While other writers use their poetry to decipher the meaning of life, Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea was busy writing about how to live it.  Five of her poems, “Jupiter and the Farmer,” “The Tree,” “The Shepherd Piping to the Fishes,” “Love, Death, and Reputation,” and “There’s No To-Morrow,” convey strong messages to the reader about how to live their lives.  In her poetry, Anne Finch uses anecdotes to help illustrate the validity of her statements, thereby providing the reader with a strong, meaningful, and important message about how life should be lived.
       “Jupiter and the Farmer” tells the story of a farmer who took it upon himself to control the weather in favor of his crops: “The Frost to kill the Worm, the brooding Snow, / The filling Rains may come, and Phoebus glow” (14 – 15).  In doing this, the farmer plays god himself rather than let the real god, Jupiter, control things.  The farmer ends up choosing what he wanted in such a bad fashion, he ruins his crops and is “with Famine pinch’d” (24).  Upon the realization of his mistake, the farmer calls upon Jupiter and promises he will no longer take fate into his own hands.  He resolves to let Jupiter lead the way while he “live[s] to Reap” (30).  Through this poem, Finch stresses how important fate is in everyday lives.  Like the farmer, we may have a desire to try and take the reigns from destiny, but it will never end well.  Finch says we should just leave our lives to fate, and everything will work out alright.
       In “The Tree,” the speaker talks to a tree and express thanks for its “delightful shade” (1).  The speaker goes on to talk of the others who benefited from the existence of the tree and gave it something back in return, such as the birds singing, travelers praising it’s welcome shade, and nymphs making crowns from its blooms. The speaker wonders what she can do to repay the shade given her by the tree.  She decides to wish something for the tree’s future.  She wishes, “To future ages may’st thou stand / Untouch’d by the rash workman’s hand” (19 – 20).  Ultimately, she wishes something such as “some bright hearth” (32) be made from the tree at its death.  Through this poem, Finch expresses the need to be thankful for and to all things.  Even something as common as a tree needs to be recognized and commended on its job.  We should not only recognize and be thankful for the greater things in life, we should recognize the lesser things, such as the tree in the poem.
       “The Shepherd Piping to the Fishes” is about a fisherman who is trying to lure fish onto his hook with not only the bait, but music.  He plays his bagpipes and “sprightly was the tune he chose” (21), yet “not a Fish wou’d nearer draw” (26).  It seemed that nothing could bring the fish to bite.  He decides to go with a net and force the fish ashore rather than trying to coax them.  Finch ends the poem by saying, “Thus stated Laws are always best / To rule the vulgar Throng, / Who grow more Stubborn when Carest, / Or with soft Rhetorick addrest, / If taking measures wrong” (36 – 40).  This, the moral of the story, says that if one’s going about something the wrong way, no amount of what they’re doing can get the stubborn to do what the doer wants the stubborn to do.  Through this poem, Finch stresses the importance of method when approaching a solution.  There’s a right way and a wrong way, so choose carefully.
       In “Love, Death, and Reputation,” Finch personifies the three of the title.  She says the three were once joined.  When they parted, Death went to a hellish place “Where pestilences reign, / And…the greater plagues maintain” (17 – 18), and Love went to a beautiful place with “Rural Plains, and soft Repose” (26).  When Reputation goes to leave, she makes a very important point, which serves as Finch’s overall message in the poem.  She says while Love and Death are “certain still to meet agen” (43), Reputation “either fix[es] those [it] grace[s]” (49), or if she leaves by means of jealousy, cruelty, guilt, or chance, Reputation “once parting, part[s] for ever” (54).  Finch stresses the importance of one’s reputation and how careful one must be when making decisions.  If you live unwisely, the loss of a good reputation will always haunt you and you’ll never be able to get that good reputation back.
       “There’s No To-Morrow” sends the most important of all Finch’s messages.  The story told is of a woman who wants to marry her longtime love.  He keeps telling her “That he, To-Morrow, will that Vow perform” (6).  Day after day goes by and each day is the same as the first.  He keeps saying they will marry the next day.  Finally the woman gets tired and gives up.  Because the man never admitted his lie and they never got married, there is no tomorrow.  Finch uses this anecdote to help achieve her point.  At the end she says putting things off spoils youth: “To-Morrow and To-Morrow, cheat our Youth” (17).  When we are young, we keep putting things off because we think we have all this time left, when we really don’t.  She ends by saying, “There’s No To-Morrow to a Willing Mind” (21).  If one wants to do something, there is no tomorrow to do it.  Finch says to do it today before there is no longer a tomorrow.
           Finch’s poems make strong statements about the world her readers live in.  Unlike other poets, however, she goes beyond mere descriptions of the world.  The purpose of these five poems is to help guide one through life by providing him or her with anecdotes to help support her overall messages of how life should be lived.  The morals to her poems serve her purpose perfectly by telling the reader the way life should be lived in order to optimize the experience.         

Works Cited
Finch, Anne, Countess of Winchilsea.  “Countess Winchilsea Anne Finch Poems.” Countess        Winchilsea Anne Finch. 2004. PoemHunter.com. 5 Dec. 2005 .