Author: Rowe, Hannah
Biography:
ROWE, Hannah (fl 1789)
Besides her name, nothing is known about the poet Hannah Rowe. Her single publication, the forty-eight page A Pindaric Poem. Consisting of Versified Selections, from the Revelation of St. John, was originally printed in 1789 by the bookseller Webster Gillman, who had shops in Rochester and Chatham, Kent. The following year, Gillman reissued A Pindaric Poem bundled with other poets’ separately printed poems in The Galaxy. Consisting of a Variety of Sacred and other Poetry, dedicated “To William Wilberforce, Esq. and his Worthy Compatriots in the Cause of Humanity.” In an erudite preface and in notes to the poem, Rowe makes several interesting observations: that Revelation is the most sublime book of the Christian Bible; that it “consists generally of emblematical vision;” and, as in Pindar, so in Revelation, that “subject and simile … are united … in figurative epitomes.” Concluding the notes, she ventures on dangerous territory when she observes that Revelation “affords not grounds for the Athanasian Creed.” The Critical Review noticed Rowe’s poem: “Hannah Rowe … treats us with a ‘Pindaric poem, consisting of versified reflections from the Revelation of St. John.’ What a subject for a muse of fire? … But, alas! … in the sublime-ob[s]cure she is not inferior to Mr. Belcher.” Records for this poet are scarce, probably because she, like William Belcher (q.v.), was a non-conformist. (Critical Review 1 [Jan. 1791], 29-30.) JC
Other Names:
- Mrs. Rowe