Ellen Taylor

Ellen Taylor (fl. 1792) was an Irish author notable for being the only known example of a rural labouring-class Irish poet writing in English in this period.

Life According to the anonymous editor of her poems, Taylor's father was an "indigent cottager," in Queen’s County (now County Laois) in the north-west part of Ireland and the source of the River Barrow, referred to in her poem "Written by the Barrow side." From the title of her "To a Gentleman who had lent her some books," it can be inferred that she was an autodidact whose access to education was dependent upon the goodwill of others: the "gentleman" addressed in the poem who introduced her to the writing of Milton was apparently a house guest of her then-employer. Little else is known of her life.

Writing Taylor published some of her poetry in newspapers

Her work has been anthologized in Eighteenth century women poets (1989), Eighteenth-Century English Labouring-Class Poets (2003), and Romantic-Era Irish Women Poets in English (2021).

Works Poems by Ellen Taylor, the Irish Cottager (Dublin: George Draper, 1792)