Beautiful collection of prose from incredible women, both modern and classic. Emily Dickinson is of course always a good idea.

This compendium features five of my favorite female poems. I bought a copy for my classroom library and I hope to whet my students' appetite with the poems found inside so that they may want to delve deeper into other works by these or other poets.

I really enjoyed the poems selected for this collection. The selections made sense for the theme. They were all powerful, emotional, and beautifully composed. It was nice to have such different poets in the same book, because even though they had different styles, they all had the same intensity and talent. They were errati yet clear in their love, to a point where it seemed like they could be destructive. This book made me want to find and pick up other works by Edna, Emily, and more so that I can read more of their poems! There was honestly nothing to dislike about this collection.

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Thanks to Netgalley and respective publishers for sending me copy.

Beautiful collection of Poems comprises classic and modern poetry that features the works of: Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Amy Lowell, Sara Teasdale, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Deep classical poetry entangled along several topics.
Some of the glorious lines are :

# SAPPHO
*"Last night, when someone spoke his name
From my swift blood that went and came
A thousand little shafts of flame
Were shiver'd in my narrow frame."
(Translated by Alfred Lord Tennyson)

*"Now Eros shakes my soul,
A wind on the mountain falling on the Oaks."
(Translated by H.T.Wharton)

# EMILY DICKINSON
"I had no time to hate because
The grave would hinder me
And life was not so ample I
Could finish enmity."

# AMY LEWELL
"Hols your soul open for my welcoming
Let the quiet of your spirit bathe me
With its clear and rippled coolness
That loose limbed and weary, I find rest,
Outstretched upon your peace, as on a bed of ivory."

*There is no magic any more,
We meet as other people do
You work no miracle for me
Nor I for you.

You were the wind and I the sea-
There is no splendor anymore
I have grown listless as the pool
Besides the shore.

# SARA TEASDALE
" Life will have given the Truth
And taken in exchange -my Youth"

Great poetry.

Emotions find way through words and those often get woven in a seamless melody called Poem. To me I read poems when I hit a reading slump. And I pen poems when a word or situation inspires me to. I have been reading quite interesting books for a while now and some have had a scarring impact on my brain cells, if you know what I mean. So, this book came as a breather to me.

Wild Nights is actually a good collection of poems by even greater women, Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Amy Lowell and Sara Teasdale. I've only read poetry from Teasdale really and some poems by Sappho and Dickinson. Thus this collection was very interesting, though I couldn't really find any theme as such. Somehow the book felt slightly sporadic. Some of the chosen poems were spot on and linked well with others and some, well, not so much. Especially Sappho felt distant and didn't work so well with the others and she was the first poet of the book, so the book seemed flatter than it actually was.

I would've wanted to read why these poets were chosen and why the time period. It would've given so much more base to the collection, since there is always a red thread of sorts there, or, there should at least be one or else everything is kind of pointless. Poetry collections are tricky, since poets hardly ever share anything in common and Wild Nights surely isn't the worst out there by any means. Wild Nights would need a better structure and perhaps the poems could be mixed instead of this poet after poet structure. Wild Nights would need more wildness in it, perhaps.

Wild Nights is a collection of poetry that brings together some of the classics, including Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Amy Lowell and more. This collection includes a snapshot of work from each of the five poets, mostly what they wrote on the topics of love and desire.

While I like the idea of collecting women poets together to create a fierce collection, this title is a little lacking. It seems like it could have been expanded to include many more female poets (because what poet hasn't written about love a desire?). Considering many people may not have read all of these poets, it's a great start--something that a person new to poetry may want to check out.

This is an author to watch. I think the potential is there to write something truly great and truly empowering.

Wild Nights is a wonderful collection of classic and modern poetry that features the works of: Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Amy Lowell, Sara Teasdale, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Some poems have corresponding imagery -- which normally I am not a fan of -- but this book did a good of making sure that the images used don't interfere with your own personal interpretation.

I also really appreciated the short biographies of each poet at the end of the book as well.

A few of my favourite poems:

Sonnet XLIII
by Edna St. Vincent Millay

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

Night Song at Amalfi
by Sara Teasdale

I asked the heaven of stars
What I should give my love —
It answered me with silence,
Silence above.
I asked the darkened sea
Down where the fishes go —
It answered me with silence,
Silence below.

Oh, I could give him weeping,
Or I could give him song —
But how can I give silence
My whole life long?

Thanks a million to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC.

This is a fantastic collection of poetry. Selected works from five diverse female poets in history, there is a thread of connection between each poem that makes this book flow consistently. I'll definitely be picking up a physical copy of this.

Wild Nights- Heart Wisdom from Five Women Poets is a collection of poems by Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Amy Lowell, and Sara Teasdale, with a foreword by Lisa Locascio. First off the foreword is amazing, it was actually my favorite part of the anthology as not only was it beautifully written, practically poetry itself, it was infused with all the “feels” that the author and poet Locascio evokes in her words.

I have read Sappho, Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay before, and love a lot of what I have read. Amy Lowell and Sara Teasdale were new to me, and I’m very glad I have now discovered their work. Sappho is always an interesting read as depending on the translator the tone can be a lot different from poem to poem (Byron’s sounds like it could have been pulled from his own work for example). That said it would have been nice to have seen more versions translated by women rather than men (not sure how many exist though). When it comes to translating poetry there is always going to be a lot of subjectivity and personal interpretation anyway.

I found Amy Lowell’s use of nature, especially flowers quite beautiful, somewhat overwhelming at times. And Edna St. Vincent Millay has always spoken to me, so I will never pass up an occasion to read her work. I always feel like her work is timeless, I can relate to it in today’s world as much as I am sure another woman could earlier in the last century.

That said I was left feeling slightly let down for some reason but I don’t know exactly why. Maybe I felt like there should have been more poems? But my own collection of poems is only 60 pages long, so that’s not something that really bother me... It could be that the poems are grouped together under poet, rather than mismatched and matched up. I would have loved to have seen some side by side action between poets I think. Last of all there are four American poets, and one Ancient Greek poet translated mainly by men: I would have loved to have seen more diversity or at least maybe a couple of female poets from another country thrown in there.

All in all it IS a lovely little anthology with some beautiful poetry by some very talented women. And honestly I would get the book just for the foreword alone!

Wild Nights will be published by Dover Publications/Ixia Press on March 21st, 2018. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy!

Wild Nights: Heart Wisdom from Five Women Poets is a lovely collection of poetry from some well-known female poets of the recent (and distant) past, including some of my favorites. This collection focuses on feelings, romance, heartbreak, and other things to do with love and life. In order, the poets included here are:

Sappho: I'd heard the name before, but knew nothing of this most famous Greek poet from more than two thousand years ago. While Sappho's "voice" often varies based on the translator, she still speaks and influences poets and readers after all this time. I wasn't able to get into all of her poetry, but still appreciated the opportunity to read and learn some culture.

Emily Dickinson: I have enjoyed Dickinson's poetry since I was first introduced to it. I really like her penchant for using slant rhymes, and for being short and to the point in her writing. Not all of my favorites were included here, but it's always good to read her again.

Amy Lowell: Lowell was a poet I have probably heard of but had not been introduced to yet. I don't tend to enjoy free verse as much as form, but I still found some poems that I enjoyed, especially "Fireworks."

Sara Teasdale: I was introduced to Teasdale's poetry in my poetry writing class in college, and she became one of my favorite poets. This collection included some of my favorites of hers as well as some I hadn't read yet. I love her ability to communicate complicated feelings so clearly, and also the way she often uses aspects of nature to do so.

Edna St. Vincent Millay: As a fellow Mainer, I was familiar with some of her work and glad to read it again. Much of it struck me as more cynical than I'd noticed before, but maybe it was just these particular selections. There is much here about loss of love as well as a general noncommittal attitude at times. But she expresses feelings so beautifully, whether in sonnets or freer forms.

The end includes biographies of the poets (or at least what little is known of them, in the case of Sappho). It was interesting to note how Sappho influenced so many of these poets, and even though their styles are different, their "heart wisdom" is very similar.

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

A collection of poetry from a great group of authors. Sadly I was expecting more. But still a good book.

An enjoyable, insightful collection of poetry. Like any collection some poems were more appealing to me than others, but the overall collection was good.

Wild Nights was a nice read. I wanted to read more classic poetry this year, this was a good place to start. I kinda thought I was going to get different poetry them what was in this book but I still enjoyed it. I thought I was going to get more women powering-ish poetry. While it was mostly love poetry, it was still good.
However, I did find new poets who I can't wait to look into. There are a few poems I bookmarked, like 'Ee-Grass'', because I want to write them down. One of my favorite lines is "I wish to dwell around your daylight dreams." by Amy Lowell.
After the poetry, there are short bios of the poets, it was nice to learn more about these women.

The only problem I had with this book was the layout and that's just because it's an ARC

Wild Nights: Heart Wisdom from Five Women Poets is a collection of poetry stretching from ancient times to the 20th century. Lisa Locascio provides the introduction and biographies of each of the poets. She holds a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature and MA in English Literature from the University of Southern California, as well as an MFA and BA from New York University.  Illustrations in this collection are by Claire Whitmore

Wild Nights is a collection of selected works of Sappho, Emily Dickenson, Amy Lowell, Sara Teasdale, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Each of the women contributed their own style to poetry. Sappho is presented first and is translated by a few different people in this collection to bring balance between the older ideas of Sappho and the newer thinking. Her poems, however, have survived only as fragments. Dickenson offered sharp observations and first-person accounts that were unique in American poetry. The opening lines of one of her unnamed poems gives the title for this collection.

Amy Lowell wrote for only a dozen years near the turn of the twentieth century yet produced 650 poems. She wrote with what she called "unrhymed cadence" that she saw well suited for the English language. Her opening poem "Fireworks" seems to be far more modern than its time. Sara Teasdale was a master of the lyrical poem:

November

The world is tired, the year is old,
The fading leaves are glad to die,
The wind goes shivering with cold
Among the rushes dry.

Our love is dying like the grass,
And we who kissed grow coldly kind,
Half glad to see our old love pass
Like leaves along the wind.

The final poet is Edna St. Vincent Millay. Her work combined the modernist attitude with traditional forms creating a new type of American poetry. She is also credited as one of the best sonnet writers of the century. Both Millay and Lowell won the Pulitzer Prize for their poetry.

Despite the stature of these poets, their work is easy to read and understand. Formal terms lyrical poems and sonnets shouldn't scare off readers.  The reader can follow along nicely learning as they read.  Wild Nights is not only a tribute to women poets it also offers novice readers a starting point in real poetry without intimidation.



Available March 21, 2018

This is a great collection of poetry from a great collective if authors.

While I love the idea of this book, the execution was a little lacking. I would've put the biographies at the front, for one, to give some context and time frames for the poetry. Also, the poems chosen were mostly pretty formal, which doesn't strike me as the type of thing that will stir up "the feels" in those new to poetry, as the forward claims. Maybe including a wider variety of styles would've opened it up a bit.