Lives of the Female Poets

by Clare Pollard

Clare Pollard thumbs her nose at Dr Johnson’s all-male Lives of the Poets in chronicling her own life and theirs in her Lives of the Female Poets. 

These portraits and self portraits offer glimpses into the poet’s own everyday life – from nit-combing and laundry to pollen counts and cocktails, watching school plays to shopping on Rye Lane – all whilst in conversation with female poets through the ages. Playing with forms from the version to the glosa, these are poems that remix, adapt and channel figures from Enheduanna, the first recorded poet, through to Wanda Coleman. Probing the idea of the ‘Poetess’ over time, there are also poems about writers’ lives – sonnets for Anne Locke, who wrote the first English sonnet sequence; a sestina for Elizabeth Bishop; a series of prose poems about Emily Brontë; and a look at the tragic life of L.E.L. 

Whether imagining a ‘three-martini afternoon’ at the Ritz with Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, or exploring the ways women writers have been erased from the canon in the book’s long, closing poem, Clare Pollard’s playful sixth collection celebrates and commemorates all those female poets who have come before.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published November 18, 2025

Reviews

[Alex Sarll]

There were times when I worried I had once again come to a contemporary poet's poems and liked them much less than their prose – though at worst it was the sensation of being fine with the words on the page and not really getting what the line breaks were adding (all the more perplexing when there are prose poems here too; the knowingly invasive one about Emily Brontë wuthering her own heights is particularly arresting). More often, though, it had an unbowed spark I rarely feel in "this zombie apocalypse called poetry" anymore (a line from (Poetry (After Marianne Moore); I don't know the original to which Pollard is responding, but love the opening "I, too, dislike it.") Not everything here hews closely to the theme – except in so far as anything Pollard does or thinks is therefore part of the life of a female poet, of course; there's a whole sequence on cocktails, and a wonderfully bleak extended metaphor of ageing as pub crawl. But the title piece is exactly the infuriating catalogue of erasures and diminishings it needs to be. I think my favourite poem in the collection, though, was Praxilla – a tribute to a great among the ancients whose surviving fragments and paraphrases make our archive of Sappho look definitive in comparison, the terrible irony of someone famed for her drinking songs now being remembered, if at all, for a couple of lines about the dead envying the skies above the living.

(Edelweiss ARC)

[W.S. Luk · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Still, my Poetess presidents at the female empire of the tea-table,/where She sweetens the tea/with sugar's tender hiss."

Female poets rarely receive the critical and hagiographical attention of their male counterparts, but Pollard's book offers thematically cohesive and imaginative reworkings of their lives, from the Sumerian priestess Enheduanna to Elizabeth Bishop. The line between poetry and criticism is thin in this collection, particularly in a series of prose pieces about Emily Brontë, but Pollard examines her theme of female literary lives in intriguing fashion, such as the titular poem, which offers cryptic stanza-length biographies of notable female poets who are only identified with the initials A-Z (their identities are supplied at the end of the book).

Some pieces in LIVES OF THE FEMALE POETS, such as a sestina inspired by Elizabeth Bishop, employ interesting and atypical literary forms and metrical or rhyming schemes, though other pieces struck me as faltering in this regard: a poem inspired by Letitia Elizabeth Landon features awkwardly anachronistic lines like "Did you do it for the hell?/Did you do it to be real?", a description of her suicide which this rhyme scheme renders oddly comical. However, the range of poetic effects Pollard achieves, from these highly literary pieces to the sinister "The White Lady" and the personal reminisces of "Cocktail List", make this an engaging collection that also offers a pleasant way to learn about a host of more obscure writers.

[George Raban · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lives of the Female Poets is an insightful and enlightening exploration of the lives and works of various women poets throughout history. In this collection, Dorian combines biography with literary analysis, giving readers a deeper understanding of the unique challenges, contributions, and voices of female poets across different periods.

The book covers a diverse range of poets, from well-known figures like Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath to lesser-known voices whose works have shaped the poetic landscape in subtle yet profound ways. Dorian’s writing is accessible, and she skillfully connects each poet’s life experiences to their creative output, helping readers appreciate how their personal journeys informed their poetry.

While the collection is educational, it is also engaging and offers a feminist perspective on the literary world, shedding light on how gender influenced the reception and recognition of women’s poetry. Some readers may find the approach more academic, but for those interested in the intersection of biography and literary history, Lives of the Female Poets provides a fascinating and inspiring look at the women who have shaped poetry.

[Momina Areej · Rating 1 out of 5]

While the idea of reclaiming and recentering women poets is important, the collection feels rushed and oddly superficial for a subject that demands rigor and depth.
The poems often read less like fully formed works and more like compressed biographical notes broken into lines. Instead of allowing the poets they reference to breathe, the author reduces complex literary lives to quick sketches that rely heavily on name-checking and anecdote.
Many of the poems follow the same tonal and structural patterns, which dulls any emotional impact they might have had.
What’s most disappointing is the emotional distance. The poems seem more interested in displaying research than in forging connection. There’s very little intimacy or surprise, which makes the collection feel academic without the intellectual reward of true scholarship.