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Christine de Pizan [or Christien de Pisan]

One of France’s great early women intellectuals, Christine de Pizan was born on September 11, 1364, in Venice. Her father, Tomasso de Pizzano, was a scholar who had studied at the University of Bologna. In 1368, he was

I am a widow, robed in black, alone

by Christine de Pizan [or Christien de Pisan] (1364–c.1430)

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19

I am a widow, dressed in black, alone,

Sad-faced, and as simply clad, as ever;

In great affliction, with woeful manner,

I bear the bitter grief I must bemoan.

And it is right I’m full of tears, I own,

And like to die, while few words I say;

I am a widow, dressed in black, alone.

Now I have lost him, and so have known

Great sorrow, till my wits are all astray,

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Poets Book of Days

August 26

Guillaume Apollinaire born, 1880

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Poetry Trivia

Question:

What poet lived in the Greenwich Village townhouse which was destroyed when a bomb manufactured by the radical student organization The Weather Underground accidentally went off?

Answer

James Merrill. He recorded the event in a poem titled "18 West 11th Street," the address of the townhouse.

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