No More Masks!

by Howe, Florence

• ISBN13: 9780060965174
• ISBN10: 0060965177
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-08-04
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

A revised and expanded edition of the classic groundbreaking anthology of 20th-century American women's poetry, representing more than 100 poets from Amy Lowell to Anne Sexton to Rita Dove.

Table of Contents

Preface	xxiii
Muriel Rukeyser, The Poem as Mask 1968	xxvii
Introduction	xxix
PART ONE
. . . we're a queer lot
We women who write poetry. ---Amy Lowell
Lola Ridge, 1873--1941
from The Ghetto 1918	3	(2)
The Dream 1920	5	(1)
Amy Lowell 1927	6	(1)
Amy Lowell, 1874--1925
The Garden by Moonlight 1919	6	(1)
Interlude 1919	7	(1)
Autumn 1919	7	(1)
The Sisters 1925	8	(5)
Gertrude Stein, 1874--1946
from Patriarchal Poetry 1927	13	(2)
Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar-Nelson, 1875--1935
I Sit and Sew 1920	15	(1)
To Madame Curie 1921	16	(1)
The Proletariat Speaks 1929	16	(2)
Angelina Weld Grimke, 1880--1958
Caprichosa 1901	18	(1)
The Garden Seat n.d.	19	(2)
At April n.d.	21	(1)
Anne Spencer, 1882--1975
Lady, Lady 1925	21	(1)
Creed 1927	22	(1)
Letter to My Sister 1927	22	(1)
1975 1974	23	(1)
Sara Teasdale, 1884--1933
The Kiss 1910	23	(1)
The Wind 1914	24	(1)
I Might Have Sung of the World 1919	24	(1)
Water Lilies 1920	24	(1)
Hide and Seek 1922	25	(1)
Elinor Wylie, 1885--1928
Let No Charitable Hope 1928	25	(1)
Little Eclogue 1932	26	(2)
H.D. {Hilda Doolittle}, 1886--1961
Sheltered Garden 1916	28	(1)
from Eurydice 1917; 1925	29	(3)
Helen 1924	32	(1)
Hazel Hall, 1886--1924
Instruction 1921	32	(1)
Walkers at Dusk 1923	33	(1)
For a Broken Needle 1928	33	(1)
Georgia Douglas Johnson, 1886--1966
The Heart of a Woman 1927	34	(1)
Old Black Men 1927	34	(1)
When I Am Dead 1927	35	(1)
Marianne Moore, 1887--1972
Marriage 1923	35	(7)
O To Be A Dragon 1959	42	(1)
Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1892--1950
from Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree 1923	43	(1)
Menses 1928; 1939	43	(2)
Rendezvous 1939	45	(1)
An Ancient Gesture 1949	45	(1)
Genevieve Taggard, 1894--1948
With Child 1921	46	(1)
At Last the Women Are Moving 1935	47	(1)
No Abstraction 1941	47	(2)
To the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade 1941	49	(1)
Demeter 1945	50	(1)
Louise Bogan, 1897--1970
Medusa 1923	50	(1)
The Crows 1923	51	(1)
Women 1923	51	(1)
Betrothed 1923	52	(1)
Masked Woman's Song 1967	53	(1)
Kay Boyle, 1903--1992
A Communication to Nancy Cunard 1937	53	(5)
The Invitation in It, from American Citizen 1944	58	(1)
For James Baldwin 1970	59	(1)
For Marianne Moore's birthday 1970	60	(1)
A Poem for February First 1975 1986; 1990	60	(2)
A Poem on Getting Up Early in the Morning (Or Even Late in the Morning), When One Is Old 1990	62	(1)
Lorine Niedecker, 1903--1970
In the Great Snowfall Before the Bomb 1961	63	(1)
Nursery Rhyme 1962	64	(1)
Grandfather 1968	64	(1)
I Married 1976	65	(1)
Margaret Fuller 1976	65	(1)
So He Said 1976	66	(1)
Phyllis McGinley, 1905--1978
Why, Some of My Best Friends Are Women 1932	66	(2)
The 5:32 1932	68	(1)
Josephine Jacobson, 1908--
When the Five Prominent Poets 1967	68	(1)
Food 1981	69	(1)
The Sisters 1987	70	(2)
The Motion 1987	72	(1)
Jean Garrigue, 1912--1972
Upon the Intimation of Love's Mortality 1964	73	(1)
On the Legends of a Dancer 1964	73	(1)
Written in London After a Protest Parade 1967	74	(2)
Muriel Rukeyser, 1913--1980
More of a Corpse Than a Woman 1935	76	(1)
Night Feeding 1951	77	(1)
Poem Out of Childhood 1936	77	(3)
The Conjugation of the Paramecium 1968	80	(1)
Kathe Kollwitz 1971	81	(5)
Despisals 1973	86	(1)
To Be a Jew in the Twentieth Century 1973	87	(1)
For Kay Boyle 1974	87	(1)
Resurrection of the Right Side 1974	88	(1)
Ruth Stone, 1915--
In an Iridescent Time 1959	89	(1)
Advice 1970	89	(1)
How to Catch Aunt Harriette 1987	90	(1)
Pokeberries 1987	90	(1)
Father's Day 1991	91	(1)
Margaret Walker, 1915--
Molly Means 1942	92	(2)
Lineage 1942	94	(1)
For Gwen, 1969 1969	94	(1)
Gwendolyn Brooks, 1917--
The Mother 1944	95	(1)
Jessie Mitchell's Mother 1950	96	(1)
To Those of My Sisters Who Kept Their Naturals 1987	97	(1)
Naomi Replansky, 1918--
Housing Shortage 1952	98	(1)
Two Women 1952	99	(1)
I Met My Solitude 1988	99	(1)
May Swenson, 1913--1989
A Dream 1954	100	(1)
The Centaur 1956	101	(3)
Women 1968	104	(1)
Feel Me 1968	105	(1)
In the Bodies of Words 1979; 1987	106	(1)
In Love Made Visible 1991	107	(4)
PART TWO
The Will to Change--Adrienne Rich
Amy Clampitt, 1920--
The Burning Child 1985	111	(2)
Written in Water 1986	113	(1)
Medusa 1987	113	(2)
Amherst 1987; 1990	115	(1)
Maude Meehan, 1920--
Is There Life After Feminism 1985	116	(2)
Gift for My Mother's 90th Birthday 1991	118	(1)
Marie Ponsot, 1921--
Among Women 1981	118	(1)
Residual Paralysis 1981	119	(1)
``Love Is Not Love'' 1988	120	(3)
Mona Van Duyn, 1921--
Leda 1964	123	(1)
Leda Reconsidered 1964	124	(3)
The Stream 1982	127	(4)
Late Loving 1992	131	(1)
Grace Paley, 1922--
The Women in Vietnam 1973	132	(1)
The Sad Children's Song 1985	132	(1)
On Mother's Day 1985	133	(1)
In Aix 1989	134	(1)
Shirley Kaufman, 1923--
Mothers, Daughters 1969	135	(1)
Apples 1970	136	(1)
Deja Vu 1984	137	(2)
Notes to My Daughters 1993	139	(3)
Denise Levertov, 1923--
To the Snake 1958	142	(1)
Hypocrite Women 1962	143	(1)
In Mind 1962	144	(1)
Stepping Westward 1966	144	(2)
Life at War 1968	146	(1)
An Embroidery (I) 1971	147	(1)
A Woman Alone 1978	148	(2)
The Long Way Round 1978	150	(3)
Julia Randall, 1923--
To William Wordsworth from Virginia 1961	153	(1)
Recipes 1987	154	(1)
A Valediction 1987	155	(1)
Mitsuye Yamada, 1923--
Homecoming 1976	156	(2)
The Night Before Good-Bye 1976	158	(1)
The Club 1989	159	(2)
Jane Cooper, 1924--
The Knowledge That Comes Through Experience 1950; 1973	161	(1)
Waiting 1971	161	(1)
Hotel De Dream 1990	162	(2)
Vassar Miller, 1924--
Spinster's Lullaby 1960	164	(1)
Trimming the Sails 1960	164	(1)
On Approaching My Birthday 1968	165	(1)
Subterfuge 1981	165	(1)
Prayer to My Muse 1981	166	(1)
A Mourning 1991	167	(1)
Carolyn Kizer, 1925--
Hera, Hung from the Sky 1961	167	(2)
From Pro Femina 1965	169	(3)
Bitch 1984	172	(1)
The Blessing 1984	173	(3)
Maxine Kumin, 1925--
A Voice from the Roses 1961	176	(1)
After Love 1970	177	(1)
Louise Bourgeois Exhibit 1985	178	(1)
The Chain 1985	179	(1)
Credo 1992	180	(1)
The Rendezvous 1992	181	(1)
Anne Halley, 1928--
Housewife's Letter: to Mary 1965	182	(3)
Against Dark's Harm 1965	185	(1)
I'd Rather See Than Be One, But 1979	185	(3)
Cynthia Macdonald, 1928--
Instruction from Bly 1973	188	(2)
Objets d'Art 1973	190	(1)
Inheritance 1976	190	(1)
Anne Sexton, 1928--1974
Housewife 1961	191	(1)
The Abortion 1961	192	(1)
Consorting with Angels 1966	193	(1)
For My Lover, Returning to His Wife 1967	194	(2)
Adrienne Rich, 1929--
Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law 1963	196	(3)
Women 1969	199	(1)
Hunger 1974--1975	200	(2)
(The Floating Poem) from Twenty-One Love Poems 1974--1976	202	(1)
Frame 1980	203	(2)
XIII (Dedications) from An Atlas of the Difficult World 1990--1991	205	(1)
Patricia Goedicke, 1931--
In the Ocean 1980	206	(2)
In the Waiting Room 1980	208	(1)
Lucky 1986	209	(2)
Without Looking 1992	211	(1)
Colette Inez, 1931--
The Woman Who Loved Worms 1969	212	(1)
Warrior Daughters 1983	213	(1)
Absolving You 1988	214	(1)
Linda Pastan, 1932--
Notes from the Delivery Room 1971	215	(1)
After Reading Nelly Sachs 1971	216	(1)
Passover 1971	216	(2)
Duet for One Voice 1985	218	(2)
Sylvia Plath, 1932--1963
The Disquieting Muses 1959	220	(1)
Candles 1960	221	(2)
Daddy 1963	223	(2)
Wintering 1963	225	(2)
Anne Stevenson, 1933--
The Suburb 1964	227	(1)
Poem to My Daughter 1982	228	(1)
Diane Di Prima, 1934--
The Quarrel 1961	229	(1)
April Fool Birthday Poem for Grandpa 1975	230	(1)
Narrow Path Into the Back Country 1975	231	(2)
Poem in Praise of My Husband 1990	233	(1)
Audre Lorde, 1934--1992
The Woman Thing 1970	234	(1)
Hanging Fire 1978	235	(1)
Sisters in Arms 1986	236	(2)
Sonia Sanchez, 1934--
Poem at Thirty 1968	238	(1)
A Poem for My Most Intelligent 10:30 AM Class/Fall 1985 1987	239	(1)
A Poem for My Brother 1987	239	(2)
Jean Valentine, 1934--
First Love 1965	241	(1)
The Forgiveness Dream: Man from the Warsaw Ghetto 1979	242	(1)
Snow Landscape, in a Glass Globe 1989	243	(1)
My Mother's Body, My Professor, My Bower 1992	244	(1)
X 1992	244	(1)
Nellie Wong, 1934--
Relining Shelves 1977	245	(2)
Toward a 44th Birthday 1984	247	(1)
Colleen McElroy, 1935--
Gra'ma 1972	248	(1)
In My Mother's Room 1984	249	(1)
This Is the Poem I Never Meant to Write 1984	250	(2)
Queen of the Ebony Isles 1984	252	(1)
Foul Line---1987 1990	253	(1)
Lucille Clifton, 1936--
Miss Rosie 1969	254	(1)
Admonitions 1969	255	(1)
The Way It Was 1972	255	(1)
Turning 1974	256	(1)
The Thirty-eighth Year 1974	256	(2)
The Coming of Kali 1974	258	(1)
There Is a Girl Inside 1980	259	(1)
To My Friend, Jerina 1991	259	(1)
Wishes for Sons 1991	260	(1)
Jayne Cortez, 1936--
Rape 1982	261	(1)
Stockpiling 1984	262	(2)
June Jordan, 1936--
What Would I Do White? 1967	264	(1)
If You Saw a Negro Lady 1970	265	(1)
Case in Point 1980	266	(1)
Poem About My Rights 1980	267	(3)
1977: Poem for Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer 1980	270	(2)
Some People 1989	272	(1)
The Female and the Silence of a Man 1989	272	(1)
Marge Piercy, 1936--
Noon of the Sunbather 1963	273	(1)
The Friend 1964	273	(1)
The Woman in the 1971	274	(1)
Homage to Lucille, Dr. Lord-Heinstein 1985	274	(2)
Something to Look Forward To 1988	276	(1)
The Book of Ruth and Naomi 1992	277	(1)
Alicia Ostriker, 1937--
Propaganda Poem: Maybe for Some Young Mamas 1975--1979	278	(4)
The Exchange 1984	282	(1)
Diane Wakoski, 1937--
Justice Is Reason Enough 1958	283	(1)
The Realization of Difference 1966	284	(1)
Thanking My Mother for Piano Lessons 1970	285	(4)
The Girls 1986	289	(2)
Moneylight 1991	291	(2)
Eleanor Wilner, 1937--
Emigration 1984	293	(1)
Coda, Overture 1989	294	(2)
Sarah's Choice 1989	296	(3)
Wanda Coleman, 1948--
Women of My Color 1979	299	(1)
Dear Mama (2) 1983	300	(1)
Paula Gunn Allen, 1939--
Night Vision 1982	301	(1)
Los Angeles, 1980 1982	302	(2)
Eve the Fox 1989	304	(5)
PART THREE
Loving in the War Years---Cherrie Moraga
Lorna Dee Cervantes, 1940--
Beneath the Shadow of the Freeway 1981	309	(3)
Poem for the Young White Man Who Asked Me How I, an Intelligent, Well-Read Person Could Believe in the War between Races 1981	312	(2)
Judy Grahn, 1940--
Ella, in a Square Apron, along Highway 80, from The Common Woman 1970	314	(1)
My Name is Judith 1978	314	(2)
Hannah, from Helen You Always Were/The Factory 1982	316	(1)
Toi Derricotte, 1941--
The Feeding 1978	317	(1)
On the Turning Up of Unidentified Black Female Corpses 1989	318	(1)
Poem for My Father 1989	319	(3)
Irena Klepfisz, 1941--
About My Father 1975	322	(1)
Perspectives on the Second World War 1975	323	(1)
Der mames shabosim/My Mother's Sabbath Days 1990	324	(2)
Robin Morgan, 1941--
The Invisible Woman 1970	326	(1)
Heirloom 1982	326	(2)
Damn You, Lady 1988	328	(1)
Alta, 1942--
Bitter Herbs, 1969	329	(1)
Euch, Are You Having Your Period? 1970	330	(1)
First Pregnancy 1970	330	(1)
Penus Envy 1970	330	(1)
Euridice 1975	331	(1)
from Theme & Variations 1980	331	(1)
Marilyn Hacker, 1942--
The Muses 1968	332	(2)
Sonnet for Iva 1976; 1980	334	(1)
Mother II 1985	334	(1)
Ballad of Ladies Lost and Found 1985	335	(3)
Nearly a Valediction 1990	338	(2)
Janice Mirikitani, 1942--
Soul Food 1987	340	(1)
Breaking Tradition 1987	341	(1)
Sharon Olds, 1942--
Solitary 1980	342	(1)
That Year 1980	343	(1)
The Language of the Brag 1980	344	(1)
Pajamas 1984	345	(1)
What If God 1988; 1992	345	(1)
The Girl 1988	346	(2)
First Sex 1988	348	(1)
Carolyn M. Rodgers, 1942--
U Name This One 1969	348	(1)
Some Me of Beauty 1976	349	(1)
Feminism 1978	350	(1)
Tess Gallagher, 1943--
Instructions to the Double 1976	350	(2)
On Your Own 1978	352	(1)
Spacious Encounter 1992	353	(1)
I Stop Writing the Poem 1992	354	(1)
Nikki Giovanni, 1943--
Seduction 1968	354	(1)
Adulthood 1968	355	(2)
Legacies 1973	357	(1)
Louise Gluck, 1943--
Pomegranate 1975	357	(1)
Mythic Fragment 1985	358	(1)
Brown Circle 1990	359	(1)
Susan Griffin, 1943--
I Like to Think of Harriet Tubman 1970	360	(2)
Song My 1971	362	(1)
An Answer to a Man's Question, ``What Can I Do About Women's Liberation?'' 1976	363	(1)
Sunday Morning 1987	364	(2)
Linda McCarriston, 1943--
A Castle in Lynn 1991	366	(1)
Hotel Nights with My Mother 1991	367	(1)
Revision 1991	368	(1)
Sandra McPherson, 1943--
Pregnancy 1970	369	(1)
For Elizabeth Bishop 1982	370	(1)
At the Grave of Hazel Hall 1988	371	(3)
Pat Parker, 1944--1989
For Willyce 1973	374	(1)
There Is a Woman in This Town 1973; 1978	375	(2)
Love Isn't 1985	377	(1)
Minnie Bruce Pratt, 1944--
Motionless on the Dark Side of the Light 1989	378	(1)
Poem for My Sons 1989	379	(2)
Alma Luz Villanueva, 1944--
To Jesus Villanueva, with Love 1977	381	(3)
Witches' Blood 1977	384	(1)
Alice Walker, 1944--
Women 1973	385	(1)
The Thing Itself 1984	385	(2)
Ingrid Wendt, 1944--
The Newest Banana Plant Leaf 1973	387	(1)
Mussels 1987	387	(2)
After a Class in Seaweed 1993	389	(1)
Lucha Corpi, 1945--
Emily Dickinson 1980	390	(1)
Winter Song 1990	391	(1)
Sharon Doubiago, 1946--
Self 1977	392	(1)
From the Waitress Papers 1977	393	(1)
Father 1982	394	(2)
Marilyn Nelson Waniek, 1946--
Levitation with Baby 1985	396	(2)
A Strange Beautiful Woman 1985	398	(1)
The House on Moscow Street 1990	398	(2)
AI, 1947--
She Didn't Even Wave 1979	400	(1)
The Man with the Saxophone 1985	401	(1)
Ellen Bass, 1947--
In Celebration 1973	402	(1)
Vaginas of Women 1977	403	(1)
Tampons 1977	404	(3)
I Didn't Know 1978	407	(1)
For Barbara, Who Said She Couldn't Visualize Two Women Together 1984	408	(1)
Cheryl Clarke, 1947--
Hair: A Narrative 1983	409	(3)
Wearing My Cap Backwards 1986	412	(1)
Linda Hogan, 1947--
Daybreak 1983	413	(1)
Friday Night 1985	414	(1)
The Truth Is 1985	415	(2)
Molly Peacock, 1947--
So, When I Swim to the Shore 1984	417	(1)
Our Room 1984	417	(1)
Smell 1984	418	(1)
Ntozake Shange, 1948--
Its Happenin/But You Dont Know Abt It 1978	418	(2)
Advice 1978	420	(1)
Olga Broumas, 1949--
Eye of Heart 1989	421	(1)
Touched 1989	422	(1)
Rachel Hadas, 1949--
Yes, But 1987	423	(2)
Pass It On, II 1989	425	(2)
Teaching Emily Dickinson 1989	427	(1)
Carolyn Forche, 1950--	427	(5)
Burning the Tomato Worms 1976	432	(3)
The Island 1976--78; 1981
Jorie Graham, 1951--
The Way Things Work 1980	435	(1)
From the New World 1991	436	(3)
Joy Harjo, 1951--
Anchorage 1983	439	(2)
The Book of Myths 1990	441	(1)
Rita Dove, 1952--
The Great Palaces of Versailles 1986	442	(1)
After Reading Mickey in the Night Kitchen for the Third Time Before Bed 1989	443	(1)
Arrow 1989	444	(1)
Cherrie Moraga, 1952--
For the Color of My Mother 1983	445	(2)
Loving in the War Years 1983	447	(1)
Naomi Shihab Nye, 1952--
Hugging the Jukebox 1980; 1982	448	(2)
Blood 1986	450	(1)
Mary Jo Salter, 1954--
Welcome to Hiroshima 1985	451	(1)
Emily Wants to Play 1989	452	(2)
Chernobyl 1989	454	(1)
Thylias Moss, 1955--
There Will Be Animals 1989	455	(1)
The Party to Which Wolves Are Invited 1990	456	(1)
Chitra Divakaruni, 1956--
Making Samosas 1991	457	(2)
Visit 1991	459	(2)
End Poem
Adrienne Rich, Final Notations 1991	461	(2)
Biographies	463	(14)
Permissions	477