Lady Mary Wortley Montagu remains best known for her letters, but she was an accomplished poet, chiefly in shorter forms where she was able to utilise her talent for witty social observation. Several of her works were published in Robert Dodsley’s famous

in 1748, and the

reprinted some in the following year. However, she created the biggest splash with her poems in 1716, when she was barely twenty-seven. This came with the inclusion of three urban pastorals in a volume issued by Edmund Curll under the title of

. These represented only half of a series that Lady Mary had composed over the previous year. The group did not appear in its entirety until Horace Walpole arranged for the publication of

in 1747.

For

1487 words

Citation: Rogers, Pat. "Town Eclogues". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 November 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8417, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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