Collection compiled to plug a gap on my own bookshelf
When Ana Sampson couldn’t find an anthology of work by female poets she liked, she decided to put one together, unearthing a wealth of brilliant but neglected poetry in the process
Last year, I wanted to read an anthology of poetry by women. I hunted high and low for a broad and inclusive volume, but could only find rather niche or academic titles. Collections of women’s war poetry or 19th century women poets were available, but there was nothing that gathered a diverse range of writers spanning many centuries. General anthologies tend to include only a handful of female writers, and it was always the same few names. I set about collecting work by women – from Sappho in the ancient world, right up to pamphlets published this year by exciting young talents – to fill the gap on my own bookshelf.
I found a wealth of brilliant but neglected poetry, and was interested to see how many of the poets were Scottish or had chosen to live and work in Scotland. They include, of course, many of today’s most celebrated and well-known poets. Carol Ann Duffy’s writing for adults and children has won a raft of awards including the Whitbread, Costa, Forward and T S Eliot Prizes. Her books are muchloved, she is taught widely in schools and she was the UK’S first female Poet Laureate. Two out of three of the Scots Makars have been women: Liz Lochhead and Jackie Kay – two of the UK’S most distinguished and successful writers – have both held this post since its creation in 2004.
Here are some more brilliant writers – some of whom are writing now, and others from previous centuries – to explore. Anne Hunter (1742-1821) Anne’s sparkling parties (of which her husband didn’t always approve) attracted literary superstars including the ‘Bluestockings’, educated women who discussed intellectual matters over tea – the scandal! – despite disapproval from male critics of the time. (The disapproving husband was John Hunter, a surgeon whose medical artefacts formed the first collection of the Hunterian Museum.) She enjoyed literary success during her lifetime although only a few of her poems are remembered today, including ‘To My Daughter On Being Separated From Her on Her Marriage’. In an age without trains or telephones, when childbirth was so dangerous for women, Anne was understandably upset when her daughter moved away with her new husband.
Joanna Baillie (1762-1851)
An outdoorsy girl who couldn’t read until she was 11, Joanna grew up in the countryside in Lanarkshire, before attending school in Glasgow. Joanna was Anne Hunter’s niece, and her aunt introduced her to many of the day’s most prominent cultural figures. As well as poetry, she also wrote plays, though she always felt they were dismissed as ‘closet drama’ – to be read rather than performed – because she was a woman. Joanna’s poetry was popular, and she used her influence to support women and working class writers. She donated half the proceeds of her books to charity. One critic, Francis Jeffrey, was rude about her plays, and she refused to meet him for many years but – typically – once she finally made his acquaintance, they became great friends. ‘A Mother to her Waking Infant’ is tender and beautiful. Having fallen out of fashion, she’s now attracting more critical attention for her contributions to the Romantic movement, which has traditionally been seen as very much a boys’ club.
Helen Maria Williams (c.17601827)
Helen – whose Scottish mother took control of her excellent education – was a radical. She campaigned for the abolition of slavery, and wrote poems and essays that challenged the church and attacked the damaging effects of colonialism. Impressed at first by the aims of the French Revolution, she braved the journey to Revolutionary Paris alone and hobnobbed there with the activists of the day including Mary Wollstonecraft. She was imprisoned for her political writing during the Reign of Terror and, later, by Napoleon who declared her ‘Ode on the Peace of Amiens’ to be treasonous. After his death Helen continued to write poetry, short stories and translations. She caused something of a scandal by travelling to Switzerland with John Hurford Stone. Although he was separated from his unfaithful wife he was – technically – still married, although given her rebellious politics and lifestyle it’s hard to imagine she cared.
‘To Mrs K__, On Her Sending Me an English Christmas Plum-cake at Paris’ is a fun tribute to long-distance friendship – and distances were longer then.
Marion Bernstein (1846-1906)
Marion was a radical feminist poet in Victorian Glasgow. She was ill throughout her life – perhaps with polio – and had to apply for charitable grants when she was too unwell to give piano lessons. She kept in touch with the world through newspapers when she was bedridden, and wrote poems inspired by the subjects they covered, including politics, domestic violence, slavery and working-class poverty. Marion had been largely forgotten until the 1990s but in 2013 her collected poems, including previously unseen work, was finally published as A Song of Glasgow Town. ‘Wanted: A Husband’ is a great showcase for her biting wit.
Kathleen Raine (1908-2003)
Kathleen was inspired by the Scottish ballads passed down to her by her mother, who encouraged her writing from the earliest of ages. Also a scholar and respected expert on William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and W B Yeats, she was a co-founder of the journal and publisher Temenos in the early 1980s. Her poems were popular around the world and often beautifully examined themes of spirituality. You can hear a wealth of archive recordings of her work on The Poetry Archive, and I love her poetic tribute to her mother, ‘Heirloom’.
Elma Mitchell (1919-2000)
Elma worked as a librarian, freelance writer and translator – she spoke several languages including fluent Russian. She published poetry from the 1960s onwards, although she had been writing since childhood. Her poem ‘Thoughts After Ruskin’ was anthologised in 1967, won prizes and made her famous. Elma worked in a thatched barn that served as both library and study and was inhabited by rare bats. At her rare public readings, she read fiercely and brilliantly – ‘like a tigress’, said the Guardian – even when she was elderly and frail. ‘This Poem’ is simple and clever and brilliant.
Imtiaz Dharker
Imtiaz Dharker was born in Lahore but moved to Glasgow aged one. She calls herself a Scottish Muslim Calvinist, adopted by India and married into Wales. Also an artist, she illustrates her prizewinning poetry herself and has exhibited her drawings around the world. Imtiaz has produced documentaries for Indian organisations working to combat homelessness and promote women’s rights and education. Her work has won awards including the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and Cholmondeley Prize. ‘When the copperplate cracks’ and ‘How To Cut a Pomegranate’ are both eloquent, and ‘Flight Radar’ is quietly moving.
Kate Clanchy
Kate has won numerous awards for her poetry and was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards for her first novel, Meeting the English. In June 2018, she published England: Poems from a School, a collection of poetry by the students she teaches at Oxford Spires Academy, a school in which 30 languages are spoken. Many of these young poets write about their experiences as migrants in the UK. Their work is powerful and deeply impressive – I included a few of them in my anthology – and the book has attracted glowing reviews. ‘Stance’ and
Marion Bernstein wrote poems inspired by subjects including politics, domestic violence, slavery and working-class poverty
‘Timetable’ are two favourites among Kate’s poems.
Polly Clark
Polly’s poetry has won many prizes, and she was selected as one of Mslexia magazine’s ten best poets of the decade in 2014. Her acclaimed debut novel Larchfield was based on poet W H Auden’s time teaching at a school in Helensburgh. Polly is now the Literature programmer at Cove Park Scotland, which offers artists’ residencies on the banks of Loch Long. Her collection Farewell My Lovely is packed with treasures, including a moving poem inspired by the television sitcom Friends.
● She Is Fierce: Brave, Bold and Brilliant Poems by Women, edited by Ana Sampson, is published by Pan Macmillan at £12.99.