Poets and Newspapers- The Guardian

international | gender and sexuality | other press

Saturday March 15, 2008 11:04

by C Murray

British Dailies and Women Poets

Both Guardian and London Independent are giving away free poetic booklets in a series,
something which I.T has done over years with the 'Saturday Poem': Review section.

The Guardian , yesterday published, an opinion piece about poetry and gender by a
woman writer which alluded to the fact that only one woman was represented in the Guardian
Series. Sylvia Plath. (excellent Poet ,cf embedded video)

Thought I'd name a few women writers to redress the balance a bit...

Agnes Nemes Nagy (Magyar, Poet and Political activist)
Liliana Ursu (Romanian)
Tess Gallagher (US)
Sinead Morrissey (Irish)
Medb Mc Guckian (Irish)
Paula Meehan (Irish)
Maire Mhac an Tsaoi (Irish)
Adrienne Rich (US)
Eileen ni Chuileann (sic)
some of the founderesses:-
Julian Of Norwich.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Emily Dickinson.
Emily, Anne and Charlotte Bronte (Brunty)
Tony Morrisson.
+
Countless un-named and un-famous singers, story-tellers, rhyme -readers and teachers
of children.

The Plath you-tube is a later film (Plath died in 1962, by her own hand), the Guardian
introduction by Margaret Drabble begins thusly:
"Sylvia Plath was the first poet to write great poetry about child-birth. Hr suicide
at th age of thirty made her a legend, but she left a legacy far richer than the story
of her tragic death. Her poetry is appalling but it is also exhilirating. She embodied
a seismic shift in consciousness which enabled us to feel and think as we do today,
and of which she was a supremely vulnerable and willing casualty. She changed
our world".

(I would add to that that she was a voice of diaspora and alienation who constantly
fought and strove to be a part of the world and ultimately lost the battle.)