Women match men in writing some of the finest poetry in the English language. In many ways they surpass their male counterparts, bringing a perspective that male poets do not. Here are some of the best poems by women in the English language:
- Christina Rossetti - A Birthday
- Imtiaz Dharker - A century later
- Wendy Cope - A Christmas Poem
- Amy Levy - A London PlaneTree
- Amy Lowell - A London Thoroughfare 2 AM
- Liz Lochhead - A New View of Scotland Love Poem
- Dachine Rainer - A Note EJB 1968-1973
- Charlotte Mew - A Quoi Bon Dire
- Emily Dickinson - After Great Pain
- Rita Dove - After Reading Mickey in the Night Kitchen for the Third Time Before Bed
- Helen Dunmore - All The Things You Are Not Yet
- Lucie Brock-Broido - Am Moor
- Alice Oswald - Another Westminster Bridge
- Elizabeth Jennings - Answers
- Sylvia Plath - Ariel
- Gwen Harwood - Barn Owl
- Emily Dickinson - Because I could not stop for death
- Carol Ann Duffy - Before You Were Mine
- Wendy Cope - Bloody Men
- Felicia Hemans - Casabianca
- Maya Angelou - Come and be my baby
- Rita Dove - Cozy Apologia
- Sylvia Plath - Crossing The Water
- Margaret Atwood - Crow Song
- Sylvia Plath - Daddy
- Adrienne Rich - Diving into the Wreck
- Clare Harner - Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep
- Fleur Adcock - Dragon Talk
- Alice Oswald - Dunt: a poem for a dried up river
- Jackie Kay - Dusting the Phone
- Sylvia Plath - Edge
- Stevie Smith - Edmonton, thy cemetery...
- Mary Lamb - Envy
- Cicely Herbert - Everything Changes
- Carol Ann Duffy - F for Fox
- Edna St Vincent Millay - First Fig
- Rita Dove - Fox Trot Fridays
- Helen Dunmore - Glad of These Times
- Liz Brownlee - Greta Thunberg
- Louise Glück - Gretel in Darkness
- Ruth Fainlight - Handbag
- Lucille Clifton - homage to my hips
- Warsan Shire - Home
- Emily Dickinson - Hope is the thing with feathers
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning - How Do I Love Thee
- Lorna Goodison - I am becoming my Mother
- Elizabeth Bishop - I Am In Need Of Music
- Maya Angelou - I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
- Emily Dickinson - I'm Nobody, Who are you?
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning - If Thou Must Love Me
- Fleur Adcock - Immigrant
- Amy Levy - In the Mile End Road
- Gwen Harwood - In the Park
- Emily Dickinson - It's all I have to bring today
- Beatrice Garland - Kamikaze
- Carrie Etter - Karner Blue
- Naomi Shihab Nye - Kindness
- Sylvia Plath - Lady Lazarus
- Carol Ann Duffy - Last Post
- Rupi Kaur - legacy
- Natasha Trethewey - Letter Home
- Maura Dooley - Letters from Yorkshire
- Maya Angelou - Life Doesn't Frighten Me
- Denise Levertov - Living
- Imtiaz Dharker - Living Space
- Fleur Adcock - Londoner
- Wendy Cope - Loss
- Hannah Lowe - Love
- Emily Bronte - Love and Friendship
- Sylvia Plath - Mad Girls Love Song
- Marion Angus - Mary's Song
- Louise Glück - Mock Orange
- Sylvia Plath - Morning Song
- Dorothea Mackellar - My Country
- Helen Dunmore - Next Door
- Carol Ann Duffy - North-West
- Stevie Smith - Not Waving But Drowning
- Gwendolyn Brooks - Old Mary
- Anne Stevenson - On the 1714 out of Newcastle
- Elizabeth Bishop - One Art
- Hilda Doolittle - Oread
- Amy Lowell - Patterns
- Maya Angelou - Phenomenal Woman
- Eleanor Farjeon - Poetry
- Marianne Moore - Poetry
- Janet Frame - Poets
- Jane Weir - Poppies
- Sylvia Plath - Poppies in October
- Audre Lorde - Power
- Anne Stevenson - Ragwort
- Patricia Lockwood - Rape Joke
- Christina Rossetti - Remember
- Elaine Feinstein - Rosemary in Provence
- Gertrude Stein - Sacred Emily
- Sheenagh Pugh - Sometimes
- Edna St Vincent Millay - Sonnet
- Alice Oswald - Sonnet
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning - Sonnet 29
- Maya Angelou - Still I Rise
- Stevie Smith - Tenuous and Precarious
- Carol Ann Duffy - Text
- Sylvia Plath - The Applicant
- Anne Sexton - The Ballad Of The Lonely Masturbator
- Gwendolyn Brooks - The Bean Eaters
- Carol Rumens - The Emigree
- Charlotte Mew - The Farmer's Bride
- Marianne Moore - The Fish
- Louise Glück - The Garden
- Julia Donaldson - The Gruffalo
- Amanda Gorman - The Hill We Climb
- Carol Ann Duffy - The Map-Woman
- Gwendolyn Brooks - The Mother
- Emma Lazarus - The New Colossus
- Hannah Lowe - The Only English Kid
- Hilda Doolittle - The Pool
- Fleur Adcock - The Soho Hospital for Woman
- Mary Howitt - The Spider And The Fly
- Anne Stevenson - The Spirit is too Blunt an Instrument
- Violet Jacob - The Wild Geese
- Christina Rossetti - The Wind
- Margaret Atwood - This Is A Photograph Of Me
- Imtiaz Dharker - Tissue
- Lucille Clifton - To a Dark Moses
- Frances Cornford - To A Fat Lady Seen From A Train
- Anne Bradstreet - To My Dear and Loving Husband
- Joyce Kilmer - Trees
- Dylan Thomas - Under Milk Wood
- Wendy Cope - Valentine
- Carol Ann Duffy - Valentine
- Carol Ann Duffy - War Photographer
- Carol Ann Duffy - Warming Her Pearls
- Jenny Joseph - Warning
- Gwendolyn Brooks - We Real Cool
- Heather McHugh - Webcam the World
- Alice Oswald - Wedding
- Denise Levertov - What Were They Like?
- Mary Oliver - When Death Comes
- Audre Lorde - Who Said It Was Simple
- Emily Dickinson - Why do I love You Sir
- Mary Oliver - Wild Geese
- Judith Wright - Woman to Man
- Lucille Clifton - won't you celebrate with me
- Margaret Atwood - You Begin
- Sylvia Plath - You're