Anthologies

British Women Poets of the Romantic Era

An Anthology

Edited by Paula R. Feldman

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Editorial Note

MARIA ABDY (c. 1797-1867)

An Original Thought

My Very Particular Friend

LUCY AIKIN (1781-1864)

from Epistles on Women

JANE AUSTEN (1775-1817)

Verses to Rhyme with "Rose"

On a Headache

JOANNA BAILLIE (1762-1851)

Wind

Thunder

The Kitten

Up! Quit Thy Bower!

Woo'd and Married and A'

Address to a Steam-Vessel

Song ("The gliding fish that takes his play")

The Sun Is Down

Lines to a Teapot

The Maid of Llanwellyn

ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD (1743-1825)

The Mouse's Petition

An Inventory of the Furniture in Dr. Priestley's Study

A Summer Evening's Meditation

Tomorrow

Inscription for an Ice-House

To the Poor

Washing-Day

Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, A Poem

Life

The Baby-House

Riddle ("From rosy bowers we issue forth")

MRS. E. -G. BAYFIELD (fl. 1803-1816)

The Danger of Discontent

ELIZABETH BENTLEY (1767-1839)

To a Redbreast

MATILDA BETHAM (1776-1852)

To Miss Rouse Boughton, now the Right Hon. Lady St. John

Sonnet ("Urge me no more!")

To a Llangollen Rose, the Day After it had been Given by Miss Ponsonby

Fragment ("A Pilgrim weary, toil-subdued")

The Daughter

II ("Lucy, I think not of thy beauty")

VII ("Come, Magdalen, and bind my hair")

SUSANNA BLAMIRE (1747-1794)

The Nabob

The Siller Croun

What Ails This Heart o' Mine?

The Chelsea Pensioners

Barley Broth

Stoklewath; or, the Cumbrian Village

THE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON (1790-1849)

Stock in Trade of Modern Poetesses

MARY ANN BROWNE (1812-1844)

A World without Water

The Song of the Elements

The Wild Horse

To a Wild Bee

LADY BYRON (nee ANNE ISABELLA MILBANKE) (1792-1860)

To Ada

DOROTHEA PRIMROSE CAMPBELL (1793-1863)

The Shetland Fisherman

ANN CANDLER (1740-1814)

Reflections on My Own Situation

ELIZABETH COBBOLD (nee ELIZA KNIPE) (1767-1824)

On the Lake of Windermere

Keswick

The Nurse and the Newspaper

SARA COLERIDGE (1802-1852)

Poppies

I Was a Brook

Blest is the Tarn

Milk-White Doe, 'Tis But the Breeze

I Tremble When with Look Benign

The Captive Bird with Ardour Sings

HANNAH COWLEY (1743-1809)

Monologue

Invocation

ANN BATTEN CRISTALL (1769-after 1816)

Written in Devonshire, Near the Dart

To a Lady, on the Rise of Morn

Songs of Arla (from "The Enthusiast")

Song I ("Wild wing my notes, fierce passions urge the strain")

Song II ("With awe my soul the wreck of Nature views")

Song III ("Impassion'd strains my trembling lips rehearse")

Verses Written in the Spring

A Song of Arla Written During her Enthusiasm

An Ode ("Almighty Power! who rul'st this world of storms!")

Song on Leaving the Country Early in the Spring

CATHERINE ANN DORSET (1750?-1817?)

The Humble Bee

To the Lady-Bird

MARIA EDGEWORTH (1768-1849)

On Chauntry's Statue of Watt in Handsworth Church

To Mrs. Carr

Laura Leicester

With a Dyed Silk Quilt Sent to Aunt Ruxton

SUSAN EVANCE (fl. 1808-1818)

Sonnet to Melancholy

Sonnet Written in a Ruinous Abbey

Sonnet to a Violet

Sonnet To the Clouds

Written During a Storm of Wind

CATHERINE MARIA FANSHAWE (1765-1834)

A Riddle ("'Twas in heaven pronounced, and 'twas muttered in hell")

Fragment in Imitation of Wordsworth

ANNE GRANT (MRS. GRANT OF LAGGAN) (1755-1838)

Postscript

ELIZABETH HANDS (fl. 1789)

A Poem, on the Supposition of an Advertisement Appearing in a Morning Paper

A Poem, on the Supposition of the Book Having Been Published and Read

Written, Originally Extempore, on Seeing a Mad Heifer Run through the Village

A Song ("Ye swains cease to flatter")

On a Wedding

The Widower's Courtship

MARY HAYS (1760-1843)

Invocation to the Nightingale

Ode to her Bullfinch

FELICIA HEMANS (1793-1835)

Epitaph on Mr. W----, A Celebrated Mineralogist

Epitaph of the Hammer of the Aforesaid Mineralogist

The Voice of Spring

The Messenger Bird

Bring Flowers

Troubadour Song

The Graves of a Household

The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in New England

A Monarch's Death-Bed

Gertrude; or, Fidelity Till Death

Casabianca

The Wings of the Dove

The Image in Lava

The Coronation of Inez de Castro

Indian Woman's Death-Song

Arabella Stuart

The Dreamer

The Return

The Painter's Last Work--A Scene

I Dream of All Things Free

MARY HOWITT (1799-1888)

The Countess Lamberti

The Spider and the Fly

The Voyage with the Nautilus

Tibbie Inglis, or the Scholar's Wooing

The Nettle-King

The Broom-Flower

A Swinging Song

The Sea-Gull

Old Christmas

The Fairies of the Caldon Low

ANNA MARIA JONES (1748-1829)

Sonnet to the Moon

LADY CAROLINE LAMB (1785-1829)

Invocation to Sleep

LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON (1802-1838)

The Oak

Home

Hannibal's Oath

The Altered River

Lines of Life

Carrick-a-Rede, Ireland

Fountain's Abbey

Marius at the Ruins of Carthage

The Unknown Grave

MARY LEADBEATER (1758-1826)

Lines Written in a Bower

HELEN LEIGH (fl. 1788, d. before 1795)

The Natural Child

The Linnet; a Fable

The Revenge

ISABELLA LICKBARROW (fl. 1814-1818)

Lines on the Comet

On the Fate of Newspapers

The Nun's Soliloquy

On Sleep

The Widow

Colin

Lucy

Lines Written on the Banks of the Eden, near Kirkby Stephen

On the Sprint at Garnet Bridge

The Mountain Flower

Lady Hamilton

LADY ANN LINDSAY (1750-1825)

Auld Robin Gray

The Highland Storm

JANET LITTLE (1759-1813)

To the Public

Another Epistle to Nell

To My Aunty

On Reading Lady Mary Montague and Mrs. Rowe's Letters

To a Lady Who Sent the Author Some Paper with a Reading of Sillar's Poems

Given to a Lady Who Asked Me To Write A Poem

On Seeing Mr. ----- Baking Cakes

The Month's Love

MARIA LOGAN (fl. 1793)

To Opium

Verses on Hearing that an Airy and Pleasant Situation . . . Was Surrounded with New Buildings

CHRISTIAN MILNE (1773-after 1816)

To a Lady, Who Did Me the Honour to Call at my House

Sent with a Flower Pot, Begging a Slip of Geranium

On a Lady, Who Spoke with Some Ill-Nature of the Advertisement of my Little Work in the "Aberdeen Journal"

To a Gentleman, Desirous of Seeing My Manuscripts

Song ("At eve, when Dee's transparent stream")

MARY RUSSELL MITFORD (1787-1855)

Winter Scenery, January, 1809

To Mr. Lucas

ELIZABETH MOODY (d. 1814)

To Dr. Darwin, On Reading his Loves of the Plants

To Sleep, a Song

The Housewife; or, The Muse Learning to Ride the Great Horse Heroic

HANNAH MORE (1745-1833)

The Black Slave Trade. A Poem

COUNTESS OF MORLEY (1781-1857)

A Party of Pleasure up the River Tamer

Epilogue

CAROLINA, BARONESS NAIRNE (1766-1845)

The Laird o' Cockpen

Caller Herrin'

The Lass o' Gowrie

John Tod

The Land o' the Leal

CAROLINE NORTON (1808-1877)

I Do Not Love Thee

The Faithless Knight

We Have Been Friends Together

The Arab's Farewell to His Horse

HENRIETTA O'NEILL (1758-1793)

Ode to the Poppy

AMELIA OPIE (1769-1853)

Ode: Written on the Opening of the Last Campaign

Stanzas Written under Aeolus's Harp

Allen Brooke, of Windermere

An Evening Walk at Cromer

Song ("I know you false")

Song ("Go, youth beloved")

The Despairing Wanderer

ISABEL PAGAN (c. 1741-1821)

Ca' the Ewes to the Knowes

The Crook and Plaid

Account of the Author's Lifetime

A New Love Song, with the Answer

The Answer

On Burns and Ramsay

A Letter

The Spinning Wheel

A Love Letter

Muirkirk Light Weights

ANN RADCLIFFE (1764-1823)

To the Nightingale

Song of a Spirit

Sunset

The First Hour of Morning

Sonnet ("Now the bat circles on the breeze of eve")

To Melancholy

The Sea-Nymph

Rondeau

Storied Sonnet

Shakspeare's Cliff

To the River Dove

The Sea-Mew

On a First View of the Group Called the Seven Mountains

A Second View of the Seven Mountains

EMMA ROBERTS (1794?-1840)

Song ("Upon the Ganges' regal stream")

MARY ROBINSON (1758-1800)

The Linnet's Petition

Second Ode to the Nightingale

The Maniac

Stanzas Written After Successive Nights of Melancholy Dreams

Marie Antoinette's Lamentation

London's Summer Morning

January, 1795

The Lascar

The Negro Girl

The Haunted Beach

The Alien Boy

To the Poet Coleridge

The Camp

The Poet's Garret

The Lady of the Black Tower

ANNA SEWARD (1742-1809)

Sonnet IV. To Honora Sneyd, Whose Health Was Always Best in Winter

Sonnet VII. ("By Derwent's rapid stream as oft I stray'd")

Sonnet X. To Honora Sneyd

Sonnet XV. Written on Rising Ground Near Lichfield

Sonnet XVIII. An Evening in November

Sonnet XIX. To -----

Sonnet LXVII. On Doctor Johnson's Unjust Criticisms

Sonnet LXVIII. On the Posthumous Fame of Doctor Johnson

Sonnet LXXI. To the Poppy

Sonnet LXXXI. On a Lock of Miss Sarah Seward's Hair

Sonnet XCV. ("On the damp margin of the sea-beat shore")

MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY (1797-1851)

Stanzas ("O, come to me in dreams, my love!")

CHARLOTTE SMITH (1749-1806)

Sonnet I. The Partial Muse

Sonnet II. Written at the Close of Spring

Sonnet III. To a Nightingale

Sonnet IV. To the Moon

Sonnet V. To the South Downs

Sonnet VII. On the Departure of the Nightingale

Sonnet VIII. To Spring

Sonnet XXI. Supposed to be Written by Werter

Sonnet XXXIX. To Night

Sonnet XLIV. Written in the Church-Yard at Middleton in Sussex

Sonnet LXVII. On Passing over a Dreary Tract of Country, and near the Ruins of a Deserted Chapel, during a Tempest

Sonnet LXX. On Being Cautioned against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because It Was Frequented by a Lunatic

The Swallow

Beachy Head

AGNES STRICKLAND (1796-1874)

The Earthquake of Callao

To the Spirit of Dreams

The Enfranchised; or, The Butterfly's First Flight

The Self-Devoted

ANN TAYLOR (1782-1866) AND JANE TAYLOR (1783-1824)

The Little Bird's Complaint to his Mistress

The Mistress's Reply to her Little Bird

The Cow and the Ass

The Star

Recreation

The Squire's Pew

A Pair

from "Philip--A Fragment"

MARY TIGHE (1772-1810)

from Psyche

On Receiving a Branch of Mezereon Which Flowered at Woodstock

Written at Scarborough. August, 1799

Sonnet ("As one who late hath lost a friend adored")

Address to My Harp

Sonnet, March 1791

Sonnet ("'Tis past the cruel anguish of suspence")

CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH TONNA (1790-1846)

from Osric, A Missionary Tale

ELIZABETH TREFUSIS (1763-1808)

Aurora, or the Mad Tale Madly Told

The Quarrel

JANE WEST (1758-1852)

On the Sonnets of Mrs. Charlotte Smith

Sonnet to May

HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS (1761?-1827)

from Peru

Sonnet to Twilight

from "An Epistle to Dr. Moore"

A Song ("No riches from his scanty store")

Elegy on a Young Thrush

Sonnet to the Moon

from A Farewell, for Two Years, to England. A Poem

To Dr. Moore, in Answer to a Poetical Epistle Written to Me by Him in Wales, September 1791

Sonnet to the Curlew

Sonnet to the White-Bird of the Tropic

Sonnet to the Torrid Zone

Hymn, Written Among the Alps

To James Forbes, Esq. on his Bringing Me Flowers from Vaucluse

To a Friend, Who Sent Me Flowers, When Confined by Illness

DOROTHY WORDSWORTH (1771-1855)

An Address to a Child in a High Wind

To My Niece Dorothy, a Sleepless Baby

ANN YEARSLEY (1752-1806)

Anarchy

Peace

The Captive Linnet

Soliloquy

MARY JULIA YOUNG (FL. 1791-1808)

An Ode to Fancy

Sonnet to Dreams

To Miss ------ On Her Spending Too Much Time at her Looking Glass

To a Friend, On his Desiring Me to Publish

Sources for Headnotes

Select Bibliography

Index of First Lines

Author-Title Index


top of page