that every man and woman should practise one of the arts of Imagination - painting, music, poetry and architecture - perhaps I was right; by what straying away from our true identity do we become enslaved to the meaningless tasks created by a soulless technocracy?"
"My teachers used to impress upon us that genius is an 'infinite capacity for taking pains'."
Denise Levertov
The Mutes:
"know it's a tribute
if she were all grace
they'd pass her in silence:"
OOF.
The Ache of Marriage:
"It is leviathan and we
in its belly
looking for joy, some joy
not to be known outside it
two by two in the ark of
the ache of it."
Life at War:
"the knowledge that humankind,
delicate Man, whose flesh
responds to a caress, whose eyes
are flowers that perceive the stars,
whose music excels the music of birds,
whose laughter matches the laughter of dogs,
whose understanding manifests designs
fairer than the spider's most intricate web,
still turns without surprise, with mere regret
to the scheduled breaking open of breasts whose milk
runs out over the entrails of still-alive babies,
transformation of witnessing eyes to pulp-fragments"
Elizabeth Jennings
A Child in the Night:
"He will not feel like this again until
He falls in love. He will not be possessed
By dispossession till he has caressed
A face and in its eyes seen stars stand still."
Jenny Joseph
Persephone:
"Those who smile and say 'Thank you, that would be nice' and never
go"
It me.
Anne Stevenson
The Mother:
"Of course I love them, they are my children.
That is my daughter and this is my son.
And this is my life I give them to please them.
It has never been used. Keep it safe. Pass it on."
ADSKFHASLDKJFHAJDSHFAKJSHDFKJADHFSLKJH
Swifts:
"The grace to say they live in another firmament.
A way to say the miracle will not occur,
And watch the miracle."
Fleur Adcock
Things:
"There are worse things than having behaved foolishly in public.
There are worse things that these miniature betrayals,
committed or endured or suspected; there are worse things
than not being able to sleep for thinking about them.
It is 5 a.m. All the worse things come stalking in
and stand icily about the bed looking worse and worse and worse."
OOF.
Favourites: The Loneliness One dare not sound (Emily Dickinson); Death Psalm (Denise Levertov); The Applicant (Sylvia Plath); Warning (Jenny Joseph).
Introduction
"The consequence of choosing 'happiness' would be losing the ability to write, and of choosing poetry would be early suicide. This was not so much an idea as a tangible feeling within my life of the tug of opposing energies.
Yet the great men poets have often had dedicated wives who have served them all their lives, freeing them to serve 'the Muse' without domestic or secretarial burdens, and many have had mistresses as well."
I've read this before, but it's still true, still gutting.
Stevie Smith
"[...] the worst that my gentle relatives would do to me was this, they would call me 'Miss Baby'. That cut the ground from under my imperious stamping feet, that shredded the imperial purple of my infant rage ... Then the loving hands would lift me up, and everything was now over, and quite all right."
God Speaks:
"I made Man with too many faults. Yet I love him.
And if he wishes, I have a home above for him.
I should like him to be happy. I am genial.
He should not paint me as if I were abominable."
Dear Muse:
"I only wish sometimes you would speak louder,
But perhaps you will do so when you are prouder."
What Poems Are Made Of:
"Could any of them make an affectionate partner and not tease? -
Oh, the affectionate sensitive mind is not easy to please."
I rode with my darling...
"Loved I once my darling? I love him not now.
Had I a mother beloved? She lies far away.
A sister, a loving heart? My aunt a noble lady?
All all is silent in the dark wood at night."
Kathleen Raine
"It is the words we have by heart that are ours, are part of us in a way that words we merely read, enjoy and forget, never can be. I am glad that I grew up in a world in which the memorising of the great literature - Shakespeare and the Bible especially - was an essential part of the education."
I wish mine had been!
"And if Blake is right in declaring that every man and woman should practise one of the arts of Imagination - painting, music, poetry and architecture - perhaps I was right; by what straying away from our true identity do we become enslaved to the meaningless tasks created by a soulless technocracy?"
"My teachers used to impress upon us that genius is an 'infinite capacity for taking pains'."
Denise Levertov
The Mutes:
"know it's a tribute
if she were all grace
they'd pass her in silence:"
OOF.
The Ache of Marriage:
"It is leviathan and we
in its belly
looking for joy, some joy
not to be known outside it
two by two in the ark of
the ache of it."
Life at War:
"the knowledge that humankind,
delicate Man, whose flesh
responds to a caress, whose eyes
are flowers that perceive the stars,
whose music excels the music of birds,
whose laughter matches the laughter of dogs,
whose understanding manifests designs
fairer than the spider's most intricate web,
still turns without surprise, with mere regret
to the scheduled breaking open of breasts whose milk
runs out over the entrails of still-alive babies,
transformation of witnessing eyes to pulp-fragments"
Elizabeth Jennings
A Child in the Night:
"He will not feel like this again until
He falls in love. He will not be possessed
By dispossession till he has caressed
A face and in its eyes seen stars stand still."
Jenny Joseph
Persephone:
"Those who smile and say 'Thank you, that would be nice' and never
go"
It me.
Anne Stevenson
The Mother:
"Of course I love them, they are my children.
That is my daughter and this is my son.
And this is my life I give them to please them.
It has never been used. Keep it safe. Pass it on."
ADSKFHASLDKJFHAJDSHFAKJSHDFKJADHFSLKJH
Swifts:
"The grace to say they live in another firmament.
A way to say the miracle will not occur,
And watch the miracle."
Fleur Adcock
Things:
"There are worse things than having behaved foolishly in public.
There are worse things that these miniature betrayals,
committed or endured or suspected; there are worse things
than not being able to sleep for thinking about them.
It is 5 a.m. All the worse things come stalking in
and stand icily about the bed looking worse and worse and worse."
OOF.
Favourites: The Loneliness One dare not sound (Emily Dickinson); Death Psalm (Denise Levertov); The Applicant (Sylvia Plath); Warning (Jenny Joseph).
February 5, 2019
This is a fascinating collection of eleven women poets living in Britain in the late twentieth century. Sylvia Plath is one, always outstanding. Otherwise I enjoyed Kathleen Raine, Jenny Joseph and Elizabeth Jennings. But perhaps most interesting was what they say about themselves with remarkable similarities in their life histories.
July 2, 2013
This book does exactly what it says on the tin (!) and a little bit more. It is a collection of poetry by 11 British women, each section introduced by essays either by, or about, the poet. This book came into my hands as it was one of the texts I studied at A-level, so there are more than a few biro'd notes throughout. The 11 poets are:
Stevie Smith
I found the essays at the start of her section of slightly more interest than the poems, only because their seems such a sense of contradiction about her. Of the poems in the collection, no whole one struck a chord, but different lines and phrases did. But if I had to choose one then "In the Park" was the one I liked the best.
Kathleen Raine
Again, the essay at the start of the section was really interesting and I loved the poets musings on why we need imagination and the arts. However, I really couldn't get into her poems at all. Some of the imagery was good, but none of the poems engaged me.
Denise Leverton
By a long way, my favourite poem was "A Tree Telling of Orpheus" - I loved the imagery and the notes of longing that infused it.
Elizabeth Jennings
I really enjoyed this section of the book and found a lot of the poems interesting to read, although "A Child In The Night" and "Spell of Elements" stood out from the rest.
Elaine Feinstein
I wasn't too keen on the poems here, found them difficult to get into, but I did find "Marriage" hit the right chord.
Ruth Fainlight
There is a bit on the essay that I found intriguing ... "In our culture...woman is made the custodian and prisoner of the realm of matter, the "grown-up" one who deals with practical quotidian reality, while the metaphysical worlds of fantasy and intellect and spirit, and all the games of life, from war to physics, have been seen as the priviliged domain of men." I'm not sure that I totally agree with that, maybe as I am from a younger generation, but it is definitley something to think about. However, I did quite like the poems - apart from all having a very similar theme. 'Here', 'It Must' and 'Lilith' were probably my favourites.
Sylvia Plath
This is probably the most famous poet collected here, and yet I found her poems disappointing. Again, the essays, both by Plath and by others, were more interesting and Plath's prose appealed to me a lot more than her other pieces.
Jenny Joseph
I have always been a fan of this poet and re-reading this collection reminded me why. There isn't one that I don't like - they are accessible and enjoyable to read, and cover such a wide variety of subjects - at least on the surface. Who can read 'Warning' without smiling?!?!?
Anne Stevenson
I was slightly disappointed when I read these poems again - I remember being more 'into' them when I first read them at school, but I couldn't find any common ground with them this time. Only 'The Victory' was as I remembered it - I think this is a very clever poem.
Fleur Adcock
I'm not sure I could relate to a lot of these poems, although I did like 'Mary Magdalene and the Birds'.
Jeni Couzyn
Rather than whole poems, certain images and phrases stuck with me more.
Overall, an interesting collection and great to dip in and out of, although a more concerted, concentrated read leaves you fed up with the repitition of such strong, almost anti-men themes.
Stevie Smith
I found the essays at the start of her section of slightly more interest than the poems, only because their seems such a sense of contradiction about her. Of the poems in the collection, no whole one struck a chord, but different lines and phrases did. But if I had to choose one then "In the Park" was the one I liked the best.
Kathleen Raine
Again, the essay at the start of the section was really interesting and I loved the poets musings on why we need imagination and the arts. However, I really couldn't get into her poems at all. Some of the imagery was good, but none of the poems engaged me.
Denise Leverton
By a long way, my favourite poem was "A Tree Telling of Orpheus" - I loved the imagery and the notes of longing that infused it.
Elizabeth Jennings
I really enjoyed this section of the book and found a lot of the poems interesting to read, although "A Child In The Night" and "Spell of Elements" stood out from the rest.
Elaine Feinstein
I wasn't too keen on the poems here, found them difficult to get into, but I did find "Marriage" hit the right chord.
Ruth Fainlight
There is a bit on the essay that I found intriguing ... "In our culture...woman is made the custodian and prisoner of the realm of matter, the "grown-up" one who deals with practical quotidian reality, while the metaphysical worlds of fantasy and intellect and spirit, and all the games of life, from war to physics, have been seen as the priviliged domain of men." I'm not sure that I totally agree with that, maybe as I am from a younger generation, but it is definitley something to think about. However, I did quite like the poems - apart from all having a very similar theme. 'Here', 'It Must' and 'Lilith' were probably my favourites.
Sylvia Plath
This is probably the most famous poet collected here, and yet I found her poems disappointing. Again, the essays, both by Plath and by others, were more interesting and Plath's prose appealed to me a lot more than her other pieces.
Jenny Joseph
I have always been a fan of this poet and re-reading this collection reminded me why. There isn't one that I don't like - they are accessible and enjoyable to read, and cover such a wide variety of subjects - at least on the surface. Who can read 'Warning' without smiling?!?!?
Anne Stevenson
I was slightly disappointed when I read these poems again - I remember being more 'into' them when I first read them at school, but I couldn't find any common ground with them this time. Only 'The Victory' was as I remembered it - I think this is a very clever poem.
Fleur Adcock
I'm not sure I could relate to a lot of these poems, although I did like 'Mary Magdalene and the Birds'.
Jeni Couzyn
Rather than whole poems, certain images and phrases stuck with me more.
Overall, an interesting collection and great to dip in and out of, although a more concerted, concentrated read leaves you fed up with the repitition of such strong, almost anti-men themes.
Read
June 18, 2014good in parts, especially Sylvia Plath.
July 13, 2007
I quite enjoyed this. Does it give me kudos with women to have read this?
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews