Chapter 5

Stuart’s Laureates II:

A Woman of Undoubted Genius

She is a woman of undoubted Genius. There was a poem of her’s

[sic] in this Morning’s paper which both in metre and matter

pleased me much—She overloads every thing; but I never knew

a human Being with so full a mind—bad, good, & indifferent, I

grant you, but full, & overflowing.

—S.T. Coleridge to Robert Southey,

25 Jan. 1800 (Letters 1: 562)

If you have read anything about Mary Robinson’s poetry, you

know that Coleridge praised her as “a woman of undoubted

Genius.” I probably have reiterated Coleridge’s phrase at some

point during every presentation I have given on Robinson’s poetry.

Indeed, Coleridge’s assessment of Robinson’s genius has gov-

erned my approach to Robinson since I began reading her poetry.

Contemporary critics, friends, and associates frequently hailed

Robinson’s “genius,” so much so that it seems like an obligatory

gesture. Coleridge’s praise, however, is firmly connected to her for-

mal choices. In an important way, this book is predicated upon the

assertion of poetic form as a palpable manifestation of Robinson’s

genius, as Coleridge asserts.

Although from several years later, Joseph Collier’s record of

Coleridge’s distinction between “talent” and “genius” is relevant here

because it provides insight into the basis of Coleridge’s assessment

of Robinson’s poetry. According to Collier, Coleridge considered

9780230100251_07_ch05.indd 1979780230100251_07_ch05.indd 197 12/28/2010 11:09:01 AM12/28/2010 11:09:01 AM

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

Cop

yright material fr

om www

.palgra

veconnect.com - licensed to Univer

sitetsbib

lioteket i

Tr

omso - P

algra

veConnect - 2011-04-13