• Bogin, Meg. The Women Troubadours: Introduction and a Collection of their Poems. NY: Norton, 1976. 12th Provence, bilingual into English
• Flora, Franesco, ed. Gaspara Stampa et altre poetesse del' 500. Milan: Nuova Accademi, 1962. Italian 15th through 16th centuries.
• Stevenson, Janet and Peter Davidson, edd., with contributions from Meg Bateman, Kate Chedgzo, Julie Saunders. Early Modern Women Poets: an Anthology. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. Gaelic, old French, and Latin poems are included with facing English translations
• Stortoni, Laura Anna and Mary Prentice Lillie, ed., trans. Women Poets of the Italian Renaissance: Courtly Ladies and Courtesans. Italian with English facing.
• Warnke, Frank, ed., trans. Three Women Poets: Louise Labe, Gaspare Stampa, and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 1987.the Renaissance. London: Orion, 1998
• Wilson, Katharina M. Medieval Women Writers. Athens: Univ of Georgia, 1984. Although translated into prose, most of these texts are originally poetry (German, Provencal, French, Swedish, Italian, Spanish)
• Wilson, Katharina M. Women Writers of the Renaissance and Reformation. Athens: Univ of Georgia, 1984. Although translated into prose, much is still verse. An invaluable volume (Italian, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, English)
• Wynne-Davies, Marion, ed. Women Poets of the Renaissance. London: Orion, 1998

• Ashfield, Andrew ed. Romantic Women Poets, 1770-1838 and 1788-1848, 2 vols. NY and Manchester: Manchester UP, 1998.
• Backschedier, Paula and Catherine E. Ingrassia, edd. British Women Poets of the Long Eighteenth Century: An Anthology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 2009.
• Blackwell, Jeannine and Susanne Zantop, edd. Bitter Healing: German Women Writers, 1700-1830: An Anthology. Lincoln: Nebraska UP, 1990. Despite title, mostly poets and poetry.
• Breen, Jennifer, ed. Women Romantic Poets, 1785-1820: An Anthology. London: Dent, 1992.
• Colman, George and Bonnell Thornton. Poems by Eminent Ladies. London, 1755.
• Cowell, Pattie, ed. Women Poets in Pre-Revolutionary America, 1650-1775. Troy, NY: Whitston Publishing Co., 1981.
• Feldman, Paula. British Women Poets of the Romantic Era: An Anthology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1997.
• Fullard, Joyce, ed. British Women Poets 1660-1800: An Anthology. Troy, NY: Whitston, 1990
• Greer, Germaine, and Susan Hastings, Jeslyn Medoff, Melinda Sanasone, edd. Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women's Verse. NY: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1988.
• Lonsdale, Roger, ed. Eighteenth Century Women Poets. NY: Oxford, 1990.
• Wilson, Katharina M. and Frank Warnke Women Writers of the Seventeenth Century. Athens: Univ of Georgia, 1984. Much originally prose, but the poets chosen are not well known (Dutch, Spanish, English, German, Hungarian)

• Armstrong, Isobel, Joseph Bristow and Cath Sharrock, edd. Nineteenth Century Women Poets. OUP: 1995.
• Blain, Virginia, ed. Victorian Women Poets: An Annotated Anthology. Edinburgh: Pearson, Longman, 2009.
• Breen, Jennifer, ed. Victorian Women Poets: An Anthology. London: Everyman, 1994.
• Fhlathuin, Maire Ni, ed. The Poetry of British India, 1780-1905. Pickering & Chatto, 2007. Far more men than women, but includes hard-to-find names of and poetry by women.
• Gibson, Mary Ellis, ed. Anglophone Poetry in Colonial India, 1780-1913: A Critical Anthology Ohio University Press, 2011. Again far more men men and prose and otherwise hard-to-find poetry by women.
• Gray, Janet, ed. She Wields A Pen: American Women Poets of the 19th Century. London: Dent, 1997.
• Higgonet, Margaret Radolph. British Women Poets of the 19th Century. New York: Meridian, 1996. 48 poets from mid-18th to end of 19th century.
• Kilcup, Karen, ed. Native American Women's Writing, 1800-1924. Blackwell, 2000. This includes prose as well as poetry. But to my knowledge there's no anthology of poetry alone.
• Leighton, Angela and Margaret Reynolds, edd. Victorian Women Poets: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell, 1991.
• Scott, Diana, ed. Bread and Roses: An Anthology of Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Poetry by Women Poets. London: Virago, 1982
• Walker, Cheryl, ed. American Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century: An Anthology. NJ: Rutgers, 1992.
• Wu, Duncan, ed. Romantic Women Poets: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997

• Adcock, Fleur, ed. The Faber Book of 20th Century Women's Poetryz. London: Faber, 1986. English language.
• Susan Aizenberg, Susan and Erin Belieu, edd. The Extraordinary Tide: new poetry by American women. Columbia University Press, 2001.
• Bankier, Joanna and Deirdre Lashgari, edd. Women Poets of the World. Prentice-Hall, 1983.
• Baraka, Amiri(Leroi Jones) & Amina Baraka. Confirmation: An Anthology of African American Women. NY: Morrow, 1983.
• Budy, Andrea Hollander Budy, ed. When She Named Fire: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by American Women. Autumn House Press, 2008.
• Chester, Laura and Sharo Barba, edd. Rising Tides: 20th Century American women Poets. NY: Pocketbook, 1973.
• Donnelly, Margarita, Beverly McFarland, Micki Reaman, Carole Simmons Oles, edd. A Fierce Brightness: Twenty-Five Years of Women's Poetry Calyx, 2002.
• Frost, Elisabeth and Cynthia Hogue, edd. Innovative Women Poets: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry and Interviews. University Of Iowa Press, 2007. 14 literary interviews with innovative poets of the last 40 years, with a selection poems and introd.
• Gill, Elaine, edd. Moving Mountain Day: poems by women Trumansburg NY: Crossing Press, 1978.
• Gordi, Tooni. Contemporary America Women Poets, issued by The Spinners: A Bi-Monthly of Women's Verse. NY: Harrison, n.d. ca. 1930s. 1311 poets: “None of these poems has appeared in any anthology.” It is a rare valuable book.
• Howe, Florence and Ellen Bass, ed. No More Masks: Anthology of Poems by Women. New York: Anchor, 1973. 20th century poems.
• McMillan, Dorothy and Michel Byrne, edd. Modern Scottish Women Poets. Canongate Books, 2011.
• Rankine, Claudia and Juliana Spahr, American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Where Lyric Meets Language. Wesleyan Press, 2002.
• Rankine, Claudia and Lisa Sewell, edd. Eleven More American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Poetics Across North America (American Poets in the 21st Century). Wesleyan, 2012.
• Rumens, Carol, ed. Making for the Open: The Chatto Book of Post-Feminist Poetry, 1964-1984. London: Hogarth, 1985. English language.
• Segnitz, Barbara and Carol Rainey, edd. Psyche: The Feminine Poetic Consciousness: Anthology of Modern American Poetry. NY: Dell, 1973.
• Sloan, Mary Margaret, ed. Moving Borders: Three Decades of Innovative Writing by Woman[poetry]. Talisman House, 1998.
• Stanford, Ann, ed. The Women Poets in English. NY: McGraw-Hill, 1972.
• Wencart, Henny, ed. Sarah's Daughters Sing: A Sampler of Poems by Jewish Women Ktav Pub Inc, 1990.

• Agosin, Marjorie, ed. These Are Not Sweet Girls: Poetry by Latin American Women. White Pine Press, 2000
• Atsumi, Ikuko and Rexroth, Kenneth, edd. Women Poets of Japan. NY: New Directions, 1982.
• Bree, Germaine, and Michael Bishop, edd. Women's Poetry in France, 1965-1995: A Bilingual Anthology. Wake Forest University Press, 1997.
• Boland, Eavan. After Every War: Twentieth Century Women Poets: [Her] translations from the German Princeton: Princeton UP, 2004
• Blum, Cinzia Sartini and Lara Trubowitz, ed. Contemporary Italian Women Poets: A Bilingual Anthology. NY: Ithaca Press, 2001
• Fowler, Anne-Marie. Yellow as Turmeric, Fragrant as Cloves: A Contemporary Anthology of Asian American Women's Poetry Deep Bowl, 2008.
• Handal, Nathalie. The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology. Interlink Publishing Group, 2000.
• Hofer, Jen, ed. An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by Mexican Women by Hofer--in Spanish with English translations University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003.
• Jacobs, Maria, ed. With other words : a bilingual anthology of contemporary Dutch poetry by women Ontario: Netherlandic Press, 1985.
• Kantrowitz, Melanie and Irena Klepfisz The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology. Beacon Press, 1989. A goodly amount of poetry. A goodly amount of poetry.
• Karim, Persis, ed. Let Me Tell You Where I've Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora University of Arkansas Press, 2006.
• Mazer, Norma Fox and Marjorie Lewis, edd. Waltzing on Water: Poetry by Women. NY: Dell, 1989.
• McGifford, Diane and Judith Kearns, edd. Shakti's Words: An Anthology of South Asian Canadian Women's Poetry. Tsar Pubns, 1990.
• Milligan, Bryce, and Angela de Hoyos, edd. Floricanto Si!: A Collection of Latina Poetry. Penguin, 1998.
• Sorrell, Martin, ed. Elles: A Bilingual Anthology of Modern French Poetry by Women (Exeter Textes Litteraires) University of Exeter Press, 1995.

• Agodon, Kelli Russell and Annette Spaulding-Convy, edd. Fire on Her Tongue: An eBook Anthology of Contemporary Women's Poetry. Two Sylvias Press, n.d.
• Baker, Devreaux,Sharon Doubiago, and Susan Maeder, edd. Wood, Water, Air and Fire, The Anthology Of Mendocino Women. Pot Shard, 1998.
• Bulkin, Leslie, ed. Lesbian Poetry: An Anthology. Persephone Press, 1981.
• Carteret, Anna, Fanny Vinner, and Sue Jones-Davies. No Holds Barred: The Raving Beauties Choose New Poems by Women. Women's Press, 1986.
• Christie, Anne and Liz Dalton, edd. In the Pink: The Raving Beauties Choose Poems from the Show ...and More. Women's Press, 1993.
• Dowson, Jane, ed. Women's Poetry of the 1930s: A Critical Anthology. London: Routledge, 1996. English language.
• Finch, Annie, ed. A Formal Feeling Comes: Poems in Form by Contemporary Women. Oregon: Story Line, 1994. Later 20th century, English language.
• Gemin, Pamela. and Paula Sergi. Boomer Girls: Poems by Women from the Baby Boom Generation University Of Iowa Press, 1999.
• Holman, Bob and Margaret Tressler, ed. Bowery Women: Poems. YBK Publishers, 2006.
• Honey, Maureen, ed. Shadowed Dreams: Women's Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1966.
• Keenan, Deborah, Roseann Lloyd, edd. Looking for Home: Women Writing About Exile . Milkweed Editions, 1990. Many many poems.
• Keller, Lynn, ed. Forms of Expansion: Recent Long Poems by Women. University Of Chicago Press, 1997.
• Kossman, Nina, ed. Gods and Mortals: Modern Poems on Classical Myths. NY: Oxford, 2001. An usually large number of poems by women in an anthology which includes men and women poets. Good choices.
• Knight, Brenda, ed. Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution Conari Press, 1998. A goodly amount of poetry.
• Lapidus, Jacqueline and Lisa Menn, edd. The Widows' Handbook. 85 contemporary women of all ages, gay and straight, legally married or not, whose spouses/partners have died. To be published.
• Machan,Katharyn, ed. Rapunzel, Rapunzel: Poems, prose, and photographs by women on the subject of hair. Ithaca, NY: 1980.
• Mandel, Charlotte, co-edited by Maxine Silverman and Rachel Hadas. Saturday's Women: Eileen W. Barnes Anthology Saturday Press, 1982.
• McAlpine, Katharine, Gail White, edd. The Muse Strikes Back:A Poetic Response by Women to Men Storyline, 1997. The poems answer, respond to or parody poems by men. 360 pages.
• Mohin, Lilian, ed. Beautiful Barbarians: Lesbian Feminist Poetry. Onlywomen Pr, 1987.
• Moore, Honor, ed. Poems from the Women's Movement. NY: Library of America, 1973.
• O'Brien, Alkine, ed. Womanblood: Portraits of women in poetry & prose. Continuing SAGA Press, 1981.
• Otten, Charlotte, ed. The Book of Birth Poetry (Formerly The Virago Book of Birth Poetry. Includes male poets. NY: Bantam, 1995.
• Neugerger, Julia, ed. The Things That Matter: An Anthology of Women’s Spiritual Poetry. London: Kyle Cathie, 1992.
• Richards, Moira, Rosemary Starace, Lesley Wheeler, edd. Letters to the World: Poems from the Wom-po Listserv. LA: Red Hen, 2008.
• Rogers, Kate and Vikki Holmes, edd. Not a Muse: The Inner Lives of Women, a World Poetry Anthology Haven, 2010.
• Sewell, Marilyn, ed. A Sourcebook of Women's Poetry: Claiming the Spirit Within. Boston: Beacon, 1996. Selected for religious (spiritual, ethical) content.
• Stowell, Phyllis and Jeanne Foster,edd. Appetite: Food as Metaphor, an anthology of women poets. BOA Editions, 2002.
• Taylor, Dena, Amber Coverdale Sumrall, edd. Women of the 14th Moon: Writings on Menopause. TFreedom, California: The Crossing Press, 1991
• Thornton, Louse, Jane Sturtevant and Amber Coverdale Sumrall, ed. Touching Fire: Erotic Writings by Women. NY: Carroll and Graf, 1989. Mostly poetry.
• Wagner, Catherine, Rebecca Wolff, and Ostriker, Alice, ed. Not For Mothers Only: Contemporary Poems Fence Books, 2007.
• Watts, Julia, Parneshia Jones, Jo Ruby, and Elizabeth Slade. Women.Period. Bella Distribution, 2008. While it has prose (essays and fiction), there is much poetry and it centers on women's menstruation as it's really variously experienced.
• Zeidenstein, ed. A Wider Giving: Women Writing After Long Silence. Goshen: Conn.: Chicory Blue, 1989. Middle-aged women, mostly poetry, all contemporary

• Barnstone, Aliki and Willis Barnstone, ed. A book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now. NY: Schocken, 1980. All eras, all languages.
• Bax, Clifford and Meum Stewart, ed. The Distaff Muse: An Anthology of Poetry written by Women. London: Hollis & Carter, 1949.
• Bernikow, Louise, ed., Muriel Rukeyser, preface. The World Split Open: Four Centuries of Women Poets in England and American, 1552-1950. NY: Vintage, 1974.
• Bethune, George. Pearls from the British Female Poets New York: World Publishing, 1848. Early modern to 19th century.
• Cosman, Carol, Joan Keefe and Kathleen Weaver, ed. The Penguin Book of Women Poets. NY: Penguin, 1978. All eras, all languages.
• Dyce, Alexander. Specimens of British Poetesses. London: Rodd, Powett, 1825. Despite dreadful title, a noteworthy anthology. Probably the first serious collection; his taste good, the source for many others afterwards
• Hirshfield, Jane, ed. Women in Praise of the Sacred, 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women. NY: Harper Perennial, 1994.
• Kaplan, Cora, edd. Salt and Bitter Good: Three Centuries of English and American Poets. NY: Putnam, 1973, 75.
• Kizer, Carolyn. Great Poems by Women: A Golden Ecco Anthology. NY: Harper Collins, 1995.
• Linthwaite, Illona, ed. Ain't I a Woman! A Book of Women's Poetry from Around the World. Gramercy, 1993.
• Mulford, Wendy, ed. Love Poems by Women: An Anthology of Love Poetry from Around the World and through the ages. London: Fawcett, 1993.
• Mutin, Burleigh. Her Words: An Anthology of Poetry about the Great Godddess. Boston & London: Shambala, 1999.
• Pagett, Fiona, ed. Thousand Years of Women's Poetry: The Voices That Would Not Be Stilled Chaucer Press, 2004.
• Rattiner, Susan L. Great Poems by Women: A Dover Anthology. NY: Dover, 1998. A popular anthology but with some unusual choices.
• Robertson, Eric. English Poetesses: A Series of Critical Biographies, with illustrative extracts. London, 1883. Covers early modern women to his own era.
• Rowton, Frederick, ed. Marilyn L. Williamson. The Female Poets of Great Britain, chronologically arranged. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1981.
• Squire, J. C., ed. A Book of Women's Verse. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921. From early modern to early 20th century.
• Stetson, Erlene, ed. Black Sister: Poetry by Black American Women, 1746-1980. Indiana Univ Pr, 1982.
• Wanek, Connie, Joyce Sutphen and Thom Tammaro, edd. To Sing Along the Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-Territorial Days to the Present New Rivers Press, 2006.

• Allen, Beverly Muriel, Muriel Kittel and Keala Jane Jewell, ed. The Defiant Muse: Italian Feminist Poems from the Middle Ages to the Present: A Bilingual Anthology. New York: CUNY Feminst Press, 1986.
• Cocalis, Susan L, ed. The Defiant Muse: German Feminist Poems from the Middle Ages to the Present. New York: CUNY Feminst Press, 1986.
• Costa-Zalessow, Natalie. Scrittrici italiane dal XIII al XX secolo. Ravenna: Longo, 1982. Although labelled “Italian women writers,” this is an anthology of Italian women poets 13th to 20th centuries.
• Flores, Angel and Kate Flores, edd. The Defiant Muse: Hispanic Feminist Poems from the Middle Ages to the Present. New York: CUNY Feminst Press, 1986.
• Kaufman, Shirley, ed. The Defiant Muse: Hebrew Feminist Poetry from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Shirley Kaufman. CUNY: Feminist Press, 1999
• Kerrigan, Catherine, ed. An Anthology of Scottish Women Poets. Edinburgh UP, 1991. Gaelic (with English translations) and English, medieval to present.
• Moulin, Jeanine. La Poesie Feminine Francaise et la Condition Sociale de la Femme: Vol 1: du XIIe siecel au XIX siecle; 2: Epoque Moderne. Paris: Seghers, 1966. Huge.
• Shapiro, Norman R. French Women Poets of Nine Centuries: The Distaff and the Pen. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 2008. French with facing English translations
• Stanton, Domna, ed. The Defiant Muse: French Feminist Poems from the Middle Ages to the Present: A Bilingual Anthology. New York: CUNY Feminist Press, 1986.
• Sullivan, Rosemary, ed. Poetry by Canadian Women. Oxford Univ Pr, 1989.

• Biographies
  • Blain, Virginia, Isobel Grundy, and Patricia Clements, ed. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present New Haven: Yale, 1990.
  • Russell, Rinaldinan, ed. Italian Women Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Source Book. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Pr, 1994.
  • Marting, Diane M. ed. Spanish American Woman Writers: A Bio Bibliographical Source Book. Westport &London: Greenwood Press, 1990
  • Sartori, Eva Martin, Dorothy Wynne Zimmerman, ed. French Women Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Source Book. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Pr, 1994.
  • Shattock, Joanne. Oxford Guide to British Women Writers. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1993.
  • Todd, Janet, ed. British Women Writers: A critical reference Guide. NY: Ungar Continuum, 1989.
  • -----------, ed. A Dictionary of British and American Women Writers, 1660-1800. London: Methuen, 1987.
• Historical
  • Armstrong, Isobel and Virginia Blain, ed. Women's Poetry in the Enlightenment: The Making of a Canon. London: Macmillan, 1990. Important essay s by Margaret Anne Doody, Anne Mellor et aliae.
  • Backscheider, Paula. Eighteenth-Century Women Poets and Their Poetry: Inventing Agency, Inventing Genre. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.
  • Gifford, Douglas and Dorothy McMillan. A History of Scottish Women's Writing. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 1997. From Gaelic, to today, much on poetry and Scottish people in the diaspora
  • Kavanagh, Julia. English Women of Letters: Biographical Sketches (London, 1862) French Women of Letters: Biographical Sketches (London 1862), Woman in France during the 18th Century London: Smith, Elder, 1850.
  • Linkin, Harriet Kramer an Stephen Behrendt, edd. Romanticism and women Poets. Lexington: Univ of Kentucky Press, 1999.
  • Middlebrook, Diane Wood, and Marilyn Yalom, edd. Coming to Light: American Women Poets in the Twentieth Century. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1985.
  • Ostricker, Alice. Stealing the Language: the Emergence of Womens Poetry in America. Boston: Beacon ress, 1986.
  • Showalter, Elaine. A Jury of Her Peers: Celebrating American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx. NY: Vintage, 2010. Includes many women poets.
  • Watts, Emily Stipes. The Poetry of American Women from 1632 to 1945. Austin: Texas UP, 1975.
• On women's poetry and writing as such
  • Patricia Dienstfrey, Patricia and Brenda Hillman, edd. “The Grand Permission”: New Writings on Poetics and Motherhood. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2003.
  • Didier, Beatrice. L'ecriture-femme. Paris: Presses Universitaires, 1981.
  • Finch, Annie. The Body of Poetry: Essays on Women, Form and the Poetic Self. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2005, and her “The Poetess in America.
  • Homans, Margaret. Women Writers and Poetic Identity: Dorothy Wordsworth, Emily Bronte and Emily Dickinson. Princeton UP, 1980
  • Kaplan, Cora. Sea Changes: Culture and Feminism. London: New Left, Verso, 1986.
  • Miller, Nancy K., ed. The Poetics of Gender. NY: Columbia UP, 1986.
  • Ostriker, Alicia. Writing Like a Woman, University of Michigan Press, 1982
• Women's Poetry Right now
  • "Harriet: Poetry Foundation: Community and Professional Blog Site
  • Persimmon Tree Magazine: An Online Magazine of the Arts by Women Over Sixty.
  • Poetry International: An Online Magazine

• An Alphabetical Index

Afterword

In Annie Finch's “How to create a Poetic Tradition” , Finch demonstrates how central to visibility and thus a perceptible, findable, and usable context for writers and readers is “the entire literary apparatus of reviews, anthologies, journals, histories, panels, conferences, encyclopedias and textbooks.” Anthologies which are 90% male and where the choice of poem is often an unacknowledged masculinist bias (presented as universal or general) cripple the woman writer. Anthologies, handbooks, histories of literature come out of people's desires, respect, point of view, what they think others will value. So the context is the manifestation of living people and people in the past reading, writing, talking, acting together: “numerous small acts of persistence ... To edit, write, and create this apparatus is creative and fulfilling work in itself and tends to enrich a poet's poetry” (see The Body of Poetry: Essays on Women, Form, and the Poetic Self, cited below).

If many poems in the foremother poet selection come from collected or partial editions of the poets, books on them, anthologies of men and women's poetry, critical works, dictionaries, feminist essays, were crucial in providing names and some minimal information about the women, which enabled me to begin reading their work and writing about them in the first place.

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