Eighteenth Century Women Poets: An Oxford Anthology

Front Cover
Roger Lonsdale, Roger H. Lonsdale
Oxford University Press, 1990 - Biography & Autobiography - 555 pages
In the first decade of the eighteenth century, only two women published collections of verse. By the 1790s, more than thirty had done so. Yet, in the two intervening centuries, most of that verse has disappeared from view--now either ignored or forgotten.
This delightful anthology takes us back to Augustan England, introducing over one hundred of these lost poets from Lady Mary Chudleigh and Octavia Walsh to Mary Locke and Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. Their poetry speaks with vigor and immediacy, in a range of moods from the resentful and melancholic to the humorous and exuberant, as they unveil their individual worlds to us. They came from all levels of society--including washerwomen and duchesses--and from both the town and country. The volume reveals that as eighteenth-century women poets gained confidence, their writing eventually spanned a variety of poetic forms and encompassed both public and private topics. Eighteenth-Century Women Poets offers a compelling reassessment of a neglected aspect of eighteenth-century literature.

From inside the book

Contents

Introduction
xxi
MARY LADY CHUDLEIGH née LEE 16561710
1
from The Ladies Defence
2
To the Ladies
3
The Resolve ANNE FINCH née KINGSMILL COUNTESS OF WINCHILSEA 16611720
4
from The Spleen A Pindaric Poem
6
A Sigh 6 Lifes Progress
8
A Pastoral Dialogue between Two Shepherdesses
9
Song
266
CHRISTIAN CARSTAIRS fl 176386
267
On Loch Leven
268
Nightingale
269
177 On Viewing her Sleeping Infant
270
The World Not Our Rest
271
PRISCILLA POINTON later PICKERING c 17401801
272
from To the Critics
273

Adam Posed 9 A Tale of the Miser and the Poet
12
from The Petition for an Absolute Retreat
15
The Hog the Sheep and Goat Carrying to a Fair
18
Enquiry after Peace A Fragment xxi 123 + 4 6 48889 12 15 18 40 42 43 t wwwww wwN N N N N N N N N N N 23 26 26 27 29 22 22 19
19
To the Nightingale
20
Reformation
21
Friendship between Ephelia and Ardelia 16 A Nocturnal Reverie
22
A Ballad to Mrs Catherine Fleming in London
23
A Song on the South Sea SARAH EGERTON née FYGE later FIELD 16701723
26
The Repulse to Alcander
27
To Philaster 21 To One who said I must not Love
29
To Marina
30
The Emulation
31
ELIZABETH THOMAS 16751731
32
Epistle to Clemena Occasioned by an Argument
34
The Execration
36
The True Effigies of a Certain Squire
37
A New Litany Occasioned by an Invitation to a Wedding
39
On Sir JS saying in a Sarcastic Manner My Books would make me Mad An
40
from Jill A Pindaric
42
The Triumvirate
43
The Forsaken Wife
44
ELIZABETH ROWE née SINGER 16741737
45
A Laplanders Song to his Mistress 33 A Hymn 35 Upon the Death of her Husband 36 A Hymn OCTAVIA WALSH 16771706
47
At length my soul the fatal union finds
53
LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU née PIERREPONT 16891762
54
The SmallPox
56
40
57
Verses Written in the Chiosk of the British Palace at Pera Overlooking the City of Constantinople
59
Epitaph
61
A Ballad
62
Epistle to Lord Bathurst
63
An Answer to a LoveLetter in Verse
65
A Receipt to Cure the Vapours
66
from Verses Addressed to the Imitator of the First Satire of the Second Book of Horace
67
Addressed
68
Hymn to the Moon 49 Verses Written in a Garden
69
MARY MONCK née MOLESWORTH c 16781715
70
Masque of the Virtues against Love From Guarini 51 On a Romantic Lady
71
Verses written on her Deathbed JANE HOLT née WISEMAN fl 170117
72
To Mr Wren my Valentine Six Year
73
SUSANNA CENTLIVRE née FREEMAN 1669?1723
74
from An Epistle to the King of Sweden
75
JANE BRERETON née HUGHES 16851740
78
from Epistle to Mrs Anne Griffiths Written from London
80
from To Mr Thomas Griffith at the University of Glasgow
81
Cloe to Artimesa
83
MARTHA SANSOM née FOWKE 16901736
84
from Clios Picture To Anthony Hammond Esq
86
To Cleons Eyes
87
To Lady E H
88
The Invitation from a Country Cottage
90
CONSTANTIA GRIERSON née CRAWLEY c 170532
91
To Miss Laetitia Van Lewen
92
56
93
On her own Birthday August 26 1723
94
An Ode Composed in Sleep
95
ELIZABETH TOLLET 16941754
96
On a Deaths Head
98
From Virgil
99
KE 72
100
74
101
MARY DAVYS 16741732
102
75
103
ARABELLA MORETON after 1690before 1741
105
77
106
78
109
MEHETABEL WRIGHT née WESLEY 16971750 11Ο
110
Address to her Husband III
111
80
113
Wedlock A Satire
114
81
115
ANONYMOUS A LADY
116
MARY BARBER c 16901757
118
Written for My Son at His First Putting on Breeches
120
An Unanswerable Apology for the Rich
121
The Conclusion of a Letter to the Rev Mr C
122
Stella and Flavia
124
To Mrs FrancesArabella Kelly
125
On seeing an Officers Widow distracted
126
from To a Lady
127
MISS W
129
The Gentlemans Study In Answer to The Ladys DressingRoom
130
ELIZABETH BOYD fl 172745
134
On the Death of an Infant of five Days old
135
ANONYMOUS A LADY
136
Memory a Poem
138
Sorrow
140
JEAN ADAMS 171065
141
A Dream or the Type of the Rising Sun
142
On the Phoenix
143
To the Muse
145
On being charged with Writing Incorrectly
146
A Letter to my Love All alone past 12 in the Dumps
147
To my Love
148
ANNE INGRAM VISCOUNTESS IRWIN née HOWARD later DOUGLAS c 16961764
149
from An Epistle to Mr Pope
150
MARY CHANDLER 16871745
151
My Own Epitaph
152
A True Tale
153
MARY JONES 170778
155
An Epistle to Lady Bowyer
156
The Lass of the Hill
160
Stellas Epitaph
161
Epistle from Fern Hill
163
ELIZABETH CARTER 17171806
165
On the Death of Mrs Rowe
167
A Dialogue
168
I12 Ode to Wisdom
169
MARY COLLIER 1690?c 1762
171
from The Womans Labour An Epistle to Mr Stephen Duck
172
SARAH DIXON A 16721765
174
To Strephon
175
The Returned Heart
177
Lines Occasioned by the Burning of Some Letters
178
ELIZABETH FRANCES AMHERST later THOMAS
179
c 171679 179 120 A Prize Riddle on Herself when 24
180
The Welford Wedding
181
From a Young Woman to an Old Officer who Courted her
183
Verses designed to be Sent to Mr Adams
184
ANNABELLA BLOUNT née GUISE fl 170041
185
A Cure for Poetry
186
CHARLOTTE BRERETON b c 1720
188
FRANCES GREVILLE née MACARTNEY c 172489
190
Miss Fanny Macartney to Miss Peggly Banks
191
A Prayer for Indifference
192
MARY LEAPOR 172246
194
The Headache To Aurelia
195
Strephon to Celia A Modern LoveLetter
197
Soto A Character
198
Man the Monarch
202
from An Epistle to Artemisia
204
Advice to Sophronia
206
An Essay on Woman
207
The Epistle of Deborah Dough
209
from Crumble Hall
210
Upon her Play being returned to her
211
The Visit
212
from Miras Picture A Pastoral
213
Miras Will
214
An Epistle to a Lady
215
ELIZABETH TEFT b 1723
217
On Viewing Herself in a Glass
218
On SnuffTaking
219
A Song
222
HENRIETTA KNIGHT née ST JOHN LADY LUXBOROUGH 16991756
223
Written in a tempestuous Night 1748
224
The Bullfinch in Town
225
A Mirror for Detractors Addressed to a Friend
226
Advice to a Young Lady lately married
230
from A Letter to a Lady in London
233
CATHERINE JEMMAT née YEO 171466
234
The Rural Lass
235
To Stella
237
ANNA WILLIAMS 170683
240
Verses to Mr Richardson on Sir Charles Grandison
241
The Nunnery
242
ANONYMOUS OPHELIA
244
CLARA REEVE 17291807
247
from To my Friend Mrs
248
A Character
249
ANONYMOUS A LADY
251
MARY LATTER 1722?77
253
from Soliloquies on Temporal Indigence
255
MARY WHATELEY later DARWALL 17381825
256
58
257
Ode to Truth
258
59
259
The Vanity of External Accomplishments
260
On the Authors Husband Desiring her to Write Some Verses
261
ALISON COCKBURN née RUTHERFORD 171394
262
The Flowers of the Forest
263
JANE ELLIOT 17271805
264
The Flowers of the Forest
265
Address to a Bachelor on a Delicate Occasion
274
from Letter to a Sister
275
LADY ANNE LINDSAY later BARNARD 17501825
276
Auld Robin Gray
277
SUSANNA BLAMIRE 174794
278
Epistle to her Friends at Gartmore
279
from Stoklewath or The Cumbrian Village
283
Written on a Gloomy Day in Sickness
287
Ive Gotten a Rock Ive Gotten a Reel
288
When Home We Return
289
The Siller Croun
290
Auld Robin Forbes
292
O Jenny Dear
293
ANNE PENNY née HUGHES formerly CHRISTIAN
294
192 Odes Sung in Commemoration of the Marine Society
295
ANONYMOUS A LADY
296
The Visit
297
ANNA LAETITIA BARBAULD née AIKIN 17431825
299
The Mouses Petition to Doctor Priestley
302
Tomorrow
304
The Rights of Woman
305
To the Poor
306
To a Little Invisible Being
307
WashingDay
308
To Mr S T Coleridge
310
ANNA SEWARD 17421809
311
Sonnet To Honora Sneyd
313
Verses Inviting Stella to Tea on the Public FastDay
314
Sonnet December Morning
315
Sonnet To Colebrook Dale
316
Sonnet To the Poppy
318
An Old Cats Dying Soliloquy
319
MARY SCOTT later TAYLOR 1752?93
320
from The Female Advocate
321
ANONYMOUS A FEMALE HAND
322
HANNAH MORE 17451833
323
from Epilogue to The Search after Happiness
325
Inscription in a Beautiful Retreat called Fairy Bower
326
A Poetical Epistle
328
Or Conversation
329
from Slavery A Poem
330
Patient Joe or The Newcastle Collier
331
from The GinShop or A Peep into Prison
334
ANONYMOUS
336
ANONYMOUS A LADY
338
On meeting Esq in St Jamess Park
339
LADY SOPHIA BURRELL née RAYMOND later CLAY 1750?1802 340 224 from Verses to a Lady
340
The Picture of a Fine Gentleman
343
The School for Satire
344
MARY SAVAGE fl 176377
345
Letter to Miss E B at Bath
346
from Letter to Miss E B on Marriage
348
To a SchoolBoy at Eton Yes and No
349
The Disaster
351
ANNE WILSON A 1778
354
FRANCES BURNEY later DARBLAY 17521840
355
To Charles Burney
356
ANN MURRY c 1755after 1816
357
ANN THOMAS fl 178495
361
ANNE HUNTER née HOME 17421821
363
North American Death Song
364
CHARLOTTE SMITH née TURNER 17491806
365
Sonnet Written at the Close of Spring
367
ThirtyEight
368
A Poem
370
Fragment Descriptive of the Miseries of War
371
Sonnet On being Cautioned against Walking on an Headland
372
JANE CAVE later WINSCOM c 17541813
373
A Poem for Children
374
An Elegy on a Maiden Name
376
from The HeadAche Or An Ode to Health
377
JANE WEST née ILIFFE 17581852
379
from To a Friend on her Marriage
380
To the Hon Mrs Clockayne
382
HANNAH COWLEY née PARKHOUSE 17431809
385
An Elegiac Ballad
386
Departed Youth
387
Blank Verse Written on the Sea Shore
388
HESTER LYNCH PIOZZI née SALUSBURY formerly THRALE 17411821
389
An Ode to Society
390
ANN YEARSLEY née CROMARTIE 17521806
392
On Mrs Montagu
395
from Remonstrance in the Platonic Shade
397
from To Mira On the Care of her Infant
398
Familiar Poem from Nisa to Fulvia of the Vale
399
ELIZABETH MOODY née GREENLY 17371814
401
Dr Johnsons Ghost
402
To a Gentleman Who Invited Me to Go AFishing
404
The Housewifes Prayer To Economy
405
Sappho Burns her Books and Cultivates the Culinary Arts
406
HANNAH WALLIS A 1787
407
To Mrs on the Death of her Husband
408
The Females Lamentations or The Village in Mourning
409
To a Sick Friend
412
HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS 1761?1827
413
Sonnet on the Mountain Daisy by Mr Burns
414
Elegy on a Young Thrush
415
To Dr Moore in Answer to a Poetical Epistle
416
On the Death of the Rev Dr Kippis
418
HELEN LEIGH fl 1788
420
ELIZABETH HANDS fl 1789
422
On an Unsociable Family
424
A Poem On the Supposition of an Advertisement of a Volume of Poems by a ServantMaid
425
A Poem on the Supposition of the Book having been Published and Read
427
JOANNA BAILLIE 17621851
429
from A Winter Day
430
from A Summer Day
432
The Ghost of Edward
435
A Reverie
438
from An Address to the Muses
440
A Mother to her Waking Infant
442
A Child to his Sick Grandfather
443
The Horse and his Rider
444
REBEKAH CARMICHAEL later HAY fl 17901806
445
A Young Lasss Soliloquy
446
ANN FRANCIS née GITTINS 17381800
447
ANN RADCLIFFE née WARD 17641823
448
Song of a Spirit
449
MARIA b 1771? and HARRIET b 1774? FALCONAR
451
A Prefatory Epistle to the Reviewers
452
JANET LITTLE later RICHMOND 17591813
453
Given to a Lady Who Asked me to Write a Poem
454
ELLEN TAYLOR f 1792
455
Written by the Barrow side where she was sent to wash Linen
456
HENRIETTA ONEILL née BOYLE 175893
457
Ode to the Poppy
458
Written on Seeing her Two Sons at Play
459
MARY LOCKE later MISTER fl 17861816
460
Sonnet
461
Instructions for the Mob in England
462
The ChimneySweepers Complaint
463
Written in Ireland
464
Modern Manners
465
A Receipt for Writing a Novel
466
MARY ROBINSON née DARBY 17581800
468
Stanzas Written between Dover and Calais
471
Londons Summer Morning
472
January 1795
474
Stanzas
475
The BirthDay
476
The Haunted Beach
478
MARIA LOGAN fl 1793
480
ISABELLA KELLY née FORDYCE later HEDGELAND
481
c 1759?1857 481 309 To an Unborn Infant
482
ANNE BATTEN CRISTALL 17691848
484
Morning Rosamonde
485
Evening Gertrude
486
A Fragment The Blind Man
490
Song
491
ANNABELLA PLUMPTRE 17611838
492
from Ode to Moderation
493
ANONYMOUS ELIZA
495
from A Tour to the Glaciers of Savoy
496
MATILDA BETHAM 17761852
499
In a Letter to A R C
500
Written on WhitsunMonday 1795
501
The Power of Women
502
ANNA SAWYER fl 17941801
503
Sunday Schools
505
ANONYMOUS A LADY
506
Sources and Notes
507
62
516
63
517
65
520
66
526
67
531
68
533
69
534
70
537
71
544
To Almystrea on her Divine Works
550
Written on an Angry Petulant KitchenMaid 375
553
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About the author (1990)

Roger Lonsdale is Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford, and Fellow of Balliol College. His publications include Dr Charles Burney: A Literary Biography (1965), The Poems of Gray, Collins and Goldsmith (1969), and The New Oxford Book of Eighteenth-Century Verse (1984).

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