Women write epic poems

Putting search engines right.

Hey,

I read something this week that I thought you might be interested in.

Caroline Criado Perez

, who writes the excellent Invisible Women newsletter (if you’re not aware of this yet, it comes with a huge recommend) sent this photo in her most recent post (sent to her I believe by

Hannah Clarkin

)

Yes, this is what the search engine Google suggests for the request: ‘epic poems women’. Eyebrows raised.

I tried Chat GDP to see if that was any better:

Hmm. The initial description seemed to start well, I was encouraged and then, the first two poems are written by…men. Epic women, through the eyes of men. Right.

O.k so how about OpenAI, any better?

A bit better, yes. But by this point a fire had been lit.

Rather than roll my eyes (actually, not ‘rather than’, I still did a fair amount of this) I went down a rabbit hole to try and figure out what was going on.

Wikipedia went on to give me whole lists of epic poetry throughout the centuries with women featuring so rarely you’d imagine that the word ‘epic’ was actually an iteration of masculine. I realised that I’d probably stumbled into that larger issue with the literary cannon more broadly. In that, of course, women didn’t write back then. Obviously. And when I say back then…

Anyway, since my day job isn’t to be a feminist literary critic and my knowledge of past century poetry is fairly limited non-existent, rather than try and correct that problem I thought my time would better spent back in the present day.

Because women do write incredible poetry (shock). Women do write incredible epic poetry (double shock).

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Now, I am cautiously aware that we may use the term ‘epic’ a little differently in everyday speech than the more exact dictionary definition. Did I have to look it up to be sure? Yes I did.

So, in interests of fairness (erm, to the search engines?) here’s that definition. Forgive me if this is patronising, but for those who like a ‘reminder’ shall we say:

And then, because I was wary of ‘epic poetry’ being something different even to a dictionary definition, I did a spot of delving here too. I read that there are a couple of common features: recounting of heroic deeds, potentially links to specific histories / myths / legends / moral stances, strongly linked to oral tradition - used to stir up the spirits. I think that sums it up but if I’ve missed some key piece of information, please do let me know.

O.k, gotcha. Fine.

Oooh, so how about we make a list of what WE think should come back in response to this search request?

Thinking about the twenty first century, who or what poems / poets would we have on there?

‘Epic Poems Women’ : A Selection

And then maybe, somehow (I once did some sort of workshop on understanding SEO but that was a long time ago) we help the old algorithm out. Is that even possible? I dunno. But I’m bored of wondering what might be possible nowadays. I keep being shown that everything I thought was entirely impossible is happening, so why not use that momentum for something a bit more like where we’d want to end up.

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Shall I start us off?

How about Amanda Gorman’s ‘The Hill We Climb’? I think it fits the brief? Although maybe it’s not long enough, enough of an actual story narrative? Really great though hey. Another excuse (if required) to enjoy it, even if with a pained expression with what is happening currently in the US.

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Or what about, ‘Brand New Ancients’ by Kae Tempest - extra marks for taking us beyond the limitations of ‘gender’:

You can read the full thing (and most definitely should) over at Genius.com here.

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Or surely the exceptionally powerful, ‘Citizen’ by Claudia Rankine, which just writing about here has made me want to read all over again (if I can only find my copy, leaving poetry everywhere in your house is a marvellous thing for picking up books at random, less so for finding a piece when you need it).

Fear not, this post is not going to end with a ‘Poetry Writing Prompt’ this week. I’m not sure bashing out an epic is going to fit the bill. Although it has made me start rummaging in the direction of longer poems with regards to future book club choices. Any recommends on this front please do send them my way.

What I am ending with is this request that we create a much improved list of ‘EPIC POEMS WOMEN’ (saying it again for extra emphasis SEO wise). There are more. I know there are more. Do let me know who you’d have on there via the comments.

Only men featuring (shakes head).

Lets go….

Nelly x