A lovely self-portrait of Anne Killigrew (1660–85) dominates the glossy cover of this welcome new edition of her poems. Killigrew died at the young age of twenty-five, but even during that time she became known for her accomplishments as both a poet and a painter. Her command of the two sister arts was frequently commented upon and was a main organizing feature of John Dryden’s famous poem about her life, his ode “To the Pious Memory of … Anne Killigrew.” The ode, which prefaced the 1686 posthumous publication of her sole book of poems, was praised by Samuel Johnson as the noblest ode in the English language. Thus, although her book went out of print, readers have known of Anne Killigrew thanks to Dryden. But her own work did not entirely disappear: eight of her poems were published in the anthology Poems by Eminent Ladies (1755), and she has found a place in many different anthologies since that time.

Margaret J. M. Ezell, a pioneering scholar in the field of women’s literary history, has prepared an excellent edition of Anne Killigrew’s poems, the first to be published in paperback. Although there are two hardcover editions of Killigrew’s work, this new and affordable edition is designed for the student or general reader. The only thing that might be confusing is the title. Something more direct would have been preferable to the lengthy “My Rare Wit Killing Sin”: Poems of a Restoration Courtier, with its confusing use of “courtier,” a term usually applied to men. Otherwise, the edition is well designed: the text is nicely presented on the page, with wide margins, generous footnotes, and a spacious layout.

Ezell’s introduction provides a detailed overview of the Restoration period, along with background on Killigrew, her influential family, and their connections to the Stuart court. Killigrew’s father was chaplain to the Duke of York, later James II. Killigrew herself served the royal family as a maid of honor to the duke’s wife, Mary of Modena, a role she shared with Anne Finch, who would go on to become one of the best-known poets of the eighteenth century. Killigrew wrote religious poetry, pastoral poems, and tributes to those in her familial and court circles, achieving a timeless quality in much of her writing.

Killigrew’s thirty surviving poems comprise a small collection, but there are four appendixes of contextualizing material. Readers are most likely to know “Upon the Saying That My Verses Were Made by Another” (70), which has been frequently reprinted and has become a cornerstone for women’s literary history. Written in a forthright and direct tone, it is an autobiographical account of her struggles as a woman writer and her determination to pursue her craft. Throughout her work, Killigrew promotes virtue and order in a sinful and rakish world, though an appendix with a small selection of Lord Rochester’s poems inadvertently gives the last word to the libertinism of the age. Among Killigrew’s best poems are those that argue for a Christian way of life, such as “An Invective against Gold” (62). She looks for examples of virtuous womanhood, including a poem about her late aunt (90) and another about a young woman who would rather spend a quiet day with her mother than gallivant about town (91). In “A Farewell to Worldly Joys,” Killigrew describes the constant experience of temptation: “Farewell you Unsubstantial Joys, / You Gilded Nothings, Gaudy Toys, / Too long you have my Soul misled, / Too long with Airy Diet fed” (54 [lines 1–4]). Such words can still admonish readers glued to the “Gilded Nothings” of our own time, and, as she elsewhere alludes to Amazons with their bows and arrows (“Alexandreis,” 44 [line 46]), one can see how Killigrew’s strong voice can appeal to today’s generation, whose heroines include a Katniss Everdeen.

Reading this edition, one cannot forget that Killigrew is a painter. Ezell includes a color plate of Killigrew’s classical landscape painting Venus Attired by the Graces, done in the tradition of Claude Lorraine, and now owned by the Falmouth Art Gallery. Killigrew’s wide-ranging interests make her a noteworthy historical figure. She was not afraid to use pen and paint to make her mark in a too-short life, for as she wrote in “To My Lady Berkeley,” “In vain were Valor, if it were not tried” (58 [line 26]).