Romantic Women Poets: An Anthology

This anthology covers around two dozen women poets including Hannah More, Mary Robinson, Ann Radcliffe, Caroline Lamb, Felicia Hemans and Charlotte Smith as well as somewhat lesser known names, all of whom were writing in the last part of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries. Each is given a short biographical introduction which is followed by examples of her work. Some of these examples are in fact excerpts, and quite lengthy excerpts, from what must be an interminably long original.

One has to say at the outset that the quality of the poetry is very variable,...