The Poems

Nora likes to quote poetry: “She was secretly proud of how easily she could learn poetry by heart, none of the other grad students seemed to bother.” This habit turns out to be unexpectedly useful when Nora meets an ice demon. Donne, Swinburne, Wyatt, and Sidney are just a few of the poets whose work Nora recites during the course of The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic.

“Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee.” —John Donne, Elegy XIX, “To His Mistress Going to Bed”

“I am weary of days and hours . . . desires and dreams and powers, and everything but sleep.” —Algernon Charles Swinburne, “The Garden of Proserpine”

 “They flee from me that sometime did me seek” —Thomas Wyatt, “They Flee from Me”

 “Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain” —Sir Philip Sidney, “Astrophel and Stella I”