Mona Lisa

This slender volume by 19th-century American poet Mary Gardiner Horsford takes its title from the most enigmatic portrait in Western art, and the poems within share that same quality of layered mystery. Horsford, whose work appeared in prestigious periodicals like Godey's Lady's Book and The Knickerbocker, brings a woman's eye to the eternal questions raised by Leonardo's painting: Who is she? What does she know? What secrets dwell in that famous half-smile? The collection moves beyond mere ekphrasis into deeper waters, exploring the nature of beauty, the power of the gaze, and the distance between the observer and the observed. These are poems of refinement and restraint, typical of their era yet striking in their quiet audacity a woman poet claiming this iconic image as her own territory. The volume also reflects Horsford's deep attachment to Shelter Island, her long-time home, whose landscape inflects the collection with American shores and salt air. For readers interested in early American women's poetry or the long tradition of artists and writers responding to Mona Lisa, this collection offers a fascinating glimpse into a 19th-century female imagination at work.