Mary Lamb

We currently have one poem by Mary Lamb. You can listen to the poem and also read it below.

Listen To Poetry · Envy by Mary Lamb

Read and listen to Envy

This rose-tree is not made to bear

The violet blue, nor lily fair,

Nor the sweet mignionet:

And if this tree were discontent,

Or wished to change its natural bent,

It all in vain would fret.

And should it fret, you would suppose

It ne’er had seen its own red rose,

Nor after gentle shower

Had ever smelled its rose’s scent,

Or it could ne’er be discontent

With its own pretty flower.

Like such a blind and senseless tree

As I’ve imagined this to be,

All envious persons are:

With care and culture all may find

Some pretty flower in their own mind,

Some talent that is rare.

Mary Lamb - 1764 - 1847

Was an English writer. She is best known for the collaboration with her brother Charles on the collection Tales from Shakespeare. Lamb suffered from mental illness, and in 1796 she stabbed her mother to death during a mental breakdown. She was confined to mental facilities off and on for most of her life. She and Charles presided over a literary circle in London that included the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, among others.