The Poetry of Gertrude More: Piety and Politics in a Benedictine Convent
In 1623, a seventeen-year-old girl named Helen More set out from England to help found a Benedictine convent in France. Too high spirited for convent life, Dame Gertrude (as she became known) struggled to adapt until she encountered the mystic teachings of Augustine Baker. Yet More’s newfound peace was not to last. As controversy swirled around Baker’s ideas and led to his expulsion from the convent, More wrote poems defending herself and him. This edition presents the first full-scale critical edition of More’s poetry, with versions aimed at scholarly and non-scholarly audiences. Read on to discover an independent thinker whose fierce commitment to spiritual freedom stopped at nothing.
For more on More, see our Biography of More and other Critical Introductions.
How to Use this Edition
- For information on the base texts consulted, editing protocols, and more, see About this Edition.
- To read an edition targeted at an undergraduate or non-scholarly audience, go to the Modernized Edition.
- To read an edition aimed at scholars, go to the Scholarly Edition.
- To read by genre or base text, use the categories and tags in the Scholarly and Modernized Editions.
- To dive right into all of More’s poetry, go to All Poems.
- To download PDFs of the poetry in this edition, go to Downloads.
Who Is Responsible for this Edition?
This digital edition is the product of a collaboration between Jaime Goodrich (Associate Professor of English, Wayne State), Kelly Plante (doctoral student in English, Wayne State), and the students who took Goodrich’s section of ENG 5030 (Topics in Women’s Studies) in Fall 2019. Over the semester, the students in ENG 5030 conceived the scope and aims of the edition, produced the base texts for the edition, and composed the critical introductions. Goodrich and Plante then took on the role of General Editors, checking the editions against manuscript copies, producing additional content, and revising the critical introductions. Last but not least, Plante served as the site designer.
How to Cite this Edition
Below are recommended citations if you are citing the website as a whole, a specific poem, or one of the critical introductions.
How to Cite the Whole Website
More, Gertrude. The Poetry of Gertrude More: Piety and Politics in a Benedictine Convent. Eds. Jaime Goodrich and Kelly Plante. Date accessed: [DD MMMM YYYY]. <s.wayne.edu/gertrudemore/>
How to Cite Individual Poems
More, Gertrude. “POEM TITLE.” In The Poetry of Gertrude More: Piety and Politics in a Benedictine Convent. Eds. Jaime Goodrich and Kelly Plante. Date accessed: [DD MMMM YYYY]. <s.wayne.edu/gertrudemore/>
How to Cite a Critical Introduction
Plante, Kelly. “Biography of More.” In The Poetry of Gertrude More: Piety and Politics in a Benedictine Convent. Eds. Jaime Goodrich and Kelly Plante. Date accessed: [DD MMMM YYYY]. <s.wayne.edu/gertrudemore/>