Great Poems by American Women: An Anthology

by Susan L. Rattiner (Editor)

More than 200 inspiring poems offer a superb introduction to the women poets of America, from the colonial-era works of Anne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley to the modern poetry of Marianne Moore and Sylvia Plath. Other authors include Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Amy Lowell, Emma Lazarus, and more.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Anthologies

Paperback

First published January 21, 1998

Reviews

[Erica Rehm]

I’ve read a lot of horrendous, modern poetry lately. I’d love to give all of those “poets” a copy of this book. This is the perfect book of poetry.

[Andria Potter]

Slow going but good payout. Poetry does take some getting used to, with it's different formatting from fiction and its slow, sometimes boring prose. I admit, poetry isn't for everyone but I love poets such as the famous Emily Dickenson (or perhaps infamous?), Robert Burns, Dylan Thomas, and many others besides. I'm selective in the poetry I like so the fact that I found a poetry collection of all female authors? Yes please. It's a very well put together collection, most women being from the UK, a few not. Most poems were reflections of their lives and state of mind, some of war, some of love. I'm determined to find a physical copy of this for my collection of favorite books and anthologies. This was an absolute gem of a find. If you're nervous about reading poetry? I advise starting here. There's so much to choose from and plenty of talent to admire and devour. 5 ⭐.

[Chelsea Merkley]

I actually have not finished it yet. I find reading it out of order is the best way to read it for me. There are many poets that I had not heard of in the book. I got it mostly because I love Emily Dickenson. I have found the mini biographies on each poet to be very informative about each woman and her life.

[Ola]

I was wondering whether or not to rate this book at all, but I feel like 3 stars is a fair rating.
Since this is a collection of poems from over 3 centuries, some were bound to work for me more than others. I especially enjoyed the last quarter or so, since I could relate or understand the context of these, as they were from the 20th century. I was also positively surprised by the inclusion of women of colour in this anthology, even if I wished there was some more of their works mentioned. Another thing I enjoyed were the short biographical sections about each poet (with some I enjoyed those sections more than poems themselves, oops).
Overall, I actually do recommend to check this collection out, but take your sweet time with it. It took me 6 months to finish, and I probably should have given it even more time

[Leah]

I learned about so many wonderful poets in this anthology, which we read for my Women and Literature class. I feel like I have a much better grasp on how to read and interpret poetry, a new appreciation for the genre, and an awareness of unsung female poets who are too often eclipsed by their male counterparts. I definitely recommend skimming through this or searching out individual pieces of poetry.

[Lisa]

I loved the mini biographies at the beginning of each section. I was moved by many of the poems and came away again reminded of the power of words in the hands of an artist. Emily Dickinson's "My life closed twice before its close" struck me deeper than ever before. Elizabeth Akers Allen's "Rock Me To Sleep" was perfect. Sylvia Plath just made me sad for her tortured soul. A great anthology and I loved that each of these women of influence was born in America.

[HV_bookwyrm]

My roomie gave this to me for my birthday! I love it. It has a lot of my favorites in it, and it's a nice, somewhat comprehensive overview of some of the most important female poets, and their best known works. It's great.

[Joe Lyons]

It was tough for me to read, as I know little of what is "quality" in poetry. I read it because I lacked this genre in my repertoire. I am glad I did!

[Jimmy]

I am afraid the older poetry which covered most of the book was just not that interesting. The brief bios were cool though.

It made some printing errors as well. Perhaps this is a result of making a cheap Dover volume of poems. Marianne Moore wrote syllabic poetry, and to miss that by misprinting some lines seems unacceptable to me.

Here is one poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson (1886 to 1966). She was the first African-American woman poet to become famous since Frances E. W. Harper.

The Heart of a Woman
by Georgia Douglas Johnson

The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn,
As a lone bird, soft winging, so restlessly on,
Afar o'er life's turrets and vales does it roam
In the wake of those echoes the heart calls home.

The heart of a woman falls back with the night,
And enters some alien cage in its plight,
And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars,
While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars.

[Trenton McKay]

This was a very special read for me. This was the first book of poems that I read with my daughter. I read her a poem a day on her way to daycare until we were done. I wanted it to be a book written by women and I'm so glad I chose this one, because there are American women from a variety of cultural backgrounds and they all make words sing. There are also brief biographical notes for each poet and I appreciated finding out about them, their personal adventures, and their publishing history. It was also amazing to see how poetry developed in this country in its rich history of women poets. Poems resonate whether they were written a hundred years ago or fifty. That's something great about poetry in general and particularly the poems chosen for this collection. Yes, my daughter is 2 and probably didn't get most of the words, but there were many times she was engaged and she now knows the word "poetry" and has a basic understanding of what it means. Now, time to choose our next book.

[Sean]

With some obvious exceptions (Dickinson, Moore), this was interesting more as historical overview than literature. Probably too inclusive of 19th century authors (though some Native authors would have been appreciated). I did leave more curious about H. D. and ready to consign Edna St. Vincent Millay to the "too dated" pile.

Some eccentric stuff I dug:
Alice Cary's "The Sea-Side Cave" (gothic!)
Sarah Morgan Piatt's "Giving Back the Flower" (bitter!)
Constance Fenimore Woolson's "Love Unexpressed" (sentimental!)
Alice Dunbar-Nelson's "I Sit and Sew" (more bitterness!)

[Chelsea]

This is a really nice collection of poets and poems. I liked the short biographies as introduction to each poet. Personally I would have liked to see more than one poem for each poet (which is the case for quite a few in this collection). Any less than two poems and I don't feel I really get to know a poet's style, let alone if I will want to read further works by them. However, it is nice to see how many predominant female poets there have been throughout American history.

[Alexis Ramirez]

What got me to start reading this poetry book is I have not heard of many women poets in my life. Thankfully, I have learned many women poets from this anthology. From Hutchinson to Sylvia Plath, these poets have really good poetry on not just important topics, like Wheatley on slavery, but what’s a woman’s perspective on them as well. I really liked this anthology of women’s poetry, and I like how certain unknown women poets, like Gwendolyn Brooks, get a bit of representation in here as well.

[Jeanie]

"Great Poems by American Women" includes more than 70 women born colonial-era 1600's through the twentieth century. I don't often read poetry, however this book has a short biography for each writer along with selections and recommendations of their other works. This book was an unusual choice for me. I should add it to my collection and return to it, this version was a library E book.

[Elizabeth McIntosh]

Pretty good selection. I hadn’t heard of a lot of these women so now I need to find more by them.

[Irene]

Wonderful collection that I will read and browse through many times. It’s a keeper.

[Sivens Glaude ¿(*_^)?]

American Women?

Agriculture
Motivation
Eagles
Roses
Ice
Craft
Apples
Nature
1, 13, 5, 18, 9, 3, 1, 14
Words
Operations
Melons
Enigma
NEcTar
23, 15, 13, 5, 14

[Sailor]

obviously this book isn’t to read cover to cover so I’ve been dabbling here and there. wonderful collection!

[rinabeana]

This is a neat compilation, with biographical information on each of the selected poets.

[AAUW Carlisle]

Read 2002