Overview
Dorothy Mermin received her BA, MA and PhD from Harvard and taught in the Cornell English Department from 1964 to 2002, working primarily in the fields of Victorian literature and women's poetry. Major publications include The Audience in the Poem: Five Victorian Poets (1983), Elizabeth Barrett Browning: The Origins of a New Poetry (1989), Godiva’s Ride: Women of Letters in England, 1830-1880 (1993), and an anthology (with Herbert Tucker), Victorian Literature 1830-1900 (2001). Having arrived at Cornell as an instructor in the year the department first appointed a woman (a beginning assistant professor) to the tenure track, from 1983 to 1989 she served as department Chair.
Research Focus
- Classical Greek poetry and drama
- European painting, especially Rembrandt