Great Regulars: The inscription on Aphra Behn's tombstone

in Westminster Abbey reads, "Here lies a proof that Wit can never be/Defence enough against Mortality." Behn's poetry suggests otherwise. "The Incomparable Astrea", as she was sometimes called, stands as a landmark satirist at the beginning of the Augustan age--and her clear, knowing, distinctive voice rings out directly from that vantage-point to our own.

A Letter to a Brother of the Pen in Tribulation

from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Books blog: Poem of the week: A Letter to a Brother of the Pen in Tribulation by Aphra Behn

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