[Adam Elgar]

I think the more discussion the event generates, the better - during, before or after.
Petra, this is a very interesting - if demoralising - discovery. Are women so anti-formalist?
What do they say about this at Formalista? or at Mezzo Cammin?
Nothing to stop us formalising a free verse poem...... or two... or twelve.

[Seree Zohar]

Petra - part of the fun of this event is to *gulp!!* move out of yr comfort zone. So, yeah, translate some FV or other stuff.... why not?

[Petra Norr]

Well, I don't want to be naughty and say right out why we don't see much formal poetry by women. But let's just say that up in northern climes female formal poetry is full of elves. A male poet will in fact put a troll in a poem now and then, and as with Fröding, give it a clever twist. But you seldom see cute elves running around in male poetry. Another big topic among female poets is God (how does that mix with elves, btw?). Then we have the usual: summer, nature, love -- all in rather pale, unmale, shades. The nice thing is, it doesn't look like female formalists revel much in nationalistic, patriotic poems -- which is one of the worst trends among male poets (depending on the time period, of course).
Free verse? I just tried out a free verse poem; I liked the poem in original, but it didn't work out for me in English. And the biggest reason is that the poem had no rhythm. And that's a real conflict. Maybe a free-verse poem has a bit of rhythm in original, but that rhythm, of course, goes right out the window when you're translating. Would I put a free-verse into formal verse? I've always heard that's a big No-No, though the opposite is done all the time.

[Julie Steiner]

A little inspiration for the stumped:
Wikipedia list of female poets

(You can access poets by language at the bottom of the page; ought to be a way to compare the two and retrieve "female poets Korean" or what have you. Or you could just search.)

And don't forget that song lyrics are poems, too. Plenty of female songwriters out there...

Happy hunting!

Edited to say: there's mention of several female Classical/Hellenistic Greek (and one Latin) poets in this review:
http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2005/2005-11-05.html

[Petra Norr]

Thanks, Julie. That's very helpful!

[Petra Norr]

Hi Marion
I was in the past; I was steeped in it. That's where the elves are. The funny thing is, about ten minutes after I wrote my earlier post I looked up a certain woman poet and right away I found another elf poem. (-:
But TODAY I've made a major discovery. I've found the woman of my dreams! She has everything I've been looking for. I also have a funny feeling her poetry won't appeal to many others. But hey, that's not important, right? The main thing is that I enjoy translating her.

[Marion Shore]

Petra,

As Ricky Nelson said:

Can't please everyone
Gotta please yourself.