THE Muse, of ev'ry heav'nly gift allow'd

Title:

To Mr. POPE, By The Right Honourable ANNE Countess of Winchelsea

Primary Text:

No MS; 1717 Mr Pope's Works, unpaginated introductory material.

Secondary Ed:

Rpt of 1717 Pope's Works: 1903 Reynolds, 103-5.

18C:

1727 Pope-Swift, Miscellanies; 1732, Pope, Miscellanies.

Comment:

Graceful if dull compliment. She says "Me panegyric verse does not inspire." The problem may be that she is too inhibited openly to praise his satire except through fables like "The Mastiff and the Curs".

Finch describes the kinds and refers specifically to several of the poems this book, and says he wanted her which appeared in Pope's book; those should be his "heralds" who "strive for you as Greece for Homer strove" (she is no Fenton; she knows no Latin or Greek); he wanted laudatory poems in the front of his book so other poets could be compared to him to his advantage ("for comparison you placed them there"); her final line also suggests she was reluctant to participate: "'Tis not from friends that write, or foes that read;/Censure or praise must from ourselves proceed." Nonetheless, the existence of this poem and the publication of Anne's poetry in Pope's 1717 anonymous volume shows a friendship between the poets in the later 1710s.

Date:

This poem was written with Pope's 1717 Works (published 3 June 1717) in mind.
Home
Contact Ellen Moody.
Pagemaster: Jim Moody.
Page Last Updated 8 January 2003