CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
She walks in beauty GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON
INTRODUCTION
FALLING IN LOVE
A Very Valentine GERTRUDE STEIN
Song JOHN KEATS
I Do Not Love Thee THE HONORABLE CAROLINE ELIZABETH SARAH NORTON
From Hero and Leander CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
Love’s Philosophy PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
Having a Coke with You FRANK O’HARA
Symptom Recital DOROTHY PARKER
To Aphrodite of the Flowers, at Knossos SAPPHO
Come to the Orchard in Spring RUMI
MAKING LOVE
Don’t try to rush things—from Poem 41
From From June to December
Wild Nights—Wild Nights! EMILY DICKINSON
may i feel said he E. E. CUMMINGS
When He Pressed His Lips
Corinna’s Going a-Maying ROBERT HERRICK
The Weather-Cock Points South AMY LOWELL
To His Mistress Going to Bed JOHN DONNE
The Song of Solomon 2:1–17, 3:1–5
Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour WALLACE STEVENS
Variation on the Word Sleep MARGARET ATWOOD
After Making Love We Hear Footsteps GALWAY KINNELL
It Is Marvellous . . . ELIZABETH BISHOP
White Heliotrope ARTHUR SYMONS
Youth OSIP MANDELSTAM
BREAKING UP
Lilacs KATHERINE GARRISON CHAPIN
Unfortunate Coincidence DOROTHY PARKER
The Philosopher EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY
From Summer with Monika ROGER McGOUGH
I’m Going to Georgia FOLK SONG
A Type of Loss INGEBORG BACHMANN
On Monsieur’s Departure QUEEN ELIZABETH I
The Eaten Heart—from The Knight of Curtesy
My life closed twice before its close— EMILY DICKINSON
When We Two Parted GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON
Well, I Have Lost You EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet XLIII) EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY
“No, Thank You, John” CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
when you have forgotten Sunday: the love story GWENDOLYN BROOKS
The End ELIZABETH ALEXANDER
MARRIAGE
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
Marriage GREGORY CORSO
From The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia SIR PHILIP SIDNEY
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in E. E. CUMMINGS
To My Dear and Loving Husband ANNE BRADSTREET
To Margo GAVIN EWART
A Word to Husbands OGDEN NASH
To the Ladies LADY MARY CHUDLEIGH
The Female of the Species RUDYARD KIPLING
From Paradise Lost JOHN MILTON
The Good Wife PROVERBS 31:10–31
My Last Duchess ROBERT BROWNING
To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage ROBERT LOWELL
From a Survivor ADRIENNE RICH
Letter from My Wife NAZIM HIKMET
To Paula in Late Spring W. S. MERWIN
A Farmer’s Calendar VIETNAMESE FOLK POEM
LOVE ITSELF
A Birthday CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
June Light RICHARD WILBUR
Protocols VIKRAM SETH
Jamesian THOM GUNN
From Proverbs and Song Verse ANTONIO MACHADO
Sonnet XLIII: How Do I Love Thee? ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
XLIV: You must know that I do not love and that I love you PABLO NERUDA
Code Poem for the French Resistance LEO MARKS
The Smaller Orchid AMY CLAMPITT
Sonnet 116 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing RUMI
The Emperor MATTHEW ROHRER
Late Fragment RAYMOND CARVER
From The First Morning of the Second World DELMORE SCHWARTZ
1 Corinthians 13:1–13
WORK
weaponed woman GWENDOLYN BROOKS
Night Waitress LYNDA HULL
In an Iridescent Time RUTH STONE
Madam and Her Madam LANGSTON HUGHES
Letters from Storyville NATASHA TRETHEWEY
Lineage MARGARET WALKER
I Want You Women Up North to Know TILLIE OLSEN
PS Education ELLEN HAGAN
At the Café PATRICIA KIRKPATRICK
Worked Late on a Tuesday Night DEBORAH GARRISON
The Age of Great Vocations ALANE ROLLINGS
Defining Worlds G. Y. BAXTER
What’s That Smell in the Kitchen? MARGE PIERCY
Father Grumble FOLK SONG
Epitaph ANONYMOUS
BEAUTY, CLOTHES, AND THINGS OF THIS WORLD
Antony and Cleopatra, II, ii, 191–232 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
What Do Women Want? KIM ADDONIZIO
The Catch RICHARD WILBUR
Cosmetics Do No Good STEVE KOWIT
Face Lift SYLVIA PLATH
Fatigue HILAIRE BELLOC
The Great Lover RUPERT BROOKE
Patterns AMY LOWELL
Crocheted Bag ROSEMARY CATACALOS
Delight in Disorder ROBERT HERRICK
The Rhodora
Roses Only MARIANNE MOORE
Eagle Poem JOY HARJO
MOTHERHOOD
A Cradle Song W. B. YEATS
Notes from the Delivery Room LINDA PASTAN
Socks SHARON OLDS
High School Senior SHARON OLDS
Nobody Knows But Mother MARY MORRISON
From “Clearances,” In Memoriam M.K.H. (1911–1984) SEAMUS HEANEY
if there are any heavens my mother will(all by herself)have E. E. CUMMINGS
Somebody’s Mother MARY DOW BRINE
The Book of Ruth 1:16–17
The Dream That I Told My Mother-in-Law ELIZABETH ALEXANDER
Mother’s Closet MAXINE SCATES
Ode ELIZABETH ALEXANDER
Vietnam WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA
A Child MARY LAMB
blessing the boats LUCILLE CLIFTON
SILENCE AND SOLITUDE
I’m happiest when most away EMILY BRONTË
Keeping Things Whole MARK STRAND
We All Know It MARIANNE MOORE
As Much As You Can CONSTANTINE P. CAVAFY
Sense of Something Coming RAINER MARIA RILKE
Death, Etc. MAXINE KUMIN
From When One Has Lived a Long Time Alone GALWAY KINNELL
Zazen on Ching-t’ing Mountain LI PO
The Poems of Our Climate WALLACE STEVENS
GROWING UP AND GROWING OLD
You Begin MARGARET ATWOOD
Grown-up EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY
Puberty—With Capital Letters ELLEN HAGAN
Bra Shopping PARNESHIA JONES
The Summer Day MARY OLIVER
Living DENISE LEVERTOV
I stepped from plank to plank EMILY DICKINSON
to my last period LUCILLE CLIFTON
lumpectomy eve LUCILLE CLIFTON
Older, Younger, Both JOYCE SUTPHEN
Survivor ROGER McGOUGH
You Can’t Have It All BARBARA RAS
Sign MARGE PIERCY
The Greatest Love ANNA SWIR
Time MARY URSULA BETHELL
Going Blind RAINER MARIA RILKE
Old Woman ELIZABETH JENNINGS
Let It Be Forgotten SARA TEASDALE
Courage ANNE SEXTON
DEATH AND GRIEF
The Bustle in a House EMILY DICKINSON
Never More Will the Wind H. D.
Grief ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
The Widow’s Lament in Springtime WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
Companion JO McDOUGALL
Remember CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
From To W. P. GEORGE SANTAYANA
To Death OLIVER ST. JOHN GOGARTY
That it is a road ARIWARA NO NARIHARA
From In Memoriam A. H. H. ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
Reconciliation WALT WHITMAN
FRIENDSHIP
A Poem of Friendship NIKKI GIOVANNI
Letter to N.Y. ELIZABETH BISHOP
On Gifts for Grace BERNADETTE MAYER
Love ROY CROFT
To Hayley WILLIAM BLAKE
A Poison Tree WILLIAM BLAKE
August LOUISE GLÜCK
Summer at the Beach LOUISE GLÜCK
Girlfriends ELLEN DORÉ WATSON
My Friend’s Divorce NAOMI SHIHAB NYE
Chocolate RITA DOVE
Magnificat MICHÈLE ROBERTS
Secret Lives BARBARA RAS
To Flush, My Dog ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
HOW TO LIVE
May 2 DAVID LEHMAN
From a Letter to His Daughter RALPH WALDO EMERSON
To be of use MARGE PIERCY
Leap Before You Look W. H. AUDEN
Try to Praise the Mutilated World ADAM ZAGAJEWSKI
Leisure W. H. DAVIES
The Waking THEODORE ROETHKE
September, 1918 AMY LOWELL
6 A.M. Thoughts DICK DAVIS
A Minor Bird ROBERT FROST
May today there be peace within ST. TERESA OF AVILA
The Bacchae Chorus EURIPIDES
The Dawn W. B. YEATS
Don’t Quit UNKNOWN
All Things Pass LAO-TZU
Simple Gifts ANONYMOUS (SHAKER HYMN)
24th September 1945 NAZIM HIKMET
The Journey MARY OLIVER
Ithaka CONSTANTINE P. CAVAFY
The Colder the Air ELIZABETH BISHOP
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CREDITS
About the Author
Also by Caroline Kennedy
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