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I know not how it hath happened that very many ingenious Women of this Nation, who were really possessed of a great share of learning, and have no doubt in their time been famous for it, are but little known not only unknown to the publick in general, and ^ but have ^b een passed by in silence, even by our most indefatigable Biographers themselves. 1

Elizabeth Singer Rowe (1674-1737) spent forty years negotiating and intervening in the gendered frameworks of the cultural poetics of her time. Nevertheless, despite a number of studies that explore Rowe's engagement with emerging literary trends and her posthumous reputation, little has been said about her self-conscious construction of a literary career trajectory. This essay seeks to address this lacuna by revisiting a number of poems, particularly her famous elegy to her husband, which helped to shape her career and reputation. Rowe's early poems reveal the care and deliberation with which she positioned

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