A Minor Poet and Other Verse

A Minor Poet and Other Verse (1884) is a poetry collection by Amy Levy. Published when the poet was only twenty-three years old, A Minor Poet and Other Verse is the work of a pioneering writer and feminist whose poetry and prose explores the concept of the New Woman while illuminating the realities of Jewish life in nineteenth century London. "I am sad / Here in this gracious city, whose white walls / Gleam snow-like in the sunlight; whose fair shrines / Are filled with wondrous images of gods; / Upon whose harbour's bosom ride tall ships, / Black-masted, fraught with fragrant merchandise; / Whose straight-limbed people, in fair stuffs arrayed, / Do throng from morn till eve the sunny streets." Brought to a foreign land by her lover Jason, Medea becomes an exile in body and soul. Unable to assimilate within a culture dedicated to commerce and flowing with hatred and vanity, she despairs and longs for release. In this monologue, Levy perhaps projects some of her own feelings as a feminist and lesbian living in Victorian England. Othered already through her Jewish identity, Levy struggled throughout her life with depression. In "Xantippe," a poem inspired by Socrates' wife, Levy imagines a monologue from a woman emerging from despair into hope, who sees "a rosy glimmer" at the casement and cries "O fling it wide [...] and give me light!" This edition Amy Levy's A Minor Poet and Other Verse is a classic work of British literature reimagined for modern readers.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.