In her poetry, Anne Finch employs fable to simultaneously distance herself from abusive satire, which she associates with lampoon, and produce reformative satire, or satire that addresses the shortcomings of society more generally in an effort to bring about the improvement of the culture-at-large. In spite of her purported aversion to lampoonery, however, Finch represents within several of her verse fables figurative satirists who abuse their targets without seeking to reform them. She does so not with a censorious tone designed to encourage readers’ disapproval but in a manner that emphasizes the figurative satirists’ pleasure, pleasure that emerges largely from reversals of power. Finch not only invites the reader to participate in this pleasure but appears to do so herself. As a writer of satirical fables, Finch engages critically with questions regarding what satire should be. At the same time, a number of her fables suggest her desire to engage in satire as she wishes it could be: an empowering personal attack with no repercussions.

Eighteenth-century women writers excelled in the formal satiric style associated by contemporaries with the Roman poet Horace. While formal verse satire was especially fashionable in mid-century, two accomplished poets illustrate the rise and decline of this phenomenon. Anne Finch (1661–1720), writing at the beginning of the satiric vogue, professed to hate satire but incorporated corrective criticism into many poems; she wrote only one formal verse satire and kept it in manuscript. Anna Seward (1742–1809), who identified herself as a poet of sensibility, wrote satirically in prose but rarely produced formal satiric verse. Like Finch, Seward kept her sole formal satiric poem in manuscript until authorizing its posthumous publication. Finch exemplifies how a woman might hesitate to write in the Roman style because Restoration satire was a “masculine” poetic form associated with classical education, public affairs, and personal invective. Seward illustrates why a late-century poet might have moved away from formal verse satire despite a predilection for its tone and purpose. Both poets show how women readily adapted the poetic fashions of their lifetimes to suit their satiric purposes.