The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse

by Stephen Coote

A collection of poems by and about homosexuals includes authors, such as Sappho, Walter Whitman, W.H. Auden, and Allen Ginsberg

Genres: Poetry, Gay, Queer, LGBT, Anthologies

408 pages, Paperback

First published July 28, 1983

About the author

Stephen Coote is the author of several acclaimed biographies including Royal Survivor: The Life of Charles II, Samuel Pepys, and John Keats: A Life. He was educated at Magdelene College, Cambridge and at Birkbeck College, University of London. He lives in Oxfordshire, England.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology is a large sampling of hundreds of poems from Homer until about 1975. The introduction is a good historical and critical overview. It's interesting that Coote himself has translated many of the poems (from several languages, Greek, Latin, French, some others) since he discovered that in many cases previous translators were censoring editors.

Not included, because of the date published, are any of the poems reflecting the AIDS crisis. So you won't find the great ones from Paul Monette and Thom Gunn, among many others. For some readers that will be a major shortcoming. But since everything changed so dramatically in the 1980s, those poems deserve a separate volume for themselves. This lets the poems of antiquity and up through the middle-1900s speak for what it used to be like, for better and for worse, in this satisfying anthology.

[🦫 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mooi beeld van queerpoëzie door de eeuwen heen, tot we aan de negentiende en vooral twintigste eeuw komen waar het erg (erg!!) angl*- en am*rikacentrisch wordt :// maar voor de rest een goed overzicht doorheen de geschiedenis, al kon de focus wel wat beter verdeeld worden :~)♪

[alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

gay people invented love what can i say

fr this was a really nice compilation, even if some of the translations were a bit clunky

i especially liked the medieval poetry, as it's not a period i tend to associate with gay themes (which is weird because there were just as many gay people then, but ykno. the ancient greeks were Known for it)

[Riana Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first discovered this book when researching Allen Ginsberg's homoerotic poem "Please Master". The timeline of the material intrigued me, though, and I took a more in-depth look. Works span from classical Greek Epigrams to Shakespeare's sonnets to Emily's Dickinson's succinct poems to Walt Whitman's verse, and there are many pieces by lesser known authors that are worth the read! In particular, I liked the visual comparison in "Lesbian" by Paula Jennings - have a look.

[Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

The “you used public domain translations, didn’t you?” is strong with this one. Also, I will never understand the reasoning behind rhyming translations of Catullus. Or, for that matter, Ovid.

[Ray's Artshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent survey, particularly for its span of centuries. Predictably there is a bias - by my count 28 female poets to over 130 male - the only pity is that the editor didn't think this worth addressing in his otherwise very thoughtful introduction.

One note of caution - this isn't a collection for someone (perhaps a young person) who is looking to read only affirmation or celebration, although there's plenty of that. What I mean is, there are some poems here that condemn homosexuality, that vilify gay men and lesbians. That view is found in the history of verse, as it is found in life.

[Dawson Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this carefully, intentionally, and intermittently like the bible over the course of 2 years and it's the greatest poetry experience of my life