The Female Poet, Volume 5

The gentler sex or the deadlier of the species. Between these two definitions of the female gender lies a collection of some of the most beautiful verse ever written. For much of history women have been seen rather than heard. In this volume poets of great depth and feeling express themselves on a range of topics and in ways that perhaps only a woman can.

Here in Volume 5 we bring you works from Christina Georgina Rossetti to Elinor Wylie by way of Charlotte Smith, Sara Teasdale, Katharine Tynan, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Dorothy Wordsworth and many others. Our readers include Ghizela Rowe and Nigel Planer.

Words. The building blocks of literature. The ammunition to wrench emotion from brain to lip to life. All languages of the world have a unique capacity to convey information in many forms. Among them; as concise instructions, as many sided conversations and as great literature. And within literature these same words can be used in different ways to capture our hearts, our souls, our desires with simple yet unexpected phrasing. The ear has no problem being captivated by their use.

Whether Shakespeare requests ‘If music be the food of love, play on’ or Tennyson in heart breaking desire ‘Tis better to have loved and lost/Than never to have loved at all’ or the simple statement of Pope ‘To err is human; to forgive, divine’ or the rage of Dylan Thomas ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ or the delicious question of Elizabeth Barrett Browning ‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.’

We are moved by them all because they are both eloquent and emotional. They speak of us and directly to us. Poetry does what no other use of words can do; they explore, nourish and reflect the many facets of the human condition.