Mary Tighe

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Among the oeuvre of MT , Irish poet of the early nineteenth century, her long narrative allegory, Psyche, gives her a high place among the women Romantics. Her known oeuvre has excitingly expanded in recent years. She also kept a diary (now lost) and drafted a novel (unfinished).
Half-length stipple engraving of Mary Tighe by Edward Scriven, derived originally from a painting by George Romney,published 1812. Tighe is seated, with long, flowing, dark hair, a ribbon round her head, and a simple gown that crosses over at the bust.

Milestones

9 October 1772

Mary Blachford (later MT ) was born in Dublin, the second of two children in her family.
Feminist Companion Archive.
Tighe, Mary. “Introduction”. Verses Transcribed for H. T., edited by Harriet Kramer Linkin.

1801

MT began drafting her allegory in Spenserian stanzas, later titled Psyche, or the Legend of Love or simply Psyche.
Tighe, Mary. The Works of Mary Tighe, Published and Unpublished. Editor Henchy, Patrick, No. 6, Bibliographical Society of Ireland.
7

Christmas Eve 1804

MT wrote to her friend Joseph Cooper Walker that she had had a narrow escape: she had almost published Psyche, together with a volume of smaller poems (which must have been Verses Transcribed for H. T.), but had at the last moment decided not to.
Tighe, Mary. “Introduction”. Verses Transcribed for H. T., edited by Harriet Kramer Linkin.

By 24 July 1805

MT 's Psyche, or the Legend of Love was privately printed by J. Carpenter , London, with a run of fifty copies.
Tighe, Mary. The Works of Mary Tighe, Published and Unpublished. Editor Henchy, Patrick, No. 6, Bibliographical Society of Ireland.
7

Probably December 1809

MT wrote her final poem, On receiving a branch of mezereon. Which flowered at Woodstock. December 1809.
Mezereon is a shrub grown both for flowers and ornamental berries. Woodstock was the childhood home of Sarah Ponsonby .
Tighe, Mary. Keats and Mary Tighe. Editor Weller, Earle Vonard, Kraus Reprint Corporation.
307-10

24 March 1810

MT died of tuberculosis at Woodstock, Co. Kilkenny, her brother-in-law 's estate.
Shattock, Joanne. The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers. Oxford University Press.
426
Weller, Earle Vonard, and Mary Tighe. “Introduction / Memoir of Mary Tighe”. Keats and Mary Tighe, Kraus Reprint Corporation, p. vii - xxi.
xix
Tighe, Mary. Keats and Mary Tighe. Editor Weller, Earle Vonard, Kraus Reprint Corporation.
306, 311

Biography

Birth and Family

9 October 1772

Mary Blachford (later MT ) was born in Dublin, the second of two children in her family.
Feminist Companion Archive.
Tighe, Mary. “Introduction”. Verses Transcribed for H. T., edited by Harriet Kramer Linkin.

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