Wild Nights: Heart Wisdom from Five Women Poets

by Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay

"A lovely collection of poetry." — Book Scrounger

In this soul-stirring collection of timeless verse, five legendary female poets address life's pains and sorrows as well as its joys and renewals. The poems appeal to the heart, providing companionship on the rugged path that all must tread. The roster features writers from ancient to modern Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Amy Lowell, Sara Teasdale, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
As instapoets continue to make poetry more accessible and popular, they build on the tradition of intimate, confessional works built by earlier generations. No one is more prominent at this heritage than the mysterious, evocative fragments of Sappho, which inspired an earlier generation of female poets to let loose their own talent. From idiosyncratic Dickinson to the passionate, Pulitzer Prize–winning Lowell, the romanticism of Teasdale, and the intense art of St. Vincent Millay — yet another Pulitzer winner — these writers were early trailblazers in speaking their emotional truth through their craft.
This handsome volume features original illustrations by Claire Whitmore, a Foreword by poet and novelist Lisa Locascio, and brief biographies of all five poets.

"The foreword is amazing. A lovely little anthology with some beautiful poetry by some very talented women." — From the Inside

Genres: Poetry

144 pages, Paperback

Published March 21, 2018

About the author

Work of Greek lyric poet Sappho, noted for its passionate and erotic celebration of the beauty of young women and men, after flourit circa 600 BC and survives only in fragments.

Ancient history poetry texts associate Sappho (Σαπφώ or Ψάπφω) sometimes with the city of Mytilene or suppose her birth in Eresos, another city, sometime between 630 BC and 612 BC. She died around 570 BC. People throughout antiquity well knew and greatly admired the bulk, now lost, but her immense reputation endured.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho

Reviews

[Hirdesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and respective publishers for sending me copy.

Beautiful collection of Poems comprises classic and modern poetry that features the works of: Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Amy Lowell, Sara Teasdale, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Deep classical poetry entangled along several topics.
Some of the glorious lines are :

# SAPPHO
*"Last night, when someone spoke his name
From my swift blood that went and came
A thousand little shafts of flame
Were shiver'd in my narrow frame."
(Translated by Alfred Lord Tennyson)

*"Now Eros shakes my soul,
A wind on the mountain falling on the Oaks."
(Translated by H.T.Wharton)

# EMILY DICKINSON
"I had no time to hate because
The grave would hinder me
And life was not so ample I
Could finish enmity."

# AMY LEWELL
"Hols your soul open for my welcoming
Let the quiet of your spirit bathe me
With its clear and rippled coolness
That loose limbed and weary, I find rest,
Outstretched upon your peace, as on a bed of ivory."

*There is no magic any more,
We meet as other people do
You work no miracle for me
Nor I for you.

You were the wind and I the sea-
There is no splendor anymore
I have grown listless as the pool
Besides the shore.

# SARA TEASDALE
" Life will have given the Truth
And taken in exchange -my Youth"

Great poetry.

[Brittney Andrews (beabookworm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wild Nights is a wonderful collection of classic and modern poetry that features the works of: Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Amy Lowell, Sara Teasdale, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Some poems have corresponding imagery -- which normally I am not a fan of -- but this book did a good job of making sure that the images used don't interfere with your own personal interpretation. I've posted a picture on my Instagram if you'd like an example: @brittannia_a

I also really appreciated the short biographies of each poet at the end of the book as well.

A few of my favourite poems:

Sonnet XLIII
by Edna St. Vincent Millay

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

Night Song at Amalfi
by Sara Teasdale

I asked the heaven of stars
What I should give my love —
It answered me with silence,
Silence above.
I asked the darkened sea
Down where the fishes go —
It answered me with silence,
Silence below.

Oh, I could give him weeping,
Or I could give him song —
But how can I give silence
My whole life long?

Thanks a million to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC.

[Romie · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing I liked about this book of poetry is that I knew about some of these authors but had never read anything from them, so it allowed me to discover their writing.

I enjoyed everything I read except for Sappho, I didn't really connect with her poetry, not really what she had to say but more like I didn't connect with the style, which isn't her fault: her work has been translated into English. I was wondering why all her work has been translated by men? Isn't there at least one woman translator in ancient Greek?
I was also wondering why, except for Sappho, all these women are American … I would have loved for some diversity, I have to admit.

But if you leave this aside, I enjoyed my reading. I do think my favourite poems were the ones written by Amy Lowell and Sara Teasdale. I liked the way they both wrote, they made me connect with what they had to say.

3.75

Thank you Netgalley for providing me an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Rand Muayed · Rating 3 out of 5]

This poetry collection contains selected works of 5 female poets. It starts with sappho, I’ve always wanted to read something by her. I’m not sure if they picked the best writings but it was nice nonetheless. She’s so dramatically passionate and you feel like she’s sincerely in love with all her 253 boyfriends and girlfriends.

“Ah, love is bitter and sweet,
but which is more sweet?
the sweetness
or the bitterness?
none has spoken it.”

Next is Emily Dickinson whose poetry I enjoy but I also found this certain collection to be lacking something, maybe because I don’t necessarily love her love poems lol.

Then there’s Amy Lowell, Sara Teasdale and Edna st. Vincent Millay. The thing these 3 have in common is that they are less well known that the first two, but they all share the quality of being strong poetesses whose poetry was considered controversial for their time (albeit it was controversial to even go to uni lmao). They were fearless and wrote with great fervor. What I didn’t like was how this book’s main focus was on their love poems, for example Emily Dickinson wrote hundreds of great poems and their choices was just - okay? I guess..

Overall it was a decent poetry book, quite enjoyable but it’s my fault for having higher expectations.

I leave you with Edna’s “Spring”:

To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify?
Not only under ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

Ps: it’s making me want to highlight the parts I love and study all the poems like a true Dark Academic *Sigh*

[Anima · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Rainy Night

by Amy Lowell
‘Shadows,
And white, moving light,
And the snap and sparkle of rain on the window,
An electric lamp in the street
Is swinging, tossing,
Making the rain-runnelled window-glass
Glitter and palpitate.
In its silver lustre
I can see the old four-post bed,
With the fringes and balls of its canopy.
You are lying beside me, waiting,
But I do not turn.
....’
The giver of stars
‘Hold your soul open for my welcoming.
Let the quiet of your spirit bathe me
With its clear and rippled coolness,
That, loose-limbed and weary, I find rest,
Outstretched upon your peace, as on a bed of ivory.

Let the flickering flame of your soul play all about me,
That into my limbs may come the keenness of fire,
The life and joy of tongues of flame,
And, going out from you, tightly strung and in tune,
I may rouse the blear-eyed world,
And pour into it the beauty which you have begotten.’

Emily Dickinson
“I had no time to hate because
The grave would hinder me
And life was not so ample I
Could finish enmity.”

[Laura (Book Scrounger) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wild Nights: Heart Wisdom from Five Women Poets is a lovely collection of poetry from some well-known female poets of the recent (and distant) past, including some of my favorites. This collection focuses on feelings, romance, heartbreak, and other things to do with love and life. In order, the poets included here are:

Sappho: I'd heard the name before, but knew nothing of this most famous Greek poet from more than two thousand years ago. While Sappho's "voice" often varies based on the translator, she still speaks and influences poets and readers after all this time. I wasn't able to get into all of her poetry, but still appreciated the opportunity to read and learn some culture.

Emily Dickinson: I have enjoyed Dickinson's poetry since I was first introduced to it. I really like her penchant for using slant rhymes, and for being short and to the point in her writing. Not all of my favorites were included here, but it's always good to read her again.

Amy Lowell: Lowell was a poet I have probably heard of but had not been introduced to yet. I don't tend to enjoy free verse as much as form, but I still found some poems that I enjoyed, especially "Fireworks."

Sara Teasdale: I was introduced to Teasdale's poetry in my poetry writing class in college, and she became one of my favorite poets. This collection included some of my favorites of hers as well as some I hadn't read yet. I love her ability to communicate complicated feelings so clearly, and also the way she often uses aspects of nature to do so.

Edna St. Vincent Millay: As a fellow Mainer, I was familiar with some of her work and glad to read it again. Much of it struck me as more cynical than I'd noticed before, but maybe it was just these particular selections. There is much here about loss of love as well as a general noncommittal attitude at times. But she expresses feelings so beautifully, whether in sonnets or freer forms.

The end includes biographies of the poets (or at least what little is known of them, in the case of Sappho). It was interesting to note how Sappho influenced so many of these poets, and even though their styles are different, their "heart wisdom" is very similar.

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

[Denisa Ciubotaru · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

2.5 stars

"Wild Nights" would be a book that I would keep in my living room on the coffee table to skim it from time to time and to come back to it so I can reread my favorite poems. I love Emily Dickinson and as I started reading her poems I instantly fell into a feeling of comfort. I'm familiar with her writing and her poetry and just because there was a section for her just made my heart smile.
Another thing that made me happy about this was discovering other authors. I never heard of Edna St Vincent Millay but I love her already and I'm gonna check out her books as soon as possible.
Overall, I think this book could've been constructed better and I can't say that I enjoyed Sappho's poetry and Amy Lowell's so that made me give it 2 stars, but this is purely subjective as it is based on my taste but I would recommend it to any poetry fan.

[Ashley Owens · Rating 4 out of 5]

RTC this week

[Alexandra Lucia Brînaru · Rating 4 out of 5]

This poetry collection just melted my heart the whole entire time!
I recieved an ARC of this book through NetGalley, so thanks to them for this amazing opportunity.
I firstly picked it up due to Edna St. Vincent Millay being featured on the cover. Little did I know I had gotten the chance to discover four other amazing woman poets as well.
Subjectively speaking, I did not enjoy all of the poems in here, as usually happens with poetry collections, but every piece of work chosen to go into this volume fitted well the chosen theme, which I really enjoyed. Every poem had something to give to the readers.
Not only that, but also the foreword was very informative, as well as the short biographies for each author that were featured at the end. With the help of this piece of information, the reader gets some insight into the authors' lives, seeing where the inspiration came from.
The cover is extremely beautiful, as well as the illustrations present throughout the book, which fit the theme of the poems that they represent so well.
I only gave the book four stars, as above mentioned, because I didn't find every single poem as interesting and heart-touching as I hoped. Nonetheless, I loved the book overall and I would love to purchase a physical copy for myself.
I recommend this piece of art not only to people that are not as much into poetry and would want to get into it, but also to ones that usually enjoy it. It is a piece of women empowerment which shall be promoted as such, given the social statuses of the poets featured. Talking about love and heartbreak, I also found it as an inspiration to get better, to move on from past relationships and heartbreak.

[KayCee K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wild Nights was a nice read. I wanted to read more classic poetry this year, this was a good place to start. I kinda thought I was going to get different poetry them what was in this book but I still enjoyed it. I thought I was going to get more women powering-ish poetry. While it was mostly love poetry, it was still good.
However, I did find new poets who I can't wait to look into. There are a few poems I bookmarked, like 'Ee-Grass'', because I want to write them down. One of my favorite lines is "I wish to dwell around your daylight dreams." by Amy Lowell.
After the poetry, there are short bios of the poets, it was nice to learn more about these women.

The only problem I had with this book was the layout and that's just because it's an ARC.

I received a NetGalley ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This doesn't in any way influence my opinion on it. So, this is a 100% honest review by me.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I love the idea of this book, the execution was a little lacking. I would've put the biographies at the front, for one, to give some context and time frames for the poetry. Also, the poems chosen were mostly pretty formal, which doesn't strike me as the type of thing that will stir up "the feels" in those new to poetry, as the forward claims. Maybe including a wider variety of styles would've opened it up a bit.

*Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, provided by the author and/or the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Ashley Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good little collection of some women poets who were before their time.

I particularly enjoyed reading Amy Lowell, a poet whom I haven’t read before. I loved her poem entitled “Miscast II”:

My heart is like a deft pomegranate
Bleeding crimson seeds
And dripping them on the ground.
My heart gapes because it is ripe and over-full,
And its seeds are bursting from it.

But how is this other than a torment to me!
I, who am shut up,
with broken crockery,
In a dark closet!

[Ashley Morlan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was lovely to read the work of five of my favorite poets all in one place, although there was no new or surprising content here. Phrasing and punctuation in this edition aren’t necessarily translated exactly as in their original form, especially in Dickinson’s work, which disappointed me. Lowell’s poetry featured in this book was a joy to rediscover.

[Etienne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me! I don't know much about poetry, but I try to appreciate it with what I'm feeling while reading it, I think this is what poetry is about and this one doesn't get to me at all. It's certainly a more feminine poetry so maybe that's the reason, but in the end, I didn't like it...

[Frau Sorge (Yuki) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think there is no need for review. The spirit of poetry is timeless.
Highly recommended.

[Elise]

Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Amy Lowell, and Sara Teasdale in one place is crazy... 0 recovery time 0 intermissions just one stab to the heart after the other like

also i feel like anyone who enjoys these poets' works should also read Angela Manalang-Gloria my bikolana queen (see: 'Ermita in the Rain' and 'Forever and Ever')

favorite poems from this collection:

Emily Dickinson
💌 “Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there were
A day when it was not.
It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain.”

💌 "Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I’ve heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.”

💌 "I had no time to hate, because
The grave would hinder me,
And life was not so ample I
Could finish enmity.
Nor had I time to love; but since
Some industry must be,
The little toil of love, I thought,
Was large enough for me.”

💌 "If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.”

Amy Lowell
💌 The Taxi
"When I go away from you
The world beats dead
Like a slackened drum.
I call out for you against the jutted stars
And shout into the ridges of the wind.
Streets coming fast,
One after the other,
Wedge you away from me,
And the lamps of the city prick my eyes
So that I can no longer see your face.
Why should I leave you,
To wound myself upon the sharp edges of the night?”

💌 The Letter
“I am tired, Beloved, of chafing my heart against
The want of you;”

💌 The Giver of Stars
“Let the flickering flame of your soul play all about me,
That into my limbs may come the keenness of fire,
The life and joy of tongues of flame,
And, going out from you, tightly strung and in tune,
I may rouse the blear-eyed world,
And pour into it the beauty which you have begotten.”

💌 Prime
“Your voice is like bells over roofs at dawn
When a bird flies
And the sky changes to a fresher color.
Speak, speak, Beloved.
Say little things
For my ears to catch
And run with them to my heart.”

Sara Teasdale
💌 Off Algiers
“Oh give me neither love nor tears,
Nor dreams that sear the night with fire,
Go lightly on your pilgrimage
Unburdened by desire.
Forget me for a month, a year,
But, oh, beloved, think of me
When unexpected beauty burns
Like sudden sunlight on the sea.”

💌 The Coin
“Into my heart’s treasury
I slipped a coin
That time cannot take
Nor a thief purloin,—
Oh better than the minting
Of a gold-crowned king
Is the safe-kept memory
Of a lovely thing.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay
💌 Sonnet XLIII
“I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.”

Sappho
💌 The Muses
"“Thrill my heart that throbs with unwonted fervor,
Chasten mouth and throat with immortal kisses,
Till I yield on maddening heights the very
Breath of my body.”
💌 Fragment 16
💌 To a Woman

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wild Nights: Heart Wisdom from Five Women Poets is a collection of poetry stretching from ancient times to the 20th century. Lisa Locascio provides the introduction and biographies of each of the poets. She holds a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature and MA in English Literature from the University of Southern California, as well as an MFA and BA from New York University.  Illustrations in this collection are by Claire Whitmore

Wild Nights is a collection of selected works of Sappho, Emily Dickenson, Amy Lowell, Sara Teasdale, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Each of the women contributed their own style to poetry. Sappho is presented first and is translated by a few different people in this collection to bring balance between the older ideas of Sappho and the newer thinking. Her poems, however, have survived only as fragments. Dickenson offered sharp observations and first-person accounts that were unique in American poetry. The opening lines of one of her unnamed poems gives the title for this collection.

Amy Lowell wrote for only a dozen years near the turn of the twentieth century yet produced 650 poems. She wrote with what she called "unrhymed cadence" that she saw well suited for the English language. Her opening poem "Fireworks" seems to be far more modern than its time. Sara Teasdale was a master of the lyrical poem:

November

The world is tired, the year is old,
The fading leaves are glad to die,
The wind goes shivering with cold
Among the rushes dry.

Our love is dying like the grass,
And we who kissed grow coldly kind,
Half glad to see our old love pass
Like leaves along the wind.

The final poet is Edna St. Vincent Millay. Her work combined the modernist attitude with traditional forms creating a new type of American poetry. She is also credited as one of the best sonnet writers of the century. Both Millay and Lowell won the Pulitzer Prize for their poetry.

Despite the stature of these poets, their work is easy to read and understand. Formal terms lyrical poems and sonnets shouldn't scare off readers.  The reader can follow along nicely learning as they read.  Wild Nights is not only a tribute to women poets it also offers novice readers a starting point in real poetry without intimidation.



Available March 21, 2018

[Siina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wild Nights is actually a good collection of poems by even greater women, Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Amy Lowell and Sara Teasdale. I've only read poetry from Teasdale really and some poems by Sappho and Dickinson. Thus this collection was very interesting, though I couldn't really find any theme as such. Somehow the book felt slightly sporadic. Some of the chosen poems were spot on and linked well with others and some, well, not so much. Especially Sappho felt distant and didn't work so well with the others and she was the first poet of the book, so the book seemed flatter than it actually was.

I would've wanted to read why these poets were chosen and why the time period. It would've given so much more base to the collection, since there is always a red thread of sorts there, or, there should at least be one or else everything is kind of pointless. Poetry collections are tricky, since poets hardly ever share anything in common and Wild Nights surely isn't the worst out there by any means. Wild Nights would need a better structure and perhaps the poems could be mixed instead of this poet after poet structure. Wild Nights would need more wildness in it, perhaps.

[Andreea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was sent a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I am so glad I read this volume, because it introduced me to all these five amazing poets - I only knew about Emily Dickinson and Sappho before reading this, but never actually read any of their poetry. I am also glad I got to know about the three other women in this book and to learn that they were quite famous and won big awards, but then kinda faded in history. I really appreciated the short biographies for each writer.

It was a great volume, it presents enough poems from each author for the reader to become familiar with their style. The writers are different, yet they do have things in common that somehow unites their works - being a woman would be the first thing, but it's more than that, it has more to do with their desires and the worlds they built with their poems.

I highly recommend, even if you are not familiar with poetry.

[Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this collection! If you can get your hands on this collection, I definitely think it's worth the read. It contain poems from 5 different women poets. 2 of these poets are well know, Sappho and Emily Dickinson, and there were 3 poets I had not read, Amy Lowell, Sara Teasdale, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

I felt like this was a well thought out collection. Every poem felt like it belonged. The only thing I might have enjoyed is if the poets were all mixed together with the poems themselves being the connecting thread. However, I still found this collection enjoyable. I also really enjoyed the foreword. I thought that did a great job pulling everything together and laying out the themes of the collection.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wild Nights is a collection of poetry that brings together some of the classics, including Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Amy Lowell and more. This collection includes a snapshot of work from each of the five poets, mostly what they wrote on the topics of love and desire.

While I like the idea of collecting women poets together to create a fierce collection, this title is a little lacking. It seems like it could have been expanded to include many more female poets (because what poet hasn't written about love a desire?). Considering many people may not have read all of these poets, it's a great start--something that a person new to poetry may want to check out.

*Book provided by NetGalley

[Siddhi Palande · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a short read and can be read in one sitting. Foreword advises you to read every poem thrice to feel it and to let it seep in you. The book consists of poems by Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Amy Lowell, Sara Teasdale, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Some poems like that of Sappho's date back to BC and have been lauded by the likes of Plato and Herodotus. It was therefore more like a treasure trove for me. Yes, certain mythological references I couldn't decipher but that doesn't lessen the beauty of the words. I could go back and read this book again whenever I need a refreshing change.

entire book review: www.ofbookbabiesandmore.wordpress.com

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this little collection of poems. It is a small enough book and convenient to take with you or keep by the bedside if you want to read a few pieces before sleep. I feel embarrassed to say it but this was my first time reading Sappho. Honestly, I fell in love immediately. She had a wonderful voice and I'm really happy I had the opportunity to read this collection if only to discover her.

I do not like Amy Lowell and thought the choices were fairly decent.

All in all its a good collection.

[Varsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to start the year with something a bit more insightful I guess. I’ve been meaning to read some of Sappho and Dickinson’s work so I loved that this collection featured both. It’s crazy how some sentiments can survive centuries if not millennia. Definitely recommend for those interested in poetry- I’ll probably give this a second read just to better grasp everything.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable, insightful collection of poetry. Like any collection some poems were more appealing to me than others, but the overall collection was good.

[reveurdart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisite collection.

[karlee hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful collection of prose from incredible women, both modern and classic. Emily Dickinson is of course always a good idea.

[kylene ☁️]

would you believe this is the first time in my 21 years of living that i’ve sat down and read poetry? i kinda get the hype now! people be writing words in a fun way!

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read

[Tarah Hodges-Wilkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of poetry from a great group of authors. Sadly I was expecting more. But still a good book.