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Feminist poetry is inspired by, promotes, or elaborates on feminist principles and ideas. It might be written with the conscious aim of expressing feminist principles, although sometimes it is identified as feminist by critics in a later era. Some writers are thought to express feminist ideas even if the writer was not an active member of the political movement during their era. Many feminist movements, however, have embraced poetry as a vehicle for communicating with public audiences through anthologies, poetry collections, and public readings.
Formally, feminist poetry often seeks to challenge assumptions about language and meaning. It usually foregrounds women's experiences as valid and worthy of attention, and it also highlights the lived experiences of minorities and other less privileged subjects. Sometimes feminist poems seek to embody specific women's experiences, and they are often intersectional registering specific forms of oppression depending on identities related to race, sexuality, gender presentation, disability, or immigration status. This has led to feminist writing journals like So To Speak providing a statement of intention to publish the work of women and Genderqueer people in particular.
Kim Whitehead states that feminist poetry has "no identifiable birth date," but there are a few key figures identified as early proponents of feminist ideas, and who convey their politics through poetry. The title of first feminist poet is often given to Sappho, at least in part because she seems to write about female homosexuality in Ancient Greece, a culture and time when lesbian sexuality was usually ignored or erased. (1996). 9780520918061, University of California Press. ISBN 9780520918061
The early civilisation of Khmer Empire country in modern-day Cambodia cultivated a literature in Sanskrit, and diverged from its neighbours in creating a strain of poetry from the fifth century to the 13th century in which women were a source of praise and admiration. Take for example the Mebon Inscription of Rājendravarman, which features eulogies for specific women of note, and which is, according to Sheldon I. Pollock, "without obvious parallel in South Asia," and may be related to "specific kinship structures in the region".
Spanning the turn from the 19th to 20th century, Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949) represents a figure for whom politics and poetry are intertwined. Like the Dutt Sisters, Naidu was allowed access to all the educational resources she desired, and she passed the Madras University matriculation examination at age 12. She came from a large and free-thinking family. Her father, Aghorenath Chattopadhyay, was a well-regarded doctor, known for his educational reforms, and her mother, Barada Sundari Devi, was educated at a Brahmo school. Naidu had seven siblings all of whom made contribution to Indian life, for example her brother Virendranath Chattopadhyay was an Indian revolutionary. Naidu studied at Girton College, Cambridge, which brought her into contact with writers of the day, including Arthur Symons, and W.B. Yeats. Ultimately, Naidu's unconventional upbringing and education were catalysts for her intellectual powers, since as she writes in her roman à clef, Sulani: "Unlike the girls of her own nation, she had been brought up in an atmosphere of large un-convention and culture and absolute freedom of thought and action." After her marriage to Govindarajulu Naidu - controversial because of his age and class - Naidu began publishing poetry to international acclaim, and in parallel with this literary art, she maintained her nationalist efforts, eventually becoming the first Indian woman to serve as president of the Indian National Congress.
During the Latin American colonial period, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (est 1651–1695) was a poet, dramatist, and nun. Exceptionally talented and intelligent, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz chose to spend most of her life in the Convent of the Order of St. Jérôme, and her response to a critical Bishop, Respuesta a Sor Filotea, is hailed as one of the first feminist manifestos. Not only did Sor Juana have to deal with the criticisms of men of her era, but she also faced the Spanish perception of literature from the colonies as second-rate. (2017). 9781317041641 ISBN 9781317041641 Sor Juana's poems challenge the assumptions of men about women, for example in 'You Foolish Men.'
What kind of mind is odderThe fact that she chooses to avoid a heteronormative life with marriage and children is often held up as a feminist choice, and she represents the possibility to be a woman who 'pursues knowledge and procreates only through art and not through a genetic legacy.'than his who mists
a mirror and then complains
When colonialism did arrive, Anne Bradstreet was one of the first poets to win acclaim, and many of her poems are thought to have feminist themes. The mother of eight children, Bradstreet sometimes found herself in conflict with her domestic circumstances and her role as a Puritans woman. Feminist literary criticism defined Bradstreet in retrospect as a "protofeminist," because of her "gender awareness," and her treatment of domestic concerns of importance in women's lives. (2025). 9780313345814, Greenwood. ISBN 9780313345814 Poet Alicia Ostriker describes Bradstreet's style as "a combination of rebellion and submission," a pattern that Ostriker also sees in poets to come like Phillis Wheatley and Emily Dickinson.
Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784) was brought to the United States from Africa as a slave, and sold to the Wheatley family of Boston in 1771. A prodigy as a child, Wheatley was the first black person to publish a book of poems in the American colony, and though her poems are sometimes thought of as expressing "meek submission", she is also what Camille Dungy describes as "a foremother", and a role model for black women poets as "part of the fabric" of American poetry. Involved in the abolitionist movement, Wheatley became "a spokeswoman for the cause of American independence and the Abolitionism".
Nineteenth-century poet Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) is often thought of as feminist, though she never wrote for public audiences. Not necessarily recognized in her own lifetime, Dickinson offers powerful female speakers. Engaging with male writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson or William Wordsworth, her work is praised for developing "others ways of representing the position of a female speaking subject" in particular romantic and psychological dynamics. See for example the declaration of desire and longing in 'Wild nights - Wild nights!.' In the 1970s, feminist literary criticism articulated Dickinson's feminism through groundbreaking studies by Margaret Homans, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, and Suzanne Juhasz. Critics point in particular to Dickinson's expression of anger at women's confinement, to her re-gendering of external and internal realities, to her use of feminist motifs, and to her articulation of her particular position in Puritan, patriarchal culture. Dickinson also proves that confinement to domestic life does not dictate an inability to create great poetry. As the poet Adrienne Rich writes, "Probably no poet ever lived so much and so purposefully in one house; even, in one room."
Living through the turn of the century was Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson(1875–1935), a poet often thought of in relation to her marriage to Paul Dunbar. Dunbar-Nelson, however, is an accomplished writer in her own right, praised by poet Camille Dungy for breaking out of writing only about "black women's things," instead addressing "the theater and war of life." Born in New Orleans, Dubar-Nelson's family had a heritage of African American, Anglo, Native American, and Creole roots. Camille Dungy suggests that bringing black women writers like Dunbar-Nelson into the feminist canon alongside Bradstreet and Dickinson is of great importance in rediscovering literary foremothers for black women writers.
The early twentieth century was also a significant moment for feminism, because it saw the rise of the suffragist movement, and poets responded to the political moment by writing poems regarding the debate as to whether or not women should have the right to vote. In her collection Suffrage Songs and Verses, Charlotte Perkins Gilman criticises wealthy women, who because they live a life of ease, deny other women their rights. Alice Duer Miller (1874–1942) wrote poems mocking Anti-suffragism advocates, which were published in the New-York Tribune, a popular news outlet of the era.
While some poets have been embraced by the feminist canon, others are seen as awkward additions in spite of their success, for example Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) is often defined more as a poet involved in modernist experimentation than feminist discourse. Some of modernism's tenets seem incompatible with some kinds of feminism, like the repression of emotion, and avoidance of domesticity. Nevertheless, second wave feminists found modernist women poets like H.D. (1886–1961) to be a powerful example, unfairly overlooked by male critics.
By the time of the 1940s, magazines were being set up which, though perhaps not obviously feminist, certainly in their practices were very different to male-run publications: take for example Contemporary Verse (1941–52) published in Canada by a group of women writers, including Dorothy Livesay, P.K. Page, and Anne Marriott. (2017). 9780773549609 ISBN 9780773549609
1960s feminist poetry provided a useful space for second wave American feminist politics. The poets, however, were not necessarily unified in their themes or formal techniques, but had links to specific movements and trends, such as the New York Poets, the Black Mountain poets, the San Francisco Renaissance, or the Beat poets. Denise Levertov (1923–1997), for example, refined and built upon poetics from the Black Mountain School.
Women like Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) and Anne Sexton (1928–1974) provided a feminist version of the Confessional Poets' poetics, which worked alongside feminist texts of the day, like Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, to "address taboo subjects and social limitations that plagued American women" (although Plath died before The Feminine Mystique was published) Lucille Clifton (1936–2010) also borrowed from Confessional poetics, a strategy that was key according to Adrienne Rich for avoiding being trapped between "misogynist black male critics and white feminists still struggling to unearth a white woman's tradition." Confessionalism lent to feminist poetry the possibility of agency for the female speaker, and the refusal to present well-behaved women, though it was troubling that the Confessional women poets who committed suicide tended to be foregrounded and promoted in poetry circles.
Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980) was a generation older than Plath and Sexton, and rejected the suicidal poetics of the Confessional writers. Rukeyser also wrote frankly about the body and sexuality, inspiring later poets like Sharon Olds. In addition, Rukeyser's leftist politics and militant writing style proved to be a model for poet Adrienne Rich. Both poets also contributed to the anti-Vietnam War movement: for example Muriel Rukeyser and Rich took part in readings as part of the event series, the Week of the Angry Arts Against the War in Vietnam.
Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) also became a key feminist poet, praised by Alicia Ostriker for bringing "intellect" to poetry, "something that women were not supposed to have," as well as "a leftward leaning sensibility in which coming out as lesbian was just one part." Rich's "Diving into the Wreck" is an important feminist poem, as it describes moving down as an act of triumph, where the wreck might be history, literature, or human life, and the poem itself is a kind of "battlecry." Famously, when Rich received the National Book Award for her collection, Diving into the Wreck, she accepted it on behalf of all the female nominees, including Audre Lorde and Alice Walker:
We, Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, and Alice Walker, together accept this award in the name of all the women whose voices have gone and still go unheard in a patriarchal world, and in the name of those who, like us, have been tolerated as token women in this culture, often at great cost and in great pain. We believe that we can enrich ourselves more in supporting and giving to each other than by competing against each other; and that poetry— if it is poetry— exists in a realm beyond ranking and comparison. We symbolically join together here in refusing the terms of patriarchal competition and declaring that we will share this prize among us, to be used as best we can for women.Audre Lorde (1934–1992) was a feminist poet whose poetry and prose writings have had a great impact on feminist thinking to the present day. Sometimes thought of as a writer who developed a "black lesbian eroticism," Lorde's poetry also shows a deep ethical and moral commitment, which seeks to challenge racism, sexism, and homophobia. Many of Lorde's poems have a great deal in common with the modern-day campaign #blacklivesmatter, as they pose questions about institutionalised racism in American public services like the price force, for example in her poem 'Power':
A policeman who shot down a ten year old in QueensLorde's work has also proved to be an inspiration to feminists working on the subject of feminist , and the trope of the angry black woman, often used as an excuse to belittle or reduce the impact of just concerns about racism. Lorde's poems often draw attention to the universalising tendencies of some white feminisms, so in a poem about a mythical woman, "A Woman Speaks", only at the end does Lorde draw attention to the problematic universal, white woman, addingstood over the boy with his cop shoes in childish blood
and a voice said "Die you little motherfucker" and
there are tapes to prove it. At his trial
this policeman said in his own defense
"I didn't notice the size nor nothing else
only the color". And
I amLorde went on to be an effective and challenging teacher of other women poets, such as Donna Masini.woman
Countering tokenism was also an important aspect of the feminist poetry project. Carolyn Forché describes the "blue velvet chair" effect, inspired by group portraits of canonical poets, in which one - but only one – woman writer was allowed to join the men, often sat in a Victorian blue velvet chair.
As poetry took on a new significance for the feminist movement, so a number of new poetry anthologies were published which emphasised women's voices and experiences. (2025). 9780199941865 ISBN 9780199941865 Anthologies played an important role generally in opening up the political consciousness of poetry, an important example being Raymond Souster's volume, New Wave Canada: The Explosion in Canadian Poetry (1966).Louis Dudek and Michael Gnarowski describe the anthology's embracing of counterculture, including new ideas about sexuality and the role of women.
Other anthologies began to focus specifically on women's writing, such as:
Other anthologies created new canons of women's writing from the past, such as Black Sister: poetry by black American women, 1746–1980 (1981) edited by Erlene Stetson; or Writing Red: An Anthology of American Women Writers, 1930–1940 (1987) edited by Paula Rabinowitz and Charlotte Nekola. Such anthologies "established solid ground for the communication and circulation of feminist ideas" in the American and Canadian Academies.
Conferences also provided important spaces for feminists to share and discuss ideas about the possibilities of poetry: for example a key moment for Canadian feminist poetry was the "Women and words / Les femmes et les motes" conference in 1983. The Vancouver convention brought together women writers, publishers, and booksellers to discuss the issues of the Canadian literary world, including gender inequity.
The work at this time was focussing on "images of women," and this often meant broadening representations. This methodology eventually began to be criticised, however, because it failed to recognise the complications of violence embedded in the very structure of language. Writers influenced by the avant-garde and by Language poets sought to challenge the idea of language's neutrality. US feminist-language poets, including Lyn Hejinian or Susan Howe, or Canadian writers like Daphne Marlatt looked back to the legacy of experimentalist modernists like Gertrude Stein, or Mina Loy, and also to diverse sources of inspiration such as Denise Levertov, Marguerite Duras, Virginia Woolf, Nicole Brossard, Phyllis Webb, Louky Bersianik, and Julia Kristeva. They also reframed the language poetics from male mentors such as Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Gary Snyder, or Allen Ginsberg.
Poets also sought to intervene in spheres traditionally dominated by men. Take for example Eileen Myles' intervention into politics in her 1992 "Write-in Campaign for President."
By the time of the 1990s, and the rise of intersectionality as a key feminist term, many feminist poets resisted the term "woman poet," because it suggested "too confining a collective identity". They also sought to undermine "the assumption that has sometimes structured feminist political organizing and even feminist literary publishing and criticism—that gender can be separated from race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality, and that white middleclass women first and foremost have the tools and the know-how for the enterprise of analyzing gendered experience and literary production."
Present=day feminist poetry in North America holds space for a great variety of poets tackling identity, sexuality, and gender issues. Key writings in the recent past include Claudia Rankine's careful skewering of race related in Citizen, Dorothea Laskey's "ferocious confession" in Rome for example, and Bhanu Kapil's challenge the violent inherent in structures of language and institutions.
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