Reassessing Mary Tighe as a Lyrical and Political Poet: The Archival Discovery of Tighe's Verses Transcribed for H.T. (1805)

Abstract

This essay reassesses Mary Tighe as a political poet by examining the overtly political poems in her formerly unpublished two-volume illustrated manuscript collection Verses Transcribed for H.T. (1805), now available as an electronic edition at Romantic Circles. Prior to the publication of Verses, the only clearly political poems Tighe wrote appeared to be her famous ballad “Bryan Byrne, of Glenmalure” and “There Was a Young Lordling, Whose Wits Were All Toss'd Up”. Verses lyrics such as “Cleuen An Elegy”, “Written on the Acquittal of Hardy &c—Dec:r 1794”, “Song to My Harp 1798” or “Verses Written When a Detachment of Yeomen Were Sent Against the Rebel Army” reflect Tighe's larger engagement with national politics—notably, the 1794 Treason Trials, the 1798 Irish Rebellion and the 1801 Act of Union. They also encourage political readings of Tighe's seemingly apolitical poems, such as “Address to My Harp” or “La Cittadina”, whose title in Verses emphasizes the poem's references to the 1799 debates on the proposed Act of Union: “La Cittadina: Written Jany 1799”.