Anne, Viscountess Irvine (c. 1696 – 2 December 1764), was a British court official. She was a poet and a correspondent of Sir John Vanbrugh and Horace Walpole.
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Early life
Anne was born c. 1696 and was raised in Yorkshire. Her father was Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle and her mother was Anne Capel. Her maternal grandparents were Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex and Lady Elizabeth Percy. By 1712, her parents were irretreviably separated, and Anne seems to have remained close to her father; some of her letters to him survive. She wrote a poem that was a tribute to her father, "Castle Howard" in 1732.
"An Epistle to Mr. Pope"
One of Ingram's most renowned poems is "An Epistle to Mr. Pope, Occasioned by his Characters of Women" that she wrote in response to Alexander Pope’s poem "Epistle 2. To a Lady" and his other poems where he addresses women. To argue against Pope's differentiation, she creatively alters the rhyming couplet form Pope used to emphasize what both sexes have in common: the love of power. Many lines in this poem are slightly altered from Pope or exactly quoted in a different context, "For love of power is still the love of fame" ("Epistle 2. To a Lady," lines 207–10; "An Epistle to Mr. Pope," line 22).
Her poetry defended women from the usual accusations of being manipulative and inferior.