ABSTRACT
In reworking both social and literary conventions through her lyrics, Trapnel is not alone as a seventeenth-century woman poet. This book examines the works of several women poets who similarly insert their revisions simultaneously into the social and literary realms. The poets' works occupied diverse social stations in a very hierarchical society, had disparate educational backgrounds, and did not necessarily share one another’s values and beliefs. Like the poets themselves, their lyrics differ from each other greatly; they vary significantly in technique, style, and purpose. Despite these many differences, however, these poets have something in common when they lay hands on the harp: their poetry becomes a form of resistance. The book examines how seventeenth-century women’s composition of lyrics intersects significantly with the social experiences of those women. It analyzes the widespread phenomenon of child loss poetry; the extemporaneous ballads, originally performed in public, of radical sectarian Anna Trapnel.
