Ann Yearsley | Biography

Of all the plebeian female poets of the eighteenth century, Ann Yearsley, the "milkwoman of Bristol," most repays detailed historical study. Her sizable oeuvre, competence across genres, and varied contemporary critical reception give her a strong claim on literary importance as traditionally understood. One can also trace the development of her ideas in relation to political and social events, her increasing radicalization during the French Revolution and its English reception, and her enigmatic but perhaps suggestive silence after 1796. Though she wrote at least one play, Earl Goodwin (1791), and a novel, The Royal Captives (1795), poetry remained Yearsley's primary medium from her first volume in 1785 to her last in 1796. Yearsley's poetical production is best represented by her three major collections of verse; by a minor volume, Stanzas of Woe (1790); and by several singly issued occasional poems, usually of urgently topical significance. If Poems, on Several Occasions...
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