Martha Hale

MH had the habit all her adult life (during the later eighteenth century) of writing poems about her closest concerns, both private and public. The generic range of her mostly occasional poetry is wide, from political odes to love poetry and fables. Late in life she collected her verse in a printed volume, which is of interest both in showing the wide range of genres and topics open at this date to the woman poet, and because of her steady and independent-minded attention to issues of gender.