Reviews provided by Syndetics

Booklist Review

Although one's initial reaction to an anthology of twentieth-century women's poetry may well be that it undermines women as individual poets, pigeonholing them in a women's art ghetto, this anthology avoids that trap. What it does is make quite clear that women's poetry is not, as Editor Adcock points out in her introduction, a ``special genre, a minor . . . offshoot.'' Instead, this collection is an affirmation of the diversity, humor, and universality of women's poetry. Adcock's intention is at least partly historical. As such, she has featured several less well known poets from the early part of the century and has avoided the dictates of current ``fashion.'' None of the 64 poets chosen for inclusion was born later than 1945, so that if something can be said to unite these poets, it is that they were writing poetry when it was difficult to do so and be taken seriously. Some, like Edith Sitwell, were included more for historical interest than artistic merit. Overall, it is an admirable selection, with several poems each by Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Moore, Stevie Smith, and Sylvia Plath. FW. 821'.912 English poetry Women authors / English poetry 20th century / Poetry in English Women writers, 1900- Anthologies [OCLC]