'January 1795' - Mary Robinson

‘Lofty mansions, warm and spacious;

Courtiers cringing and voracious;
Misers scarce the wretched heeding;
Gallant soldier fighting, bleeding.’

January 1795

Mary Robinson

It’s another less-than-catchy title, I know, but in fact it is a very accurate description of the content of the poem.  English society at the start of 1795: that is exactly what this poem gives you.  Not just the frozen snapshots of architecture and furniture that we glimpse in museums and art galleries today (fascinating and useful though they are).  This is a poem about activity, about living people, inhabiting a diverse and industrious world.  The power of this poem, for me, comes from Robinson’s consistent use of active verbs throughout (the words ending in ‘-ing’).  There is no single story to this poem; rather it is a long description of action, a collage of moving images.

Still more fascinating is the life of Mary Robinson herself.  Actress, poet, society girl and royal mistress, reading through the biography of her life on the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is a bit like reading a novel.  By the time she wrote this poem in 1795, she was nearing the end of her life (she died in 1800), yet her artistic appreciation for detail, and her capacity for satiric observation, remains acute.  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (a major figure in the romanticist movement of poetry, whose work will certainly feature in a later post!!) described her as ‘a woman of undoubted Genius’. 

I enjoyed this poem so much, that I thought I would use it to test a new idea for showcasing featured poems.  It’s great to read poetry on the page, but it’s also important to remember that eighteenth-century poetry in particular was often intended to be read aloud.  As my computer demonstrated a profound reluctance to upload only an audio file, this will run as a video, but there are no visuals.  Just sit back, close your eyes, and step into the eighteenth-century:

 

 

Happy reading! (and, hopefully, listening!)

Feel free to ask questions and leave comments!

NB after initial problems with the video element I have made some technical adjustments, and it should now work fine!  If not, do please let me know!

You can find this poem:

 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174252

(Poetry Foundation: an excellent source of free poetry, and also the text used for my reading)

You can find out more about Mary Robinson:

http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/9780007164592/perdita

(A biography of Robinson’s life by Paula Jane Byrne.  I discovered this myself whilst writing this blogpost, and (having read some of Paula’s other books) I might now have to visit a bookshop… As always, check Amazon/Ebay etc for cheaper options or secondhand copies.  Also, don't let the title confuse you: Perdita was a sort of pseudonym for Robinson throughout her relationship with the prince who would become King George IV)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Robinson_(poet)

Wikipedia!!

http://www.janeausten.co.uk/mary-robinson-a-life-lived-extraordinarily/

(another interesting blog article about the scandalous Mary Robinson)

The Coleridge quotation was taken from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for Mary Robinson.  I’ve included the link below, but sadly only those who have a registered account with the site can access this information:
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23857?docPos=3