Who were the women poets of the eighteenth century? This anthology presents writings by more than a hundred women, few of which have been published in conventional surveys and anthologies of eighteenth-century verse. Unlike the women who wrote fiction, the vast majority who wrote verse have been ignored and forgotten since their own day. Lonsdale's collection represents a diverse group of female poets from washerwomen to duchesses whose writings began mostly at home as informal and unpretentious verse. As they grew in number and confidence, the women began writing in a great variety of poetic forms and on public as well as private topics, eventually finding their way into print. The collection brings to light the vigor and immediacy with which women poets spoke--from the resentful and melancholic to the humorous and exuberant--about town and country, and love and marriage, opening a new perspective on their age and providing the grounds for a reassessment of a neglected aspect of literature.