I am looking for a poem.  My wife seems to emember the title as
"Faculty Wives," but no search that I do finds a poem of such a name. 
She also thinks that it was written by Thoreau or Whitman, or some
other romantic poet.  The base subject of the poem is that of the
wives of academics or faculty, being primarily people who talk
politely and plan parties.  Does anyone know what poem this could be? 
Thanks.

Any chance that your wife may be remembering Stephen Sondheim's "The
Ladies Who Lunch"?

http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/t/theladieswholunch.html

ee cummings seems like a good bet; I can't imagine a Whitman poem
about faculty wives (seems a little too chi-chi for the great American
democratic), and I'm not so sure about Thoreau, who left his vitriol
for the professors themselves.·

Is your wife thinking about this: (Cambridge being Cambridge, Mass.,
the pretty home of Harvard and MIT.)

the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls
e. e. cummings

the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls
are unbeautiful and have comfortable minds
(also, with the church's protestant blessings
daughters, unscented shapeless spirited)
they believe in Christ and Longfellow,both dead,
are invariably interested in so many things-
at the present writing one still finds
delighted fingers knitting for the is it Poles?
perhaps. While permanent faces coyly bandy
scandal of Mrs. N and Professor D
....the Cambridge ladies do not care,above
Cambridge if sometimes in its box of
sky lavender and cornerless, the
moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy

In response to pinkfreud and rosalind:

Thanks very much.  Unfortunately, I cannot ask her.  The poem is to be
framed as a gift (for earning her Ph.D.), and confirmation would ruin
the surprise.  If nobody else has a stronger contender for the poem,
then I will assume that she misremembered, and will use one of these.

Here's a poem entitled "History of Faculty Women's Club 1941":

http://pasty.com/uwc/documents/poem1.htm