Poems (1802)

Following the success of The Father and Daughter in 1801, which had included a number of poems to supplement the brief length of the tale, Opie released her first complete volume of poetry. She had attracted attention as a poet in the1790s with her song lyrics and occasional pieces published in periodicals, but came to broader critical interest in 1798 when a group of her poems included in Southey’s first Annual Anthology garnered favourable reviews from both radical and conservative journals. Poems was widely, and for the most part favourably, reviewed.

Contents

Sonnet to Winter
The Dying Daughter to her Mother
Allen Brooke of Windermere
The Maid of Corinth to her Lover
Song. “Bring the song, and join in chorus”
The Mourner
Another on the same subject
Elegiac Song, To the tune of ‘Ar hyd y nos.’
To the Glow‑worm
The Negro Boy’s Tale
Lines Written at Norwich on the First News of Peace
Lines for the Album at Cossey, The Seat of Sir William Jerningham, Bart.
Song …. to Laura
Song of a Hindustani Girl
Song. “Yes, Mary Anne, I freely grant”
Song. “A youth for Jane with ardour sighed”
A Mad‑Song
Song. “I once rejoiced, sweet evening Gale”
The Voice of Him I Love
The Complaint
Address of a Felon to his child on the Morning of his Execution Respectfully inscribed to the Philanthropic Society
The Virgin’s First Love
Stanzas written under Aeolus’s Harp
Consumption
Epigram on Reading the ‘Pleadings’ of Count Lally Tolendal for his Father the Late Count Lally
Lines addressed to Mr. Biggs on his having set the Mad‑Song, and My Love to War is Going
Fatherless Fanny, a Ballad
The Despairing Wanderer
The Orphan Boy’s Tale
Symptoms of Love. To Henry
Song. “Fond dream of love by love repaid”
Song. “Go youth beloved, in distant glades”
Sonnet. “How vain the task thy image to remove”
Song. “I know you false, I know you vain”
Lines respectfully inscribed to the Society for the Relief of Persons imprisoned for Small Debts
To Twilight
Epistle to a Friend, on New‑Year’s‑Day 1802
On reading, since the Duke of Bedford’s Death, Mr. Burke’s Letter Reflecting on his Grace