Megalithic Poems

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Ahaaa! Looks like it doesn't it.

Warn't Mary great?!

nigelswift wrote:
Ahaaa! Looks like it doesn't it.

Warn't Mary great?!

Yes, but perhaps there's a sad story here.

I'm not sure if the following dates are spot on but Mary lived from 1852-1888 and was only 36 when she died. Elizabeth lived from 1815-1906 and died at the ripe old age of 91. Elizabeth's book was published in 1853 (or 1858?) and would have been in circulation for 20 years by the time Mary was 21? (plenty of time for it to have reached Pennsylvania). Given that the Copes were an extremely religious family, and their ancestors originally hailed from Avebury, it seems likely that Mary would have read Elizabeth's book and that this had, perhaps, inspired Mary to write her poem.

The question is, did Mary ever actually visit Avebury? Parts of her poem seem based on firsthand observation while other parts seem a little fanciful. Her father undertook a religious journey to England and Europe two years after Mary's death; was this journey undertaken in memory of his daughter, and the origins of the Cope family in Avebury?

nigelswift wrote:
Ahaaa! Looks like it doesn't it.

Warn't Mary great?!

Surely it was Alfred that was Great?

Mary Cope visited Avebury in 1885, the poem was dated the following year. Elizabeth's stay in Avebury was forty years earlier, her book was published in 1853. Whilst it is of course possible that Mary read Elizabeth's book and the religious aspect encourages that thought, the poem was undoubtedly grounded in the visit to the motherland. One particular aspect that perhaps underlines this, is that Mary's poem tends to lean on the historic fabric and nature more than the prehistory and the ancient mystery wilderness aspect, which is an edge present in Elizabeth's final pages emphasizing the theme of the lead character living independently. Mary’s passing reference to the prehistoric oddities in just one verse in eight is rather at odds with a religiously attuned individual visiting such a highly unusual place at a time in the nineteenth century when it was at the peak of being painted by residents and visitors as close in resemblance and religious feel to the natural beginnings of England/the earth/an Eden. Something Elizabeth's book possibly helped underpin. One would then conclude that one didn’t influence the other in terms of what was said about Avebury, but one supposes in view of what Elizabeth’s novel is known for it could have done in other ways.