Some Conclusions

1781 portrait of Robinson by George Romney.

Lyrical Tales, like Robinson body of work as a whole, engages with several modes of representation in the interest of garnering commercial success, earning artistic approbation, and expressing her social and political ideals. In the wake of the Reign of Terror and the Della Cruscans' plunge into disrepute, she is able to re-invent herself one more time, managing the difficult trick of aligning herself with what will never quite be a unified movement.  Especially with some judicious selection for the major anthologies, her work in the collection can be easily incorporated into the canon of early English Romanticism. But in accomplishing this redress of past injustice, too often the aspects that made Robinson's position unique and illustrative of a particular historical-cultural moment are shunted aside. Rather than thinking of the poets of sensibility primarily as Romantic precursors, we must consider their work in its own right, emerging out of a complex discursive field and the varied intentions of writers and publishers. Often, it is useful to focus on the aspects of their work that are at odds with the more famous poets of late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century, without echoing those writers' dismissals of what may seem to be "slight" and "minor" works. In Robinson's case, this means reconciling a vast array of tones and subjects, tied together by often subtle nods to her larger purposes. What we gain from this is a greater awareness of "sensibility" and "Romanticism" as themselves "poetical disguises": sets of rhetorical and stylistic maneuvers setting forth certain ideological agendas. A poet like Robinson reveals the degree to which sensibility and Romanticism are slightly different points on the same continuum, and the role-playing that is essential to each.