Love's Witness: Five Centuries of Love Poetry by Women

The work of woman poets is often given short shrift in anthologies, and collections of love poetry are no exception. This delightful and highly original collection redresses that imbalance, and proves once again that on the subject of love, women poets are just as eloquent and elegant as men—if not more so. Included are selections from a wide range of often overlooked women’s love poetry dating as far back as the fifteenth century, as well as work by well-known names such as Stevie Smith, Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Emily Brontë, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edith Wharton, Katherine Mansfield, Amy Lowell, George Eliot, and even Queen Elizabeth I. An intimate and graceful celebration of the many facets of amour—from the pain of parting to love at first sight—Love’s Witness includes works by more than one hundred of the most celebrated woman poets of our time, mingling the bitter, the sweet, jealousy, exhilaration, and the transience of love.