Pages: Selecting for a Selected: The Poems of Mary Robinson 3 (possible contents)

Tuesday, May 02, 2023

Selecting for a Selected: The Poems of Mary Robinson 3 (possible contents)

[Here's the Mary Robinson hub-post, with more links than on this page: Pages: Selecting for a Selected: The Poems of Mary Robinson 1 (robertsheppard.blogspot.com)]

This is a bit of a niche post, being the long list for selection from Mary Robinson’s work for the ‘selected poems’ I’m working on. While I was typing it, it occurred to me that it seemed prudent to divide the book into three parts. (Though actually ‘Sappho and Phaon’ of itself divides it into 3 parts, but this helps me think through periodisation, before and after, early and late, when that is only covering the period of Robinson's last decade of frenetic literary activity.) The poems are not particularly in order at the moment, within their parts, but I’ve adjusted it a little, so I'm getting there. I may even be there. I am also aware that this is ‘a long list’ in the sense that I might have to deselect some of these poems (even though I have a couple of reserves lined up too, should luck (space!) go the other way). I write about the problem of selection here:Pages: Selecting for a Selected: The Poems of Mary Robinson 1 (robertsheppard.blogspot.com) . Below you will see the titles of poems, their positions in the three volumes I’m using (see bibliography) marked: volume/page number, and a rough year of writing or publication. I’ve erased a few notes to self.

Ode (epigram for title page): verse 1. 1/81 1788: this sums up quite a lot of her work.

To Pope’s Oak 2.207 1791

Lines to Him who Will Understand Them 2.218 1788

Lines Inscribed to P. De Loutherbourg, Esq. R.A. 1.237 1791

From Ainsi Va Le Monde 1.15 1791 pp. 18 / 23-27

Marie Antoinette’s Lamentation in her Prison of the Temple 2.304 1791

Stanzas Written Between Dover and Calais, in July 1792. 2.321

Lines to Maria, My Beloved Daughter 2.277 1793 (this has been de-selected!)

The Maniac (?) 2.298 1793

Stanzas to a Friend Who Wished to Have my Portrait 3. 303 1793 (1800 version?)

The Birth-Day 2.338 1795

Sappho and Phaon: In a series of Legitimate Sonnets (entire) 3.64 1796

III

Ode to the Snow-Drop 1.123 1797

Ode Inscribed to the Infant Son of S.T. Coleridge, Esq. 1.221 1800

To the Poet Coleridge 1.226 1800

The Haunted Beach 2.106 1800

The Savage of Aveyron 2.1. 1800 ish

The Negro Girl 2.170 1796 (Is that the date of the earlier version? Re-written for 1800/1806)

All Alone 2. 93 1800

Old Barnard: A Monkish Tale 2.100 1800

The Fortune Teller: A Gypsy Tale 3.153 1800

Deborah’s Parrot: A Village Tale 2. 155 1800 OR Mistress Gurton’s Cat: A Domestic Tale 2.127 1800 (two comic poems; I feel one would suffice).

The Alien Boy 3.177 1800

London’s Summer Morning 3.223 1800

The Poet’s Garrett 3.233 1800

Male Fashions for 1799 3.297

From The Progress of Liberty 3: 27-31/46-52 late 1790s.

Written on seeing a rose still blooming at a Cottage Door on Egham Hill, the 25^th of October, 1800. 2.225

To Spring: Written after a Winter of Ill Health in the Year 1800. 2, 368

[Bubbling below for inclusion in part III are Granny Grey and The Fugitive! to join other narrative poems above from Lyrical Tales (see image above), that is: The Negro Girl to The Alien Boy.]

Bibliography

Robinson, Mary. The Poetical Works of the Late Mrs. Mary Robinson, Volume 1. London: Richard Phillips, 1806; Forgotten Books facsimile reprint; London, 2018.

Robinson, Mary. The Poetical Works of the Late Mrs. Mary Robinson, Volume 2. London: Richard Phillips, 1806; Scholar Select facsimile reprint; np: nd.

Robinson, Mary. The Poetical Works of the Late Mrs. Mary Robinson, Volume 3. London: Richard Phillips, 1806; facsimile reprint; Miami: nd (possibly 2008)

My ‘Life’ of Mary Robinson may be read here: Pages: Selecting for a Selected: The Poems of Mary Robinson 2: The Life of Mary Robinson (robertsheppard.blogspot.com)

This project came out of my own use of Robinson’s sonnets ‘Sappho and Phaon’ (now the whole of section II) for my ‘English Strain’ project, which I explain here: Pages: My 'Tabitha and Thunderer' is published in Blackbox Manifold (robertsheppard.blogspot.com), and here, where you will also find lots of images relating to her life: Pages: My Transpositions of Mary Robinson's sonnets 'Tabitha and Thunderer' are now complete (hub post) (robertsheppard.blogspot.com).