ABSTRACT
When attempting an estimate of the poetic achievements of Elizabeth Bentley, it is difficult to disagree with the judgement of the anonymous editor of the poet's debut volume. The vast majority of the mostly short poems in Bentley's published collections of verse strike the modern ear as thoroughly conventional in form and predictable in sentiment. The poem's uncharacteristic boldness seems enhanced by the knowledge that her patron, William Drake, the mp for Amersham, had voted against the abolition bill which was defeated in April 1791. In her autobiographical sketch, included in the 1791 edition, Bendey gives no details of her employment at this or any subsequent time, but it is difficult to envisage that her life was anything other than one of labour. Only the profits accrued from the 1,935 subscriptions to her debut volume enabled her to set up the school which she was running, when her next collection of verse appeared.
