On its publication in 1836, “The Birthday” was widely acclaimed as “the retrospect of a mind’s life” and “the autobiography of the childhood of genius.” Witty and poignant, unsparing in its attacks on injustice and sentimentality, assured and wryly self-mocking, it was an innovative work, anticipating the approach used by Wordsworth in The Prelude (published 14 years later). This collection also includes a varied selection of Caroline Bowles Southey’s shorter poems written at all phases of her career.