Mary Tighe

Mary Tighe: A Literary Woman

Mary Tighe was one of the few female poets whose work was able to enlighten the eighteenth century on the thoughts and feelings of a woman who has experienced adversity. She was born in Dublin, Ireland to Rev. William Blackford and Theodosia Tighe in 1772. Both parents were involved in the Methodist church and had a love for literature. Theodosia was adamant that her daughter study English, French, and Latin, therefore, Mary had a wide literary range and grew up very cultured. (“Mary Tighe”)

Mary was born in Ireland, and married her first cousin Henry Tighe. They spent their first eight years of marriage in London where Mary studied rigorously and furthered her religious learning. Henry loved her and he loved to show her off to his friends. He also got angry when Mary would talk to other people or hang out with other men, and she had a lot of pent up anger and frustration. According to her journals and conversations with her family, she never loved Henry at all (“Mary Tighe”). Although she never loved him, she was able to channel her love for him through writing a poem called “To My Loving Husband.” Readers may believe that this love was genuine, but she may have been embodying a loving wife to speak in her poem, although she herself was not loving. In 1801, Mary and Henry resettled in Ireland, and in 1804, Mary started to exhibit signs of tuberculosis but she kept writing. She decided not to publicize much of her writing but continued to write throughout her whole life. In March of 1810, Mary died and an unknown person released her writings after she passed (“Mary Tighe”).

Because Mary Tighe used her writing to survive and cope with various forms of adversity, I have decided to analyze a poem called “The Lily,” written in 1809. Although there is no date attached to the poem, I am assuming that she wrote it after she found out that she had tuberculosis. It carries many themes of death and dying, and at the very end, the speaker looks forward to the “Eternal springs” that heaven will bring (Tighe 44).

The premise of the poem is that the lily is hiding its beauty in the winter and the world cannot see its beauty until spring. She starts the poem with sad and lowly language. The first line is, “How wither’d, perish’d, seems the form” (Tighe 1). Starting in despair, the speaker captures the audience and creates a desire for relief from that despair, although the audience does not yet know what the despair is. There is great anticipation before the lily comes back to life in the spring because all life and beauty is restored. The contrast of winter and spring is completed with contrasting imagery as well. She writes in lines 32 and 33, “Unfold thy robes of purest white,/

Unsullied from their darksome grave” (Tighe 32-33). This contrast could have a spiritual meaning. Tighe was a rather religious woman and although life on earth for her could have been darkness, the eternal life she anticipated was light. This of course, is assuming that her poem revealed her own experience, thoughts, and feelings.

As a female writer in the 18th century with knowledge in multiple languages, Mary Tighe brought new sophistication to poetry. She experienced the challenge of being a female writer in the 18th century, but unlike other women of the time, she was highly educated and very cultured. She also experienced adversity like being married to a manipulative man and having a fatal illness. Each of these experiences shaped her writing to express challenges in a sophisticated and admirable way. She is the perfect voice to represent the 18th century and it is important to have more women represented among the male writers of the time.

Works Cited

Tighe, Mary. “The Lily.” Poem Hunter. 2 October 2010. Retrieved on 23 February 2020 from

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-lily-7/

“Tighe, Mary.” Romantic Circles. 2020. Retrieved on 23 February 2020 from

https://romantic-circles.org/person/tighe-mary

Tighe, Mary. “The Lily.” The Collected Poems and Journals of Mary Tighe. 2004.

Retrieved on 23 February 2020 from

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