1678 (ca.): the young Anne Kingsmill, perhaps before going to court, at Maidwell, Sydmonton, age 14-17:

1. I grant thee no pretence to Bays

1682, April - May 15, 1684: Anne Kingsmill, Maid of Honor to Mary of Modena at the Stuart court:

2. Here will I wait . . . I may grant

1683 - May 15, 1684:

3. Kinde bird, thy Praises, I designe,
4. The NYMPH whose Virgin-heart thy charms have taught

1683 - 1689: Anne Kingsmill becomes Colonel Finch's lady: Songs and Pastoral Play written while living in and near the Stuart Court:

5. Stay Lovely viper, hast not on
6. By love pursu'd, in vain I flye
7. Miranda hides her from the Sunne
8. Whilst Thirsis, in his Pride of Youth
9. The Pretious hours of flying Youth
10. Perswade me not, there is a grace
11. Vain Love, why dos't thou boast of wings
12. The Nymph in vain, bestows her Pains
13. Love, thou art best of humane Joys
14. Tis strange, this heart within my breast,
15. Bachus, to thee that turn'st the brain
16. If for a Woman I wou'd dye
17. Lett the Fool still be true
18. Wou'd we attain the happy'st State
19. Cease Mirtilla & c.
20. Strephon whose person ev'ry grace
21. Quickly Delia learn my passion
22. Witt as free and confin'd

From Tasso's Aminta, translated from 1681 bilingual text of Abbe de Torches: as Finch says in "The Preface," she attempted this play very early (perhaps when she retired from her position as lady-in-waiting, 1683); she rejected most of what she had written, but she did not discard it; she later revised what she had and as an afterthought inserted it into the Folger MS before the two original plays; I have listed the revised sections here because the texts represent revisions of very early poetry and because Anne's poetry makes more sense if read as translations from Tasso's texts (through the French) in the order they come in Tasso's play. This is in fact the order we find them in in the 1713 Miscellany (the last two mistakenly switched by the printer or compositor)

23. Then, to the snowy Ewe, in thy esteem
24. Thirsis, to thee I mean that Name to show
25. Why doest thou still give way to such dispair?
26. Then, by some fountain's flow'ry side
27. Though wee of Small Proportion see

1685, April 2, Westminster:

28. This to the Crown, and blessing of my Life

1685, August 17, Tunbridge Wells:

29. Daphnis no more your wishe repeat

1687 - 1688 (Anne looking forward to coming debacle):

30. See! Phoebus, breaking from the willing Skyes,
31. Though Caesar falling, shew'd no sign of fear
32. When Caesar fell, he brav'd each killing wound

1688, December 10 (immediately after Mary of Modena's flight, while life at court and all her early experiences as a maid of honor still vivid); this play (like Aristomenes in the second half of the 1690's) probably took several years to complete in the final polished form we find it in the MS Folger.

The Triumphs of Love and Innocence [Title changed from: Queen of Cypress; or Love Above ambition]:
Preface:
33. I having seen (out of the love of novelty) many Plays brought
Text:
34. [First line: Clarilla, where's the Queen?]
Songs:
35. All your sighs, to air are turning
36. Love, give thy traine of Slaves away

1688, December 31, Kirby, Northamptonshire:
37. When, dear Teresa, shall I be

1689:
38. No sooner Daphnis [1713: Flavio] was you gone

1689, July, Eastwell Park:
39. What Fate within itts Bosome carry's

1689, second half of the year (July 17th the day John Graham, of Claverhouse, 1s Viscount Dundee died at Battle of Killiecrankie):

40. It must not be nor can the grave
41. Proud Babylon, thou Saw'st us weep

1690, after April 29 (Heneage flees, Anne gone into hiding alone, living at Finch estates near Eastwell Park, Godmersham, Wye College, perhaps occasionally visiting her friend, Catherine Cavendish Tufton, Lady Thanet, at Hothfield, also nearby):

42. O King of Terrours, whose unbounded sway
43. She Sigh'd, but soon it mixt with common air
44. Oh grief, why hast thou so much pow'r

1690, October 21:
45. Sure of successe, to you I boldly write

1690, after May 2, and before August 1692 (death of Dorothy Ogle around August 2, date of her private will): Anne's solitude broken by visit of her sister; she writes a series of linked meditations on their conversation:

46. Hither, Ardelia I your Stepps Pursue
47. Thy workmanship, O Lord I am
48. Oh! Praise the Lord, and let his ffame be told
49. If all th'appointed dayes of man were fair
50. Welcome what e're my tender flesh may say
51. How weak is man, that would himself perswade,
52. Thus reason'd they said he, but not aright

1691 - 1696: Period of Heneage's and Anne's wanderings, one Eastertime, Anne's grief assuaged; perhaps in responses to services at Wye College or other cathedral:

53. Hark! sure I hear Urania play
54. Let no bold Pray'r presume to rise
55. Seraphick Sound! Eternal Praise

1693- 1694: Anne away from Heneage, perhaps for a time in London, perhaps at Eastwell or in some other social setting:

56. Blest be the Man (his memory at least)
57. For the soft Joys of Love no longer last
58. GROWN Old in Rhyme, 'twere barbarous to discard

1696 - 1700/1: Anne and Heneage still not settled permanently anywhere; perhaps the least hopeful period of their lives; although Ann says she wrote Aristomenes at Godsmersham, she probably simply began it there, and wrote it over the second half of the 1690's.

1696: Anne settled in, perhaps alone, pehaps with Heneage at Godmersham:

59. Good Heav'n, I thank thee, Since it was design'd
60. When Phoebus, at declining of the day
61. Poor River, now thou'rt almost dry
62. How far the sweets of Solitude excel
63. I've searcht the barren World, but cannot find
64. Double Allegiance, Lord, to thee I owe
65. The treach'rous Fortune of a Royal Crown
66. Sure there's a Zeal that's born of heav'nly Race,
67. Alas, I walk not out, but still I meet
68. All flie th'unhappy, and I all wou'd flie
69. If from some lonely and obscure recesse

Aristomenes, or, The Royal Shepheard.
Prologue:
70. When first upon the Stage a Play appears
Text:
71. [First line: Hast thou provided me a horse and arms]
Epilogue:
72. An Epilogue, after a tedious Play
Songs:
73. A yong shepheard his life
74. Wretched Amintor with a flame

75. 'Twas long debated, wheither to a Play
76. As Servile Preachers, who Preferment wait

1696, November 27 (afterwards, this is the day Sir William died):
77. Cou'd Rivers weep (as somtimes Poets dream)

1697, February: they are staying at Eastwell:
78. When from th'Infernal pitt two Furies rose

1697, Astrop Walks, one spring:
79. Say Lovely Nymph, where dost thou dwell?

80. Love, but lett this concern you most

1697 (after): the next three poems seem to be later than the previous of this era: the first two record the passage of time, the third has a reference which dates it later and it shows Finch trying a new hard form, the Cowleyan pindaric.

81. Now age came on and all the dismall traine
82. At last, my old invetrate foe
83. How vain is Life which rightly we compare

1699 - 1700:
84. Observe this Piece, which to our sight does bring