The Good Mother in Ann and Jane Taylor's Poetry for Children

What is it about?

This article discusses some of the earliest popular verse written specifically with a child audience in mind: Ann and Jane Taylor's Original Poems for Infant Minds (1804-1805) and Rhymes for the Nursery (1806). It focuses in particular on the Taylor sisters' depiction of the good mother as a type for the Romantic-era woman poet.

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Photo by Irina Iriser on Unsplash

Photo by Irina Iriser on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This article is important because it explores how nineteenth-century children's poetry validates and, at the same time, challenges contemporary assumptions about women's place in literature, education, and society. As the authors of Original Poems and Rhymes for the Nursery, Ann and Jane Taylor occupy an important place not only in the development of children's verse but in the annals of nineteenth-century poetry.