[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.
I
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
II
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 25th 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.]
The Selected Poems of Mary Robinson is now out from Shearsman – edited by me!
Publisher’s details HERE: Mary Robinson - Selected Poems (shearsman.com)
The publisher's sample of the book may be read here: mary-robinson-selected-poems-sampler.pdf (cdn-website.com)
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).
*
Locating Robert Sheppard: email: robertsheppard39@gmail.com website: www.robertsheppard.weebly.com Follow on Twitter: Robert Sheppard (@microbius) /
Twitter latest blogpost: www.robertsheppard.blogspot.com
