The Poetry of Mary Robinson: Form and Fame

50 The Poetry of Mary Robinson

of the World as an homage to Andrews and as an indication of

her desire to join the Della Crusca network. Moreover, by assum-

ing the sobriquet Andrews gives to Yates as well as the name of

Petrarch’s deceased beloved, Robinson asserts her survival in the

figurative killing of her past self, Perdita.

Robinson’s second appearance as Laura in the World likely also

derived from her reading of Topham and Bell’s anthology. “To Him

Who Will Understand It” appeared 31 October 1788, with the Laura

signature; its title recalls Arley’s “Elegy. To the Lady Who Will Best

Remember It,” which first appeared on 2 October 1787 and which

appeared in The Poetry of the World (2: 57–9). Robinson wrote the

poem almost certainly after her return to England. The Memoirs pro-

vide an account of the poem’s composition as an impromptu social

performance:

Conversing one evening with Mr. R ichard Burke, respecting the facil-

ity with which modern poetry was composed, Mrs. Robinson repeated

nearly the whole of those beautiful lines, which were afterwards given

to the public, addressed – “To him who will understand them.”... This

improvisatoré produced in her auditor not less surprise than admira-

tion, when solemnly assured by its author, that this was the first time

of its being repeated. (7: 276–8)

Although biographers tend to see this widely reprinted poem as a

doleful address to Tarleton, which it partly is, this account certainly

emphasizes the playful spontaneity that is apparent in the poem.^16

What poets are more likely to have inspired the subject of conversa-

tion, the “facility” of “modern poetry,” than Della Crusca and Anna

Matilda? Robinson’s improvisation is a pretty vigorous pastiche, if

not all- out parody, of Della Crusca and Anna Matilda’s style, down

to the octosyllabic couplets that most frequently characterize their

poetic exchanges. It has all the requisite expressions and tropes of

popular culture—the farewell to England, the “mournful Philomel,”

the arduous escape from heartbreak, and the refuge in, of all places,

Italy. Like Merry’s “Adieu and Recall to Love,” her ironic renuncia-

tion of passion and its “throbbing Pulses” playfully emphasizes the

throbbing:

Nor will I cast one thought behind,

On Foes relentless—Friends unkind;—

I feel, I feel their poison’d Dart

Pierce the Life Nerve within my Heart,

‘Tis mingled with the Vital Heat

9780230100251_03_ch01.indd 509780230100251_03_ch01.indd 50 12/31/2010 4:20:15 PM12/31/2010 4:20:15 PM

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