A SONG.
THE VISION.
TO MATILDA.
DEDICATION TO HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE.
CAPTIVITY.
CELADON AND LYDIA.
DEDICATION.
SUBSCRIBERS.
ODE TO THE MUSE.
ODE TO REFLECTION.
ODE TO ENVY.
ODE TO HEALTH.
ODE TO VANITY.
ODE TO MELANCHOLY.
ODE TO DESPAIR.
ODE TO THE NIGHTINGALE.
SECOND ODE TO THE NIGHTINGALE.
ODE ON ADVERSITY.
ODE TO BEAUTY.
ODE TO ELOQUENCE.
ODE TO THE MOON.
ODE TO MEDITATION.
ODE TO DELLA CRUSCA.
ODE TO VALOUR.
INSCRIBED TO COLONEL BANASTRE TARLETON.
LINES TO HIM WHO WILL UNDERSTAND THEM.
ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF LADY MIDDLETON.
ELEGY TO THE MEMORY OF RICHARD BOYLE, ESQ. *
ELEGY TO THE MEMORY OF DAVID GARRICK, ESQ.
MONODY TO THE MEMORY OF CHATTERTON.
ELEGY TO THE MEMORY OF WERTER.
CUPID SLEEPING.
TO SIMPLICITY.
ABSENCE.
THE FADED BOUQUET.
LINES INSCRIBED TO P. DE LOUTHERBOURG, ESQ. R. A.
LINES ON HEARING IT DECLARED TAHT NO WOMEN WERE SO HANDSOME AS THE ENGLISH.
STANZAS TO A FRIEND.
RINALDO TO LAURA MARIA.
TO RINALDO.
TO THE MUSE OF POETRY.
THE ADIEU TO LOVE.
STANZAS TO FLORA.
TO CESARIO.
ECHO TO HIM WHO COMPLAINS.
STANZAS.
LINES WRITTEN ON THE SEA-COAST.
STANZAS WRITTEN UNDER AN OAK IN WINDSOR FOREST, BEARING THE FOLLOWING INSCRIPTION.
STANZAS TO THE ROSE.
TO THE MYRTLE.
STANZAS INSCRIBED TO LADY WILLIAM RUSSELL.
MORNING.
LIFE.
LINES TO THE MEMORY OF RICHARD BOYLE, ESQ. SON OF MRS. WALSINGHAM.
STANZAS TO LOVE.
OBERON TO THE QUEEN OF THE FAIRIES.
LINES WRITTEN BY THE SIDE OF A RIVER.
TO LEONARDO.
THE BEE AND THE BUTTERFLY.
STANZAS TO TIME.
CANZONET.
THE REPLY TO TIME.
STANZAS.
PASTORAL STANZAS.
PASTORAL STANZAS.
THE ORIGIN OF CUPID.
SONNET INSCRIBED TO HER GRACE THE DUTCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE.
SONNET TO AMICUS. †
SONNET TO THE MEMORY OF MISS MARIA LINLEY.
SONNET TO EVENING.
SONNET TO INGRATITUDE.
SONNET.
SONNET TO MY BELOVED DAUGHTER.
SONNET.
SONNET. THE MARINER.
SONNET.
SONNET. THE PEASANT.
SONNET WRITTEN AMONG THE RUINS OF AN ANCIENT CASTLE IN GERMANY, IN THE YEAR 1786.
SONNET. THE TEAR.
SONNET. THE SNOW DROP.
SONNET.
PETRARCH TO LAURA.
AINSI VA LE MONDE.
SIR RAYMOND OF THE CASTLE.
LEWIN AND GYNNETH.
SIGHT.
THE CAVERN OF WOE.
SOLITUDE.
ADVERTISEMENT.
MONODY TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE QUEEN OF FRANCE.
PREFACE.
ACCOUNT OF SAPPHO.
I. INTRODUCTORY.
II. THE TEMPLE OF CHASTITY.
III. THE BOWER OF PLEASURE.
IV. SAPPHO DISCOVERS HER PASSION.
V. CONTEMNS ITS POWER.
VI. DESCRIBES THE CHARACTERISTICS OF LOVE.
VII. INVOKES REASON.
VIII. HER PASSION INCREASES.
IX. LAMENTS THE VOLATILITY OF PHAON.
X. DESCRIBES PHAON.
XI. REJECTS THE INFLUENCE OF REASON.
XII. PREVIOUS TO HER INTERVIEW WITH PHAON.
XIII. SHE ENDEAVOURS TO FASCINATE HIM.
XIV. TO THE AEOLIAN HARP.
XV. PHAON AWAKES.
XVI. SAPPHO REJECTS HOPE.
XVII. THE TYRANNY OF LOVE.
XVIII. TO PHAON.
XIX. SUSPECTS HIS CONSTANCY.
XX. TO PHAON.
XXI. LAMENTS HER EARLY MISFORTUNES.
XXII. PHAON FORSAKES HER.
XXIII. SAPPHO’S CONJECTURES.
XXIV. HER ADDRESS TO THE MOON.
XXV. TO PHAON.
XXVI. CONTEMNS PHILOSOPHY.
XXVII. SAPPHO’S ADDRESS TO THE STARS.
XXVIII. DESCRIBES THE FASCINATIONS OF LOVE.
XXIX. DETERMINES TO FOLLOW PHAON.
XXX. BIDS FAREWELL TO LESBOS.
XXXI. DESCRIBES HER BARK.
XXXII. DREAMS OF A RIVAL.
XXXIII. REACHES SICILY.
XXXIV. SAPPHO’S PRAYER TO VENUS.
XXXV. REPROACHES PHAON.
XXXVI. HER CONFIRMED DESPAIR.
XXXVII. FORESEES HER DEATH.
XXXVIII. TO A SIGH.
XXXIX. TO THE MUSES.
XL. VISIONS APPEAR TO HER IN A DREAM.
XLI. RESOLVES TO TAKE THE LEAP OF LEUCATA.
XLII. HER LAST APPEAL TO PHAON.
XLIII. HER REFLECTIONS ON THE LEUCADIAN ROCK BEFORE SHE PERISHES.
XLIV. SONNECT CONCLUSIVE
ALL ALONE.
THE MISTLETOE.
THE POOR, SINGING DAME.
MISTRESS GURTON’S CAT.
THE LASCAR.
THE WIDOW’S HOME.
THE SHEPHERD’S DOG.
THE FUGITIVE.
THE HAUNTED BEACH.
OLD BARNARD,
THE HERMIT OF MONT‐BLANC.
DEBORAH’S PARROT,
THE NEGRO GIRL.
THE TRUMPETER.
THE DESERTED COTTAGE.
THE FORTUNE‐TELLER,
POOR MARGUERITE.
THE CONFESSOR,
EDMUND’S WEDDING.
THE ALIEN BOY.
THE GRANNY GREY.
GOLFRE
GOLFRE PART I.
GOLFRE PART II.
GOLFRE PART III.
GOLFRE PART IV.
GOLFRE PART V.
TALES.
FUGITIVE PIECES.
ANACREONTIC.
FAIRY VISIONS.
ADDENDA.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
A CHARACTER.
A CHARACTER.
A CHARACTER.
A PASTORAL ELEGY.
A SONG.
ABSENCE.
ACCOUNT OF SAPPHO.
ADDENDA.
ADVERTISEMENT.
AINSI VA LE MONDE.
ALL ALONE.
AN EPISTLE TO A FRIEND.
AN ODE TO CHARITY.
AN ODE TO CONTENTMENT.
AN ODE TO WISDOM.
ANACREONTIC.
ANOTHER.
A PASTORAL BALLAD.
CANZONET.
CAPTIVITY.
CELADON AND LYDIA.
CUPID SLEEPING.
DEBORAH’S PARROT,
DEDICATION TO HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE.
DEDICATION.
ECHO TO HIM WHO COMPLAINS.
EDMUND’S WEDDING.
ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF LADY MIDDLETON.
ELEGY TO THE MEMORY OF DAVID GARRICK, ESQ.
ELEGY TO THE MEMORY OF RICHARD BOYLE, ESQ. *
ELEGY TO THE MEMORY OF WERTER.
FAIRY VISIONS.
FUGITIVE PIECES.
GOLFRE
GOLFRE PART I.
GOLFRE PART II.
GOLFRE PART III.
GOLFRE PART IV.
GOLFRE PART V.
HYMN TO VIRTUE.
I. INTRODUCTORY.
II. THE TEMPLE OF CHASTITY.
III. THE BOWER OF PLEASURE.
INSCRIBED TO COLONEL BANASTRE TARLETON.
IV. SAPPHO DISCOVERS
HER PASSION.
IX. LAMENTS THE VOLATILITY OF PHAON.
LETTER TO A FRIEND ON LEAVING TOWN.
LEWIN AND GYNNETH.
LIFE.
LINES INSCRIBED TO P. DE LOUTHERBOURG, ESQ. R. A.
LINES ON HEARING IT DECLARED TAHT NO WOMEN WERE SO HANDSOME AS THE ENGLISH.
LINES TO HIM WHO WILL UNDERSTAND THEM.
LINES TO THE MEMORY OF RICHARD BOYLE, ESQ. SON OF MRS. WALSINGHAM.
LINES WRITTEN BY THE SIDE OF A RIVER.
LINES WRITTEN ON THE SEA-COAST.
MISTRESS GURTON’S CAT.
MONODY TO THE MEMORY OF CHATTERTON.
MONODY TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE QUEEN OF FRANCE.
MORNING.
OBERON TO THE QUEEN OF THE FAIRIES.
ODE ON ADVERSITY.
ODE TO BEAUTY.
ODE TO DELLA CRUSCA.
ODE TO DESPAIR.
ODE TO ELOQUENCE.
ODE TO ENVY.
ODE TO HEALTH.
ODE TO MEDITATION.
ODE TO MELANCHOLY.
ODE TO REFLECTION.
ODE TO SPRING.
ODE TO THE MOON.
ODE TO THE MUSE.
ODE TO THE NIGHTINGALE.
ODE TO VALOUR.
ODE TO VANITY.
ODE TO VIRTUE.
OLD BARNARD,
ON A FRIEND.
ON THE BIRTH-DAY OF A LADY.
ON THE DEATH OF A FRIEND.
ON THE DEATH OF LORD GEORGE LYTTELTON.
PART THE SECOND.
PASTORAL STANZAS.
PASTORAL STANZAS.
PETRARCH TO LAURA.
POOR MARGUERITE.
PREFACE.
RINALDO TO LAURA MARIA.
SECOND ODE TO THE NIGHTINGALE.
SIGHT.
SIR RAYMOND OF THE CASTLE.
SOLITUDE.
SONG.
SONG.
SONNET INSCRIBED TO HER GRACE THE DUTCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE.
SONNET TO AMICUS. †
SONNET TO EVENING.
SONNET TO INGRATITUDE.
SONNET TO MY BELOVED DAUGHTER.
SONNET TO THE MEMORY OF MISS MARIA LINLEY.
SONNET WRITTEN AMONG THE RUINS OF AN ANCIENT CASTLE IN GERMANY, IN THE YEAR 1786.
SONNET.
SONNET.
SONNET.
SONNET.
SONNET. THE MARINER.
SONNET. THE PEASANT.
SONNET. THE SNOW DROP.
SONNET. THE TEAR.
STANZAS INSCRIBED TO LADY WILLIAM RUSSELL.
STANZAS TO A FRIEND.
STANZAS TO FLORA.
STANZAS TO LOVE.
STANZAS TO THE ROSE.
STANZAS TO TIME.
STANZAS WRITTEN UNDER AN OAK IN WINDSOR FOREST, BEARING THE FOLLOWING INSCRIPTION.
STANZAS.
STANZAS.
SUBSCRIBERS.
TALES.
THE ADIEU TO LOVE.
THE ALIEN BOY.
THE BEE AND THE BUTTERFLY.
THE CAVERN OF WOE.
THE COMPLAINT.
THE CONFESSOR,
THE DESERTED COTTAGE.
THE FADED BOUQUET.
THE FORTUNE‐TELLER,
THE FUGITIVE.
THE GRANNY GREY.
THE HAUNTED BEACH.
THE HERMIT OF MONT‐BLANC.
THE LASCAR.
THE LINNET’S PETITION.
THE MISTLETOE.
THE NEGRO GIRL.
THE ORIGIN OF CUPID.
THE POOR, SINGING DAME.
THE REPLY TO TIME.
THE SHEPHERD’S DOG.
THE TRUMPETER.
THE VISION.
THE WIDOW’S HOME.
THE WISH.
THOUGHTS ON RETIREMENT.
TO AURELIA ON HER GOING ABROAD.
TO CESARIO.
TO LEONARDO.
TO LOVE: WRITTEN EXTEMPORE.
TO MATILDA.
TO RINALDO.
TO SIMPLICITY.
TO THE MUSE OF POETRY.
TO THE MYRTLE.
V. CONTEMNS ITS POWER.
VI. DESCRIBES THE CHARACTERISTICS OF LOVE.
VII. INVOKES REASON.
VIII. HER PASSION INCREASES.
WRITTEN EXTEMPORE ON THE PICTURE OF A FRIEND.
WRITTEN ON THE OUTSIDE OF AN HERMITAGE.
X. DESCRIBES PHAON.
XI. REJECTS THE INFLUENCE OF REASON.
XII. PREVIOUS TO HER INTERVIEW WITH PHAON.
XIII. SHE ENDEAVOURS TO FASCINATE HIM.
XIV. TO THE AEOLIAN HARP.
XIX. SUSPECTS HIS CONSTANCY.
XL. VISIONS APPEAR TO HER IN A DREAM.
XLI. RESOLVES TO TAKE THE LEAP OF LEUCATA.
XLII. HER LAST APPEAL TO PHAON.
XLIII. HER REFLECTIONS ON THE LEUCADIAN ROCK BEFORE SHE PERISHES.
XLIV. SONNECT CONCLUSIVE
XV. PHAON AWAKES.
XVI. SAPPHO REJECTS HOPE.
XVII. THE TYRANNY OF LOVE.
XVIII. TO PHAON.
XX. TO PHAON.
XXI. LAMENTS HER EARLY MISFORTUNES.
XXII. PHAON FORSAKES HER.
XXIII. SAPPHO’S CONJECTURES.
XXIV. HER ADDRESS TO THE MOON.
XXIX. DETERMINES TO FOLLOW PHAON.
XXV. TO PHAON.
XXVI. CONTEMNS PHILOSOPHY.
XXVII. SAPPHO’S ADDRESS TO THE STARS.
XXVIII. DESCRIBES THE FASCINATIONS OF LOVE.
XXX. BIDS FAREWELL TO LESBOS.
XXXI. DESCRIBES HER BARK.
XXXII. DREAMS OF A RIVAL.
XXXIII. REACHES SICILY.
XXXIV. SAPPHO’S PRAYER TO VENUS.
XXXIX. TO THE MUSES.
XXXV. REPROACHES PHAON.
XXXVI. HER CONFIRMED DESPAIR.
XXXVII. FORESEES HER DEATH.
XXXVIII. TO A SIGH.
The Non-Fiction
Fleet Prison, c. 1808 — in 1775 Robinson’s husband was imprisoned for debt in the Fleet Prison, where she lived with him for many months. It was here that Robinson’s literary career began, when she found that she could publish poetry to earn money and to give her an escape from the harsh reality that had become her life.
A Letter to the Women of England, on the Injustice of Mental Subordination
CONTENTS
A LETTER TO THE WOMEN OF ENGLAND, ON THE INJUSTICE OF MENTAL SUBORDINATION
LIST OF BRITISH FEMALE LITERARY CHARACTERS LIVING IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
“Wherefore are we
“Born with high Souls, but to assert ourselves?”
Rowe.
A LETTER TO THE WOMEN OF ENGLAND, ON THE INJUSTICE OF MENTAL SUBORDINATION
Custom, from the earliest periods of antiquity, has endeavoured to place the female mind in the subordinate ranks of intellectual sociability. WOMAN has ever been considered as a lovely and fascinating part of the creation, but her claims to mental equality have not only been questioned, by envious and interested sceptics; but, by a barbarous policy in the other sex, considerably depressed, for want of liberal and classical cultivation. I will not expatiate largely on the doctrines of certain philosophical sensualists, who have aided in this destructive oppression, because an illustrious British female, (whose death has not been sufficiently lamented, but to whose genius posterity will render justice) has already written volumes in vindication of “The Rights of Woman.” But I shall endeavour to prove that, under the present state of mental subordination, universal knowledge is not only benumbed and blighted, but true happiness, originating in enlightened manners, retarded in its progress. Let WOMAN once assert her proper sphere, unshackled by prejudice, and unsophisticated by vanity; and pride, (the noblest species of pride,) will establish her claims to the participation of power, both mentally and corporeally.
In order that this letter may be clearly understood, I shall proceed to prove my assertion in the strongest, but most undecorated language. I shall remind my enlightened country-
women that they are not the mere appendages of domestic life, but the partners, the equal associates of man: and, where they excel in intellectual powers, they are no less capable of all that prejudice and custom have united in attributing, exclusively, to the thinking faculties of man. I argue thus, and my assertions are incontrovertible.
Supposing that destiny, or interest, or chance, or what you will, has united a man, confessedly of a weak understanding, and corporeal debility, to a woman strong in all the powers of intellect, and capable of bearing the fatigues of busy life: is it not degrading to humanity that such a woman should be the passive, the obedient slave, of such an husband? Is it not repugnant to all the laws of nature, that her feelings, actions, and opinions, should be controuled, perverted, and debased, by such an help-mate? Can she look for protection to a being, whom she was formed by the all wise CREATOR, to protect? Impossible, yet, if from prudence, or from pity, if for the security of worldly interest, or worldly happiness, she presumes to take a lead in domestic arrangements, or to screen her wedded shadow from obloquy or ruin, what is she considered by the imperious sex? but an usurper of her husband’s rights; a domestic tyrant; a vindictive shrew; a petticoat philosopher; and a disgrace to that race of mortals, known by the degrading appellation of the defenceless sex.
The barbarity of custom’s law in this enlightened country, has long been exercised to the prejudice of woman: and even the laws of honour have been perverted to oppress her. If a man receive an insult, he is justified in seeking retribution. He may chastise, challenge, and even destroy his adversary. Such a proceeding in MAN is termed honourable; his character is exonerated from the stigma which calumny attached to it; and his courage rises in estimation, in proportion as it exemplifies his revenge. But were a WOMAN to attempt such an expedient, however strong her sense of injury, however invincible her fortitude, or important the preservation of character, she would be deemed a murdress. Thus, custom says, you must be free from error; you must possess an unsullied fame: yet, if a slanderer, or a libertine, even by the most unpardonable falshoods, deprive you of either reputation or repose, you have no remedy. He is received in the most fastidious societies, in the cabinets of nobles, at the toilettes of coquets and prudes, while you must bear your load of obloquy, and sink beneath the uniting efforts of calumny, ridicule, and malevolence. Indeed we have scarcely seen a single instance where a professed libertine has been either shunned by women, or reprobated by men, for having acted either unfeelingly or dishonorably towards what is denominated the defenceless sex. Females, by this misjudging lenity, while they give proofs of a degrading triumph, cherish for themselves that anguish, which, in their turn, they will, unpitied, experience.
Man is able to bear the temptations of human existence better than woman, because he is more liberally educated, and more universally acquainted with society. Yet, if he has the temerity to annihilate the bonds of moral and domestic life, he is acquitted; and his enormities are placed to the account of human frailty. But if WOMAN advance beyond the boundaries of decorum,
Collected Poetical Works of Mary Robinson Page 48