Women poets of the English Civil War

by Sarah C.E. Ross (Editor)

This anthology brings together extensive selections of poetry by the five most prolific and prominent women poets of the English Civil War Anne Bradstreet, Hester Pulter, Margaret Cavendish, Katherine Philips and Lucy Hutchinson. It presents these poems in modern-spelling, clear-text versions for classroom use, and for ready comparison to mainstream editions of male poets’ work. The anthology reveals the diversity of women’s poetry in the mid-seventeenth century, across political affiliations and forms of publication. Notes on the poems and an introduction explain the contexts of Civil War, religious conflict, and scientific and literary development. The anthology enables a more comprehensive understanding of seventeenth-century women’s poetic culture, both in its own right and in relation to prominent male poets such as Marvell, Milton and Dryden.

392 pages, Paperback

Published November 28, 2017

Reviews

[Anna Mowery · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poetry in this edition is fantastic, but the editors could have done a better job making the texts more accessible for modern readers.

[Emma-Louise Ekpo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I discovered a lot of women poets through this text. A great authority on the poetry of these women.
I particularly enjoyed the work of Hester Pulter.