The Virago Book Of Wicked Verse

This wonderfully sharp and witty collection of poems – feisty, bawdy, erotic, irreverent – is an illuminating comment on women’s ability to transform poetry into a medium of subversiveness. There are jibes at hypocrisy and prejudice, plenty of sexiness and sauciness, and a riotous turning of the ‘Lady Poet’ image on its head. (‘A fallinf leaf could stir her. / A wilting, dying rose / would make her write, both day and night, / the most rewarding prose. / She’d find a hidden meaning / in every pair of pants / then hurry home to be alone / and write about romance’ – Maya Angelou). With poets spanning continents and centuries, this anthology demonstrates lavishly the myriad ways in which women can be ‘wicked’ – by their definition – and wilfully so!

Poems by: Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood, Aphra Behn, Nina Cassian, Emily Dickinson, Carol Ann Duffy, Lorna Goodison, Jackie Kay, Liz Lochead, Suniti Namjoshi, Grace Nichols, Dorothy Parker, Fiona Pitt-Kethley, Izumi Shikibu, Stevie Smith, Anna Wickham and many more.