This month is Women’s History Month, so through the end of March, I will share a daily female poet from history along with 2 poems they have written.
While this is a fun way to celebrate women, I am also using it as an opportunity to educate myself more on the history and people of poetry. Even if poetry is a foreign language to you, this is also meant to be a way to learn history behind a form of art. So that’s 2 things you can get out of it – history and art!
I unfortunately missed a day, but for that reason, days seven/eight are combined for one poet who not only writes narrative lyrics full of imagery, metaphors, and one-liners but also exemplifies the importance of creating and owning your own work - especially as a female artist. For day six/seven, I chose Taylor Swift. Though not a typical poet in the same sense of Dickinson or Browning, song lyrics are a form of poetry - therefore, Swift deserves a spot in our Women's History posts.
Oddly enough, the best biography I could find on Swift was on Wikipedia. Other websites spent paragraphs discussing rumors and drama related to Swift in the media instead of giving factual, relevant information on her career as an artist. You can read the Wikipedia article in full here.
Instead of choosing two songs by Swift (a task that would have been far too difficult), I decided to choose my top two albums. Perhaps an unpopular opinion but one I hold firmly, my top two are reputation and folklore. Both are available on streaming platforms.
Personally, Swift is the one artist who has been consistent in my music rotation as I have grown up. Additionally, her style, structure, and lyricism in folklore and evermore greatly influenced the way I chose to write Seaway. Even more, in Seaway she is referenced in the poem "At My Side" and on the spine of a book in the illustration for "Floor of Stories" to credit her influence in Seaway...everything is in the details!
Photo from Instagram.
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