The Poetry of Mary Robinson: Form and Fame

224 The Poetry of Mary Robinson

supposed lover and fellow poet and countryman, Alcæus. If so,

Robinson rather implausibly appears as a blushing maiden, which may

have afforded readers some amusement at her expense; and Alcæus, or

Coleridge-Wordsworth, appears as her narcissistic lover attempting to

coax a smile of favor, after conspicuously drawing attention to other

visible signs of her desire for him. After remarking on her obvious pas-

sion and her physical beauty, the speaker concludes:

Then grant one smile, tho’ it should mean

A thing of doubtful birth;

That I may say these eyes have seen

The fairest face on earth! (Morning Post 24 November 1800)

Curiously, the smile he wants to claim is, “A thing of doubtful birth,”

a phrase that expresses his uncertainty of his deserving it or perhaps

the dubious value of a smile extorted by mere f lattery. As Ashley

Cross suggests, even though Wordsworth did not write the poem

with Robinson in mind, Coleridge’s appropriation of the poem trian-

gulates literary power and reputation among the three poets (“From

Lyrical Ballads” 587–9). Considering that Robinson was the chief

poetry contributor for the Morning Post at the time, the poem’s pub-

lication could just as easily have been the result of Stuart’s need for

poetry during Robinson’s illness, of Coleridge’s having some poems

handy, and of his concern that she would not survive this latest infir-

mity. “It grieves me to hear of poor Mrs Robinson’s illness,” he writes

to Stuart in the letter that includes “Alcæus to Sappho” (Letters 1:

629). Just prior to that he writes, “I shall fill up these Blanks with

a few Poems” for Stuart to print. Stuart was accustomed to having

two or three poems a week from Robinson, so he may have writ-

ten to Coleridge to request poems from him in her stead. “Alcæus

to Sappho” appeared on 24 November 1800, but Robinson had not

provided Stuart with any poems since “Written on Seeing a Rose Still

Blooming at a Cottage Door on Egham Hill, October 29, 1800”

appeared 4 November 1800. In this final poem for Stuart, Robinson

ref lects on her mortal persistence but inevitable decline, compar-

ing the still- blooming rose with her own “ling’ring form” (2: 145;

38). On 14 November, Stuart announced to his readers that “Mrs.

ROBINSON’S health is still precarious.” Certainly, Coleridge would

have known the lore of Alcæus’s supposed passion most famously

recounted by Addison, who describes Alcæus as “passionately in

Love” with Sappho and as determined to take the famous leap: in

Spectator 233 (27 November 1711), Addison writes, “hearing that

9780230100251_07_ch05.indd 2249780230100251_07_ch05.indd 224 12/28/2010 11:09:05 AM12/28/2010 11:09:05 AM

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

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