Poems Between Women: Four Centuries of Love, Romantic Friendship, and Desire

Front Cover
Emma Donoghue
Columbia University Press, 1997 - Education - 209 pages
The collection Poems Between Women explores many facets of female-female relationships in poems not only about love or affection between or inspired by women but also about the moments that complicate and call into question the nature of sexuality and intimacy between women. Including women married and single, young and old, lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual, the anthology covers historical development and changing mores through the seventeenth century, after the Restoration of Charles II, a time of relative freedom for women; the eighteenth century, when the cult of romantic friendship reached its peak; the nineteenth century, when women writers wrote about issues of same-sex desire indirectly and explored complex issues such as death in tones of weariness and resignation; and the twentieth century, when poets began to engage in more overt explorations of women's bodies, sensuality, and lovemaking. Emma Donoghue's introduction deftly guides readers into the rich tradition of women's poetry in English, exploring the relationships between poets and their muses and poets and their cultures. Poems Between Women is testimony not only to the recurring theme of the unique bonds among women but also to the universality of love, friendship, and creativity.
 

Contents

Acknowledgements
xxi
Emily Hickey
xxxi
Ursula Bethell ΙΙΟ
xl
Daphne Marlatt
xliii
Aphra Behn
4
Anne Killigrew II
11
Charlotte Lennox
25
Elizabeth Hands
28
Helen Hunt Jackson
70
Rosa Mulholland Lady Gilbert
77
Michael Field
81
Edith Nesbit
89
Sophie Jewett
96
Gertrude Stein
112
Dorothy Wellesley Duchess of Wellington
125
Dorothy Livesay
138

Eliza Robertson
34
Mary Matilda Betham
41
Mary Russell Mitford
44
Frances Kemble
50
Emily Brontė
56
Bessie Rayner Parkes
63
Pat Parker
151
Mary Dorcey
157
Ali Smith
163
Biographical Notes
165
Permissions
195
Copyright

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About the author (1997)

Emma Donoghue was born on October 24, 1969 in Dublin, Ireland. She received her BA degree from the University College Dublin and PhD in English from University of Cambridge. Her first novel was Stir. Her next novel was Hood which won the 1997 American Library Association's Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Book Award for Literature. Her novel Slammerkin was a finalist in the 2001 Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Fiction. The Sealed Letter, published in 2008, is a work of historical fiction. This work was the joint winner of the 2009 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction. She continued writing several award winning novels including Room which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in September 2010. Some of her other works include Astray, Three and a Half Deaths, and Frog Music.