Typescript of two early poems by Barbara Guest

'Escape' and 'The Inhabitants'

For transcriptions of these poems, please visit “Three Poems by Barbara Guest.”

LINEbreak: Barbara Guest in conversation with Charles Bernstein
Three poems by Barbara Guest

About this feature

Curated by Charles Bernstein to accompany the 2011 publication of his 1995 LINEbreak interview with the poet at Jacket2, this collection brings together two early Barbara Guest poems, written around 1945, as well as “Multiplicity,” published just once previously in The Iowa Review and read by Guest during the 1995 interview.

Preface

Charles Bernstein

LINEbreak: Barbara Guest in conversation with Charles Bernstein
Barbara Guest
Three poems by Barbara Guest
Barbara Guest
Typescript of two early poems by Barbara Guest
Barbara Guest

More Barbara Guest

Erica Kaufman discussed Guest's The Location of Things as part of the feature, “Poetry in 1960, a Symposium,” and Jacket editor John Tranter catalogued the poet’s appearances in the magazine as part of his 2012 commentary series, “Under the Horizon.” Guest’s poem “Roses” was discussed in PoemTalk podcast #24, which you can find on PennSound’s Barbara Guest author page, alongside many readings, interviews, and talks from 1977 to 2004, as well as a 2006 tribute to the poet at the St. Mark’s Poetry Project and a pair of 2007 interviews with Hadley Guest about her mother.

By this author

Jacket 10 - Barbara Guest Poem: Five pieces from 'The Confetti Trees'

Jacket 15 - Barbara Guest Poem: To Kenneth

Jacket 16 - Barbara Guest Poem: Homage

Jacket 25 - Barbara Guest Other: Barbara Guest reads from 'The Red Gaze'

Jacket 25 - Kathleen Fraser Interview: Barbara Guest and Kathleen Fraser in conversation with Elisabeth Frost and Cynthia Hogue

LINEbreak: Barbara Guest in conversation with Charles Bernstein

Three poems by Barbara Guest

Typescript of two early poems by Barbara Guest

Crucial poetic imaginations

An introduction to new recordings of classic poetry at PennSound

Toni Bowers

I first encountered PennSound Classics when it already included a significant number of important early titles. I noticed, though, a comparative underrepresentation of the work of poets who identified as women. The dearth was readily explained: early women’s writing, and especially their poetry, tended until very recently to be neglected on college syllabi, in anthologies, and in scholarship. As a result, serious readers have had little opportunity to encounter the work of extraordinary poets like Katherine Phillips, Emily Brontë, and Charlotte Mew.

Read more about Crucial poetic imaginations

April 21, 2025

Difficult bliss

Structures and histories of the shape of ‘Drafts’

Rachel Blau DuPlessis

Here, I thought I’d offer an essayistic narrative — by asking how and why Drafts was shaped as it was. What information could I give as a poet by exploring my primary moments of choice and understanding from the 25-year experience of writing one contemporary long poem?