A Formal Feeling Comes: Poems in Form by Contemporary Women

Worth reading for its inclusion of new and original voices, this is both a stimulating and a problematic book. Finch challenges current notions linking form in women's poetry with a long tradition of both social and literary oppression. In this political verse struggle, free verse functions as a Hillary Clintonesque vehicle, with formal verse as the Barbara Bush of personal expression. The editor observes ``a widespread turn--or return--to `formal' poetics'' among women now writing, and marshals some influential writers (Rita Dove, Mona Van Duyn) to support her argument. Providing balance, she also reserves space for younger poets writing within a broad stylistic spectrum. Nell Altizer, Sybil Kollar, Suzanne Noguere, Molly Peacock, Mary Jo Salter and Leslie Simon are a few of the writers who offer an un-self-conscious and spirited approach. Each poet prefaces her work with a brief essay on form, many of these notable for their mixed feelings about it. One recurring theme: an awareness of formal writing's limitations, and an interest in its potential as an appropriated language. The anthology in a sense confounds this question, as roughly half of the poems surprise us and the other half remind us of why women may have revolted against form to begin with. (June)