A Formal Feeling Comes: Poems in Form by Contemporary Women

A collection of more than 40 poems including brief critical statements by each poet and concise critical mini-essays on the poetry of each poet. Finch examines the course of 20th century poetry by American women, exploring the strain of male dominance that submerged more than two generations of women writers.

If Emily Dickinson wasn't the mother of American poetry, she was at least the favorite eccentric aunt. The long-standing poetic rebellion against formalism, especially as it has helped feminist writers to find a free and authentic voice, has had the unfortunate byproduct of separating many women writers from the Dickinsonian tradition of carefully crafted verse. The discipline of poetic form can lead to a freshness of vision, and many women writers are either rediscovering, or have never forgotten, the benefits of scansion, meter, and fixed-form poetry. In this collection you'll find stunning formal poetry, which Rita Dove calls "a talisman against disintegration." Annie Finch has included work from Jane Kenyon, May Sarton, and Molly Peacock, among others.