Is That the New Moon?

Cope’s anthology offers a wide-ranging introduction to a number of women poets, some very well known, some less so. Aimed at girls of 13 to 16, its appeal is in fact much wider, providing a reflection on experiences and circumstances common to young, and not so young, women. Becoming independent, growing up and growing away from what may be restraining or restricting circumstances is the prevailing theme of the collection. Some poems are terrifying in their delineation of childhood and young adulthood, but even here the tone is one of restraint, of things unsaid rather than said, as in Elizabeth Bartlett’s ‘God is Dead – Nietzsche’ and Carole Satyamurti’s ‘Between the Lines’, where a girl grows to maturity in a home circumscribed by euphemisms and denial.

Although first published 14 years ago, time shows Cope’s selection to be an enduring one. The poems still shine brightly and her introduction provides a useful way into the collection for possible readers hesitant about poetry. In an ideal world once she turns 13 every young woman would receive a copy of Is That the New Moon?