Selected Poems

Behn Aphra

Aphra Behn (1640-1689) is best known for her novel "Oroonoko". Her plays have been revived, in print and on the stage, in modern times, but much of her best work, as she herself knew, is to be found in her poetry. The versatile form and content of her translation, satires and songs, and above all her radical exploration of relationships between the sexes, set her apart from her contemporaries. Behn wittily negotiates the complexities and ironies of women's role in a society in which honour is a commodity. Candid and subtle, her poetry speaks with a distinctive, vigorous intelligence and satirical edge. This generous selection includes an introduction that sets her work in context, notes on the text and suggestions for further reading.

About the Author

Aphra Behn was born in 1640 in Canterbury, and seems to have been adopted into the family of Sir Thomas Culpeper, where her mother served as a wet-nurse. As a young woman she travelled to Surinam with the Culpeper family, an experience that gave her the material for her novel "Oroonoko". She married, either a Dutch sea captain who died at sea or a Dutch merchant who died of the plague of 1665. Behn became involved in espionage, and was sent on a spying mission to Antwerp in 1666, but she was never paid and was threatened with debtors prison on her return to London in 1667. She may have turned to prostitution to survive at this time, but she also began to write for her living. Her first play was produced in 1670, and the publication of her three collections of poetry date from the 1680s. A warrant was issued for her arrest in 1682, following a satire on the Monmouth rebellion, and she may have travelled abroad for a time to escape prison. She found it difficult to get her plays performed in her late years, and became increasingly impoverished. Aphra Behn died in 1689 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

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