ABSTRACT
Why did Anne Vaughan Lock respond to the Petrarchan tradition in a sonnet sequence, probably the first in English, meditating on Psalm 51? Why did the Countess of Pembroke compose 126 different verse forms - including quantitative verse, two sonnet forms, ottava rima, rime royal, and some highly original verse patterns - to paraphrase the Psalms? What sustained these women as they began writing poetic forms never before attempted by an English woman?
