The Poetry of Lesbiana

An index of Poems and Poets of interest to Collectors of Lesbiana

Compiled by Gene Damon

Briefly, this includes variant as well as overtly lesbian poetry, written in English or available in English translation. The arrangement is chronological, rather than alphabetical. All of these are easily available in public libraries, unless otherwise indicated.

THE ANCIENT WORLD:

Erinna—only one fragment left. Available in the Greek Anthology and other miscellaneous collections of that type.

Nossis—Various variant poems and fragments. Greek Anthology, Putnam, 1915-26 (5 vol.). Also in similar collections.

Sappho—The classic poet of lesbianism. Over 50 editions available in hard covers. New translation by Mary Barnard, University of California Press, 1958, qpb $1.25. An attractive edition is also published for $2.50 by the Pater Pauper Press, on display in most bookstores.

Juvenal—Satires. Many editions in hardcover and qpb. (Rolfe Humphries trans. and ed. the Indiana University Press, 1958, $1.50; also number 997 in Everyman’s Library, $1.85.) The Sixth Satire.

Martial—His “Epigrams” contain various references to lesbians. Cambridge University Press, 1924, $2.75.

THE MIDDLE AGES:

Ariosto, Ludovico—Orlando Furioso. London, Bell, 1907.

Labe, Louise—Love Sonnets (trans. by Frederick Prokosch), New Directions, 1947, $2.50, still in print.

Shakespeare, William—The first 27 of the “Sonnets” are generally adjudged to be male-homosexual in emphasis and are therefore of interest to collectors in this field.

THE ROMANTIC POETS—19th CENTURY:

Coleridge, Samuel T.—Christabel. Long narrative poem of a curious attachment between a guileless young girl and a female demon; available in virtually every anthology of English literature.

Rossetti, Christina—Goblin Market. Lovely and fantastic poem with distinctly variant overtones. See anthologies of English literature.

Romani, Felice—Norma. Italian libretto for the opera by Vincenzo Bellini, generally adjudged to be subtly lesbian in overtones. Many translations are available in collections of opera libretti, but most English translations edit out the variant content or alter the emphasis.

Baudelaire, Charles—The Flowers of Evil, (trans. from the French of Les Fleurs du Mal by Edna St. Vincent Millay and George Dillon) N. Y. Harper, 1936, also New Directions, pbr, 1958. Many other editions and translations available.

Swinburne, Algernon Charles—Poems and Ballads, 2 vols, London, Chatto & Windus, 1893, 1895. Many of the poems in this series are explicitly or implicitly lesbian. In the interests of space limitation, only the major titles will be listed for those who want to sift through anthologies; Anactoria, Fragoletta, Sapphics, At Eleusis, Sonnet with a copy of Mlle. de Maupin, The Masque of Queen Bersabe, Erotion. The entire series of Poems and Ballads is available in her no. 961, Everyman’s Library, Dutton, 1940, 50, for $1.95.

Louÿs, Pierre—Songs of Bilitis. Many editions available, the most easily located probably being the Liveright “Collected works of Pierre Louys”, $3.50. There is also a paperback edition, Avon Red and Gold Library, no date. The “Songs” have been published singly in numerous privately printed and illustrated editions, some of which are very beautiful collector’s items.

Brontë, Emily—Complete Poems. N. Y. Columbia University Press, 1941 (still in print at $4.00). A scattering of these poems are (or can be interpreted as) vaguely variant.

Mencken, Idah Isaacs—Infelicia. Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1875. (Rare, and expensive.)

Field, Michael—(pseud. of two Englishwomen.) Entire work of lesbian interest and a “must” for completists. Most medium to large public libraries have some of their work.

Dickinson, Emily—Bolts of Melody. N. Y. Harper, 1945. Also variant poems are scattered throughout her earlier editions. (Selected Poems, Modern Library, 1948, $1.65.)

THE MODERN POETS:

Lowell, Amy—No one volume of her work can be singled out; her poems are perhaps the most openly variant of any of the English or American poets. Her “Complete Poetical Works” is still in print; Boston, Houghton & Mifflin Co., 1955; Introduction by Louis Untermeyer, $6.00.

O’Neill, Rose—The Master Mistress. N. Y. Knopf, 1922. The creator of the “Kewpies” also was the writer of these sensitive, occasionally erotic poems. Perhaps a dozen are explicitly lesbian.

Hall, Radclyffe—Poems of the Past and Present, London, Chapman & Hall, 1910. Songs of Three Counties, Chapman & Hall, 1913. The Forgotten Island, London, Chapman & Hall, 1915. Sheaf of Verses, London, Chapman & Hall, 1905. Twixt Earth and Stars, London, Chapman & Hall, 1906.

These poems by the author of “Well of Loneliness” are so overt that it is almost unbelievable that they were printed at all, but they were, and I have the books to prove it ... she managed to get away with it, I guess, because she talks in these poems as if she were a man, writing to a woman.

Millay, Edna St. Vincent—Collected Poems, N. Y. Harper, 1956, $6.00. This is the favored anthology of Millay for this purpose, since it contains everything of hers which is variant in tone. However, there are many single volumes of her poetry available, and also pbrs; Collected Lyrics (Washington Square, 50¢), and Collected Sonnets (Washington Square, 50¢).

Sackville-West, Victoria—King’s Daughter, N. Y. Doubleday, 1930.

Sterling, George—Strange Waters. Privately printed, n.d., also in American Esoterica, N. Y. Macy-Masius, 1927. Lengthy narrative poem of supposed incestuous lesbianism ... shocker.

Doolittle, Hilda (H.D.)—Red Roses for Bronze, London, Lord, Chatto & Windus. Also the Grove Press qpb, Selected Poems of H.D., 1957; this, however, does not contain the best-known of Sappho paraphrases, “Fragment Thirty-six”. Also “Collected Poems”, Liveright, $2.50.

Pitter, Ruth—English poetess, whose work is rather difficult to locate in this country. Many of her early poems are tinged with variance and well worth the effort of locating them in large libraries.

Smith, Alicia Kay—Only in Whispers. Privately printed; Falmouth, Rockport, Maine. This is the hardest book on this list to obtain, and of course, the most overt. Ardently but in good taste, this tells of a lengthy and beautiful lesbian affair. A “must” book for serious collectors who like poetry.

Wright, James—The Green Wall. Yale University Press, 1957, $3.00. Two overt poems in an excellent and sensitive collection.