This particular poem by Mary Wroth appears in her groundbreaking never-completed prose romance The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania which nevertheless was partially published in 1621. This massive work is universally recognized as the first prose romance ever composed by an English woman. A smaller segment of scholars and critics are willing to identify it as the first novel written by a British woman. The lack of universality on this aspect is due more to the structure of the tome which would not be readily recognized as a novel for modern readers.
For instance, within The Countess of Mongomery’s Urania lies another first by Wroth: the first sonnet sequence actually published by a female writer in England. That sonnet sequence has come to be referred to often outside the context of the whole as “Pamphilia to Amphilanthus.”
“Love What Art Thou” is not part of this sequence but is rather one of a series of poems appearing only under the title “Song.” The group to which this “Song” belongs is a series known as eclogues which appear as Book I of The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania draws to a close. An eclogue is just a specific literary term used to describe that poem that is short and usually within the genre of pastoral dialogue.
“Love What Art Thou” meets that definition quite squarely as its 25 lines are intended to be a read as part of the dialogue between expressed by a shepherd to his female counterpart with whom, it appears, a once robust love has fallen by the wayside.
