Mary Monck - Verses Written on Her Death-bed at Bath

Hi everyone,

This is that article that questions whether or not the author had indeed written these verses 'at Bath' or if it was simply a logical assumption.  Indeed, the writer of this page questions whether Mary Monck was the poem's author at all, and for some very compelling reasons!  To begin with, remember that this poem is not a part of Marinda, nor is its style congruous with any other poem in that collection.

Look into it, but we really need to consider the following:

• If Mary Molesworth Monck wrote the poem then how is the tone of the poem affected, considering her failed marriage and her father's clearly negative view of female authorship?  (Verses could have been written at an earlier point in Monck's marriage, but still.)
• If someone else wrote the poem, how does that alter our interpretation of its tone?
• And regardless of authorship, what societal values and literary genre does the poem seem to embrace?

I would balance the cultural values of Monck's father against the narrator's choice to ignore the issue of social propriety in favour of simultaneously communicating joy of love and transcendence of sorrow.

I found another link describing Marinda's contents and origin with reasonable concision, despite the bulk of it quoting Monck's father.  Don't bother quoting it yourselves; focus on discerning the apparent worldview of men towards female authorship in the beginning of the 18th century.

Here is a small introduction to Monck.  Short read and helps solidify the views we've already discussed.

- T. Marcus