Mothersongs: Poems For, By, and about Mothers

By Susan Gubar

The editors have included traditional ballads about maternity and courtly elegies for or by mothers as well as landmark nineteenth-century tributes to mothers and early twentieth-century meditations on motherhood.

MotherSongs opens with poems about pregnancy, labor, delivery, and nursing and moves to poems about women raising children, delighting in their growth, or mourning their loss. The volume then turns to poems by sons and daughters who "remember mama."

Mythic mothers and mother goddesses, moral or political reflections on maternity, and philosophical analyses of the meaning of motherhood are also represented. Taken together, the works collected here bear witness to the powerful ways in which motherhood has been transformed into art and artistry has been shaped by maternity.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393037711
• ISBN13: 9780393037715
• Release Date: May 1995
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.3" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

I love all mothers poetry...

There can never be enough material to write about mothers because they are so special. I was glad to receive a book with so much material in it!! It was a great book with some wonderful and meaningful poems. I do suggest that the writers of Mothersongs write a new book, and make it shorter with larger print. They could ask current poets and writers to submit stories. I like reading about current poetry from everyday moms in addition to famous writers. I am a poet and writer, as well as a songwriter. I am currently writing material for motherhood and would be interested in sending you my work!