Lizette Woodworth Reese's name is unfamiliar to most modern readers of poetry; yet she continues to be included in standard reference works about American poetry and southern literature because of her significance in literary history. At the turn of the century, a time when American literature was largely devoted to faint imitations of worn-out Victorian forms, Reese was writing and publishing poetry that was uniquely fresh and straightforward in its presentation of the verities of life. While written in strictly traditional poetic forms, her verse creates a personal world, with its own system of images and symbols, that foreshadows the development of much of modern poetry. In this way, she stands as an important transitional figure between nineteenth-and twentieth-century poets.

Reese was born in the village of Huntingdon (now Waverly), a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland, to David and Louisa Sophia Gabler Reese. One of four daughters, Lizette Reese...