pThese poem grapple with issues of how relationships are defined and what we gain or lose from them, including same-sex and opposite-sex relationships alike. The poem reflect on the experience not only of the poet, but also of wives throughout history, particularly as represented in classic literary texts from Geoffrey Chaucer to Joan Didion. ppFor example, Fitzpatrick's The Genius of Wives of Geniuses I Have Sat With is inspired by a paragraph in Gertrude Stein's emThe Autobiography of Alice B. Toklasem. The fragments of the central poetry sequence, Mr. , draw their language, respectively, from the final chapters of emJane Eyre emby Charlotte Bront , emThe Return of the Soldier emby Rebecca West, emFrankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus emby Mary Shelley, emWuthering Heights emby Emily Bront , emEmma emby Jane Austen, emPride and Prejudice emby Jane Austen, emMrs. Dalloway emby Virginia Woolf, emLittle Women emby Louisa May Alcott, emSummer emby Edith Wharton, emThe Bell Jar emby Sylv