Ruth Whitman

Ruth Whitman Poems

Ruth Whitman Biography

Ruth Whitman (1922–1999) was an American poet, translator, and professor. Her eighth and last book is Hatshepshut, Speak to me (Wayne State University Press, 1992), and her most well-known and well-regarded is Tamsen Donner: A Woman’s Journey (Alice James Books, 1977). She also translated poetry from Yiddish,and wrote the beloved poem Sisters. Her honors and awards include a Senior Fulbright Writer-in-Residence Fellowship to Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a Bunting Institute Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship. Her poems were published in literary journals and magazines including AGNI and Ploughshares. She was an early cooperative member of Alice James Books, and was the poetry editor for Radcliffe Quarterly from 1980 - 1995. Ruth (Bashein) Whitman, the oldest daughter of Meyer David and Martha H. (Sherman) Bashein, was born on May 28, 1922, in New York City. She received a B.A. and an M.A. from Radcliffe College, and also taught at Radcliffe, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology during her career. At the time of her death, she lived in Middletown, Rhode Island, and was married to Morton Sacks (her third husband), a painter, and had three children, Rachel, Lee, and David. Her first marriage was to Cedric Whitman and her second to Firman Houghton.)

The Best Poem Of Ruth Whitman

Hatshepsut

When I was six
my father Thutmose the First
lifted me up to sit beside him
on his throne of Amen.
He said, Flower of Egypt,
you will be a ruler.
He took me with him on his royal barge
down the Nile to Memphis, to Sakkara,
to Giza, to see my kingdom.
He said to the farmers and nobles
crowding the water steps
This is my goddess daughter Hatshepsut
who will be crowned with the crown
of Upper and Lower Egypt
when she becomes a woman.
I knew that Amen-Re, Lord of Thebes,
King of Karnak, took my father's form
and came down to my mother, Ahmose,
as she slept in the beauty of her palace.
She woke at the fragrance of the god
and rejoiced at the sight of his beauty,
and he went into her and his love
came into her body. And my mother said
How wonderful to see you face to face,
your dew is in all my limbs.
And Amen, Lord of the Two Lands, said to her,
Khnumit-Amon-Hatshepsut is the name of the daughter
I have planted in your body. She shall be king
in this whole land. My soul is hers,
my crown is hers.

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