She Walks in Beauty: a Woman's Journey Through Poems
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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 Copyright She walks in beauty GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow’d to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impair’d the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o’er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. And on that cheek, and o’er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent! INTRODUCTION THIS BOOK BEGAN around the time I turned fifty. Like my friends who had been there before me, I dreaded it for months, and was relieved when it was over and life seemed much the same as before. One of the nicest things that happened was that three friends sent me poems to mark the occasion. One poem was about love, one helped me cope with loss, and the third spoke to ways of being. I kept them and passed them on to others when the time seemed right. To me, that’s the gift of poetry—it shapes an endless conversation about the most important things in life. Creating an anthology of poems centered around the stages of a woman’s life still seems like an unlikely project to me. I have shied away from the personal genre of literature, and never thought that growing old would be something I would do. Perhaps that’s because, in my family, my cousins and I still refer to our parents’ generation as “the grown-ups,” although most of us are in our fifties. But there seemed to be something profoundly different about hitting the middle-age mark—a sense of accomplishment, an emotional reckoning, and a feeling of renewed possibility about the future. All that, and a tiny terror of sliding down the hill into a crumpled heap of old age. Working on this book reminded me that the personal is universal, being a woman is a profound part of who I am, and sharing experiences and emotions is the best way we can help ourselves and others. Approaching middle age made me appreciate my deep connection to the women I have grown up with, worked with, and whose children have grown up with mine. We have learned what is important, we can look back as well as forward, and we have the chance to weave the choices we have already made into the changes we want to bring to our lives.