| "I'm Like All Lovers" | |
|---|---|
| by Lesbia Harford | |
| Original title | Poems XIV |
| First published in | The Poems of Lesbia Harford (1941) |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Publication date | 1917 |
| Full text | |
 I'm Like All Lovers at Wikisource | |
"I'm Like All Lovers" is a poem by Australian poet Lesbia Harford. [1] It was written in 1917, though first published in the poet's collection The Poems of Lesbia Harford in 1941 under the title "Poems XIV", and later in other Australian poetry anthologies.
A woman, the poet, speaks plainly to her man demanding that he ask no more of her than she asks of him, noting that she is free and so should he be, and that it is her love that sets him free, as long as he loves the woman in her. A very proto-feminist poem.
In his commentary on the poem in 60 Classic Australian Poems Geoff Page called the poem "curiously both modern and traditional." He also noted that in "1917 it may well have been ahead of its time (especially in Australia), but it has already outlived that time and promises to be around for quite a while yet". [2]
Lesbia Venner Harford was an Australian poet, novelist and political activist. She was one of the first women to study for a law degree at the University of Melbourne. She agitated for the rights of workers, supporting a group of union workers who were imprisoned for treason and other crimes. A later reading of Harford's poetry and biography have raised her profile as a pioneer of 'free love' and a queer icon.
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