Love's Witness: Five Centuries Of Love Poetry By Women

by Jill Hollis (Editor)

The work of woman poets is often given short shrift in anthologies, and collections of love poetry are no exception. This delightful and highly original collection redresses that imbalance, and proves once again that on the subject of love, women poets are just as eloquent and elegant as men—if not more so. Included are selections from a wide range of often overlooked women’s love poetry dating as far back as the fifteenth century, as well as work by well-known names such as Stevie Smith, Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Emily Brontë, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edith Wharton, Katherine Mansfield, Amy Lowell, George Eliot, and even Queen Elizabeth I. An intimate and graceful celebration of the many facets of amour—from the pain of parting to love at first sight—Love’s Witness includes works by more than one hundred of the most celebrated woman poets of our time, mingling the bitter, the sweet, jealousy, exhilaration, and the transience of love.

Genres: Poetry

334 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Justin]

This is *the* book of love poetry I come back to time and time again. I haven't read an exhaustive amount of such works but from what I have read I must say this is a great collection. Great why?

I think it's the subtlety in the way some very powerful subjects are handled. So many of the poems speak in not just their words but in the choice of passive or active tones and hints of more erotic subject matter hidden within talk of "green meadows" and "urgent flood"'s.

If you are a casual reader of poetry looking for a bit of romance in your reading, give this a shot.

[Jean Doolittle]

Writing a poem about love is a common undertaking (Roses are red...etc.)and yet an enormous challenge to capture "the bright elusive butterfly of love." Poets and non-poets alike have nevertheless continued to try. All too often the poems we read represent only one side of the equation; women poets have been underrepresented in anthologies on this subject. Of course, men can write beautifully about love. I cite Robert Browning:

Escape me?
Never--
Beloved!
While I am I, and you are you,
So long as the world contains us both...

But don't we also need to hear his beloved, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's response?

How do I love you? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.

Jill Hollis has attempted to rectify that shortcoming in Love's Witness: Five Centuries of Love Poetry by Women, Carroll & Graf, 1993. She mingles the bitter and the sweet and introduces us to women writers we are sure to have missed in our English classes.

[Mirabella.]

I found this book in the second hand section of one of my favourite bookshops. It was only twelve dollars and I must say it was worth every penny. So many unknown women poets in here from so many different time periods writing on the theme of love. Some more classical and some more unusual and inventive. I found though absolutely nothing in it too modern or jarring by that I mean no talk of subways or machines or modern awfulness, just pure poetry and for someone who loves the old world and is a true romantic I really appreciated that. My favourite poem so far reading it is open secrets by Gwendolyn Macewan and what a discovery Gwendolyn is and worth the book alone for me. I’m enjoying learning more about her life and poetry. You will uncover many interesting women poets and great poems on love with this anthology.

[Sarah]

'Midcentury Love Letter' by Phyllis McGinley

Stay near me. Speak my name. Oh, do not wander
By a thought's span, heart's impulse, from the light
We kindle here. You are my sole defender
(As I am yours) in this precipitous night,
Which over earth, till common landmarks alter,
Is falling, without stars, and bitter cold.
We two have but our burning selves for shelter.
Huddle against me. Give me your hand to hold.

So might two climbers lost in mountain weather
On a high slope and taken by the storm,
Desperate in the darkness, cling together
Under one cloak and breathe each other warm.
Stay near me. Spirit, perishable as bone,
In no such winter can survive alone.

(pub. New Yorker, February 14, 1953)

[Angela Utrera]

I loved reading this book. Being able to read how women have creatively expressed love and everything that comes with that word was so eye opening and such a beautiful experience. This book also contains a short bio of every poet in this collection which is such a generous treat and satiates every reader’s curiosity! 10/10 would recommend!

[Deirdre]

A Little Free Library find.

I enjoyed this. There are some very clever gems in here, some touching moments, some bitter and sordid scenes. I enjoyed finding the themes and the contrasting moments in the arrangement of the poetry. Some I related with, some I did not at all, as one would expect. Worth the read, IMO.

[Wes Young]

A tremendous collection of love poems that cover the spectrum of wanting, falling in, wading through, and falling out of Love, and some on friendship as well. A great resource for finding poems for a wedding, which is what I was tasked with doing!

[Cami]

Sure this has got some great poems in it, but on the whole I'd say it's a rather feeble collection and has no neat order for the poems. Worth a read, but not to own, which, unfortunately I do.

[Golnoush]

A very complete love poem collection

[Savta]

I try to read poetry and usually put it aside, thinking I'll return.... someday. This is a lovely book of sensitive and hard hitting and intriguing poetry, of every sort, challenging to read. I could not say that I found all the poetry speaking to me, but much of the poetry reflects aspects of my life, of my thoughts, of my desires. I found this volume to be a wise and wide selection.