Give me yet before I die
A sweet, yet absolute retreat,
'Mongst paths so lost and trees so high
That the world may ne'er invade
Through such windings and such shade
My unshaken liberty.
    from 'The Petition for an Absolute Retreat'

Anne Finch (1661-1720) is one of the earliest English women poets of importance, a friend of Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift and of Henry Purcell, who set one of her poems to music. A modest and retiring writer during her lifetime, constrained both by her own temperament and by her situation as a woman, she was later admired by Wordsworth and Matthew Arnold, but then again neglected. She is now being revalued as a poet whose skilful and perceptive writing sets her apart from the conventions within which she lived and worked. She celebrates the quiet pleasures of a happy marriage, country life and friendships, the qualities of a life lived, in her own words, with 'Something less than joy, but more than full content'.

This selection from the full range of her work includes explanatory notes and suggestions for further reading.