9 LGBT Poets To Know And Love

From: NewNowNext

2. 

Charlotte Mew 

(1869-1928)

Though hardly a household name today, Charlotte Mew made her mark at the turn of the twentieth century as one of the last great poets of the Victorian era. In literary circles of the time, she was known for her distinctive masculine style of tailored suits, short cropped hair, habitual smoking and a preference for coarsely strong language.

She never explicitly referred to her queerness in her poetry, but many of her poems deal with unrequited love, often from a male perspective. Contemporary readers suspect this palpable heartache comes from her inability to fully realize her queer identity.

From “On the Road to the Sea”

We passed each other, turned and stopped for half an hour, then went our way,

I who make other women smile did not make you–

But no man can move mountains in a day.

So this hard thing is yet to do.

But first I want your life:–before I die I want to see

The world that lies behind the strangeness of your eyes,

There is nothing gay or green there for my gathering, it may be,

Yet on brown fields there lies

A haunting purple bloom: is there not something in grey skies

And in grey sea?

I want what world there is behind your eyes,

I want your life and you will not give it me.