This list exists for the benefit of women poets working in form, whether sometimes or always. We also welcome comparative linguists, metrists, and poets working in form in languages other than English—especially women in those fields.

Our biases are toward the practice and analysis of metrical craft and literary linguistics/stylistics. We do not engage in endless theoretical or political flamewars, nor in argument for argument's sake. (Most of us are here precisely because we find such online rhetorical vamping tedious and counterproductive.) That said, we represent a wide range of political, social, and economic backgrounds.

This is a private list; admission is solely at the listowner's discretion. We do encourage you to explore various links on this website.

This WOULD be the place to:

• compare how one or more women handle hypermetrical (the so-called “feminine!”) endings
• examine recurring themes as affected by form or metrical variations
• examine how women use the blues stanza
• discuss women formalists’ metrical theories (surely there are some historically overlooked or forgotten)
• consider differences in meter between women with and without classical (Greek/Latin) training
• gripe about unfair analyses of women’s metrical poetry
• nitpick any particular woman poet’s scansion in any particular poem

This would (most emphatically) NOT be the place to:

• discuss why form is irrelevant
• why free verse (as opposed to nonce forms or ghosts of meter) is formal
• the so-called "School of Quietude" as such
• why the iambic pentameter line is "inherently sexist"
• why the content of women’s poetry is "inferior" to that of men’s poetry or vice-versa
• why women’s metrical practice is "less rigorous" than men’s
• whether English meter is "imperialist"
• whether non-English meter or metrical poetry in English form written by members of racial or ethnic minorities is "substandard," "inferior," or evidence of "primitivism"
• troll for girlfriends, boyfriends, religious converts, political converts, literary-school-of-thought converts, publication outlets, private tutors, or e-mail addresses.

It is most of all NOT a place for posting your latest free-verse poem. It's not that we hate free verse; many of us also write and have published entire books of free verse.

We're here specifically to discuss form and versification.

Please consult the "Are you looking for...?" page for help finding various poetry resources.

In all things, let reason and humor prevail over tedious theorizing and sanctimonious flamewars!