Mary Collier

Mary Collier (c. 1688 – 1762) was an English poet, perhaps best known for The Woman's Labour, a poem described by one commentator as a "plebeian female georgic that is also a protofeminist polemic." Life Little is known of Collier's early life other than what she wrote in the "remarks on the author's life drawn by herself" which prefaced her Poems on Several Occasions (1762). She was from Midhurst or Lodsworth, West Sussex, born to poor parents, and educated at home. She worked as a washer-woman, brewer, and at other various jobs. In the 1720s she moved to Hampshire in search of employment. Collier initially wrote poems for her own amusement with no intent to publish; she would recite the poems to entertain her listeners, and thus brought attention to her talents. Apparently a family that employed her encouraged her to publish. She had no known dependants and supported herself through her work, so she was able to adopt what one commentator called a "feisty tone." Poetry As she recounts in the preface to her 1762 collection, she was outraged when she read Stephen Duck's The Thresher's Labour (1730) and in response to his apparent disdain for labouring-class women, wrote the 246-line "powerful modern georgic" for which she is best remembered, The Woman's Labour: an Epistle to Mr Stephen Duck. In her riposte, she catalogues the daily tasks of a working woman, both outside the home and, at the end of the day, within the home as well: You sup, and go to Bed without delay, And rest yourselves till the ensuing Day; While we, alas! but little Sleep can have... (111-113)