Editing Natalie Clifford Barney (section)

==Poetry and plays==
{{multiple image|total_width=400|caption_align=center
| align = right
| image_style = border:none;
| image2 = Quelques Portraits-Sonnets de Femmes.jpg
| alt2= 
| caption2= ''Quelques Portraits-Sonnets de Femmes'', 1900 edition cover
| image1 = Alice Pike Barney - Waterlily.jpg
| alt1 = 
| caption1 = ''Waterlily'', by Barney's mother [[Alice Pike Barney|Alice]] of her cousin Ellen Goin, an illustration in ''Quelques Portraits-Sonnets de Femmes''
}}

In 1900, Barney published her first book, a collection of poems called ''[[Quelques Portraits-Sonnets de Femmes]]'' (''Some Portrait-Sonnets of Women''). The poems were written in traditional French verse and a formal, old-fashioned style since Barney did not care for [[free verse]]. ''Quelques Portraits'' has been described as "apprentice work", a classifier which betrays its historical significance. According to biographer Suzanne Rodriguez, the collection's publication meant that Barney became the first woman poet to openly write about the love of women since Sappho.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2002|p=115}} Her mother contributed pastel illustrations of the poems' subjects, wholly unaware three of the four women who modelled for her were her daughter's lovers.{{sfn|Kling|1994|p=137}}

Reviews were generally positive and glossed over the lesbian theme of the poems, some even misrepresenting it. The ''Washington Mirror'' said Barney "writes odes to men's lips and eyes; not like a novice, either".<ref>''Washington Mirror'', March 9, 1901.  Quoted in {{harvnb|Rodriguez|2002|p=121}}.</ref> However, a headline in a society gossip paper cried out "Sappho Sings in Washington" and this alerted her father, who bought and destroyed the publisher's remaining stock and printing plates.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2002|p=123}}

To escape her father's sway Barney published her next book, ''Cinq Petits Dialogues Grecs'' (''Five Short Greek Dialogues'', 1901), under the pseudonym [[Tryphé]]. The name came from the works of [[Pierre Louÿs]], who helped edit and revise the [[manuscript]]. Barney also dedicated the book to him. The first of the dialogues is set in ancient Greece and contains a long description of Sappho, who is "more faithful in her inconstancy than others in their fidelity". Another argues for [[paganism]] over Christianity.{{sfn|Wickes|1976|pp=50–52}} After the death of Barney's father in 1902, his approximately $9 million fortune (${{Inflation|US|9|1902}} million in 2018{{Inflation/fn|US}}) was left in trust with annual income to be split equally between Barney, her mother, and her sister. His death and the money freed her from any need to conceal the authorship of her books; she never used a pseudonym again.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2002|pp=150–151}} She considered scandal "the best way of getting rid of nuisances" (meaning heterosexual attention from young men).{{sfn|Secrest|1974|p=275}} 

[[File:A gathering of women including Eva Palmer, Natalie Barney, and Liane de Pougy in Barney's garden in Neuilly.png|thumb|left|A gathering in Barney's garden, possibly a performance of ''Équivoque'' with Barney and Eva Palmer{{sfn|Dorf|2019|pp=57–60}}]]
''Je Me Souviens'' was published in 1910, after Vivien's death.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2002|pp=203–204}} That same year, Barney published ''Actes et Entr'actes'' (''Acts and Interludes''), a collection of short plays and poems. One of the plays was ''Équivoque'' (''Ambiguity''), a [[Revisionism (fictional)|revisionist]] version of the legend of Sappho's death: instead of throwing herself off a cliff for the love of [[Phaon]] the sailor, she does so out of grief that Phaon is marrying the woman she loves. The play incorporates quotations from Sappho's fragments, with Barney's own footnotes in Greek, and was performed with ancient Greek-inspired music and dance.{{sfn|Benstock|1986|p=291}}{{sfn|Dorf|2019|pp=57–64}}

Barney did not take her poetry as seriously as Vivien did, saying "if I had one ambition it was to make my life itself into a poem".{{sfn|Barney|1992|p=19}} Her plays were only performed through amateur productions in her garden. According to [[Karla Jay]], most of them lacked coherent plots and "would probably baffle even the most sympathetic audience".{{sfn|Jay|1988|p=53}} After 1910 she mostly wrote the [[epigram]]s and memoirs, for which she is better known. Her last book of poetry was called ''Poems & Poemes: Autres Alliances'' and came out in 1920, bringing together romantic poetry in both French and English. Barney asked [[Ezra Pound]] to edit the poems, but ignored his detailed recommendations.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2002|pp=255–256}}