Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Sara Teasdale, comp. (1884–1933).
The Answering Voice: One Hundred Love Lyrics by Women. 1917.

Prefatory Note

I HAVE tried to bring together in this book the most beautiful love-lyrics written in English by women since the middle of the last century. During this period, for the first time in the history of English literature, the work of women has compared favorably with that of men; and in no other field have they done such noteworthy work as in poetry. Before this period, for reasons well known to the student of feminism, sincere love poems by women were very rare in England and America. With the exception of Lady Barnard’s “Auld Robin Gray” and a poem by Susanna Blamire, I have found nothing that seemed worthy of inclusion.

In most cases the finest utterance of women poets has been on love, so that this book is, I venture to hope, a golden treasury of lyrics by women.

I have included no long poems, and no translations, and I have avoided poems in which the poet dramatized a man’s feelings rather than her own.

I want to acknowledge very gratefully my indebtedness for counsel and suggestions to Harriet Monroe, Jessie B. Rittenhouse, Louis Untermeyer, Henry L. Mencken, William Stanley Braithwaite, Thomas S. Jones, Jr., John Hall Wheelock, and Thomas B. Mosher. From my husband, Ernst B. Filsinger, I have received unfailing aid and encouragement.