The Poetry of Mary Robinson: Form and Fame

168 The Poetry of Mary Robinson

O’er them the rude Sea dashes, mix’d with gore;

The wild Winds howl in dreadful blasts along;

The sulphur show’rs, upon the high decks pour,

And livid lightnings f lash the wave among!

Here glare the PARENT, bleeding is his breast!

Here the lost HUSBAND falls, and, groaning, dies!

Here the lov’d SONS, the mother’s darlings, rest,

While o’er their mangled limbs the billows rise!

Are these forgot? – Oh NATURE! yet a while,

Shed the soft tear, and heave the tender sigh,

Suspend the shout of triumph! raptures smile!

And raise, in sorrow raise, the tearful eye.

Let Reason, Truth, R ELIGION’s pow’r divine!

Call to the feeling and ref lecting mind,

The many suff’rers who in anguish pine—

The SOLDIER’S, SAILOR’S kindred—left behind!

And while the long- drawn pompous Cavalcade

Bids clam’rous exultation lift the head;

Let mild HUMANITY the triumph aid,

And PITY’S tear embalm the sainted DEAD!

HUMANITAS.

Although nongendered, the signature suggests a voice not unlike

Robinson’s Portia. The Latin word humanitas means kindness and

is thus the root of humanitarian; it is also the term Cicero uses to

express the ideal human being (Grant 23). As Craciun was the first to

prove, this poem was indeed written by Robinson and was reprinted

as “Lines Written on a Day of Public Rejoicing!” in her 1806 Poetical

Works (British 79).^5 Although she never again used the signature, the

appearance of the poem by Robinson as Humanitas in December of

1797, shortly after the publication of Walsingham, places it among a

group of poems that signal her return to newspaper verse and a new

professional arrangement with Stuart at the Morning Post.

The Trouble with Tabitha Bramble

Robinson’s Humanitas poem coincides with the debut of her latest

a v a t a r —Ta b i t h a B r a m b l e , t h e m o s t v e x i n g o f t h e m a l l , w h i c h R o b i n s o n

used exclusively for the Morning Post. As the name suggests, this ava-

tar would seem to be an adaptation of the foolish, shrewish, hypocrit-

ically pious, middle- aged woman who narrowly escapes spinsterhood

from Smollett’s novel Humphry Clinker (1771). Robinson’s Tabitha

Bramble signature is best known in connection to a number of poems

9780230100251_06_ch04.indd 1689780230100251_06_ch04.indd 168 12/28/2010 11:08:51 AM12/28/2010 11:08:51 AM

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

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