The Poetry of Mary Robinson: Form and Fame

152 The Poetry of Mary Robinson

to the Aspin Tree” (85–6), are in unique fixed lyric forms, Robinson

never again associates Sappho with the sonnet, legitimate or other-

wise. She did revive her Laura avatar directly to engage Petrarch and

to echo the theme of Sappho and Phaon—the destructive nature of

erotic passion. In “Sonnet. Laura to Petrarch,” which is appropri-

ately a legitimate one, Laura urges Petrarch to “check thy wand’rings,

weary and forlorn, / And find, in FRIENDSHIP’S balm, SICK PASSION’S

CURE” (2: 73; 13–4). After Sappho and Phaon, however, this son-

net is superf luous; Robinson likely wrote it to fulfill her two- poems-

per- week commitment. Fortunately, Robinson also understood that a

series of sonnets, however legitimate, advocating “friendship’s balm”

would be insipid. But this sonnet serves as a reminder that the poet

Mrs. Robinson, at least in her mind, had mastered both Petrarch and

Sappho.

9780230100251_05_ch03.indd 1529780230100251_05_ch03.indd 152 12/28/2010 11:08:43 AM12/28/2010 11:08:43 AM

10.1057/9780230118034 - The Poetry of Mary Robinson, Daniel Robinson

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