Maurine and Other Poems by Ella Wheeler Wilcox is a clever collection of poems about a woman named Maurine receiving mail, chatting with the mailman, visiting with Aunt Ruth, and doing other everyday activities. Excerpt: "The clock chimed three, and we yet strayed at will About the yard in morning dishabille, When Aunt Ruth came, with apron o'er her head, Holding a letter in her hand, and said, "Here is a note, from Vivian I opine; At least his servant brought it. And now, girls, You may think this is no concern of mine, But in my day young ladies did not go Till almost bed-time roaming to and fro..."
Poetry. African & African American Studies. LGBTQIA Studies. "Ana Lara's KOHNJEHR WOMAN Evokes a world such as only narrative poetry can. In a series of concise, orally grounded and visually vivid poems, she introduces the mysterious avenger, Shee, who upends daily life, and all the lives, on an antebellum plantation. KOHNJEHR WOMAN's spell endures." --John Keene
American women have created an especially vigorous and innovative poetry, beginning in 1632 when Anne Bradstreet set aside her needle and picked up her "poet's pen." The topics of American women poets have been various, their images their own, and their modes of expression original. Emily Stipes Watts does not imply that the work of American men and that of American women are two different kinds of poetry, although they have been treated as such in the past. It is her aim, rather, to delineate and define the poetic tradition of women as crucial to the understanding of American poetry as a whole. By 1850, American women of all colors, religions, and social classes were writing and publishing poetry. Within the critical category of "female poetry," developed from 1800 to 1850, these women experimented boldly and prepared the way for the achievement of such women as Emily Dickinson in the second half of the nineteenth century. Indeed at times—for example from 1860 through 1910—it was women who were at the outer edge of prosodic experimentation and innovation in American poetry. Moving chronologically, Professor Watts broadly characterizes the state of American poetry for each period, citing the dominant male poets; she then focuses on women contemporaries, singling out and analyzing their best work. This volume not only brings to light several important women poets but also represents the discovery of a tradition of women writers. This is a unique and invaluable contribution to the history of American literature.
In Vienna in 1938, in the shadow of an increasingly dangerous Nazi Germany, twelve-year-old Greta pursues her dream of becoming a concert pianist like her dead brother Kurt, despite a lack of support from her widowed mother.
You are so young. You may wonder what an old man like me could teach? I wonder as well. I certainly don't claim to know all the answers. I'm barely figuring out the questions....Life has a strange way of repeating itself and I want my experience to help you. I want to make a difference. My hope is that you'll consider my words and remember my heart. Harry Whitney is dying. And in the process, he's losing his mind. Afflicted with Alzheimer's disease, he knows his "good" time is dwindling. Wishing to be remembered as more than an ailing old man, Harry realizes the greatest gift he can pass on is the wisdom of his years, the jumbled mix of experiences and emotions that add up to a life. And so he compiles a book of his poems for his favorite granddaughter, Emily, in the hope that his words might somehow heal the tenuous relationships in a family that is falling apart. But Harry's poems contain much more than meets the eye....As Emily and her family discover, intricate messages are hidden in them, clues and riddles that lead to an extraordinary cache of letters, and even a promise of hidden gold. Are they the ramblings of a man losing touch with reality? Or has Harry given them a gift more valuable than any of them could have guessed? As Harry's secrets are uncovered one by one, his family learns about romance, compassion, and hope -- and together they set out to search for something priceless, a shining prize to treasure forever. They may grow closer in spirit or be torn apart by greed...but their lives will be undeniably altered by Harry's words in his letters for Emily.
When she began writing, Mary Haskin Parker Richards was twenty-two, a Mormon convert who had traveled from England to the American frontier separately from her parents, and a newlywed just parted from her husband, sent to Britain as a missionary. She lived with her in-laws, an extended family led by Willard Richards, also a leader of the Mormon church. Reorganized in the aftermath of the assassination of Joseph Smith, the church was making its way west under the guidance of Brigham Young, a Richards cousin.
