Mary Steele Wakeford’s two poems to “Silvia” (her niece, Mary Steele) were composed in the early months of 1769, not long after Mary Steele had completed Danebury. Wakeford recognized that, even at fifteen, Mary Steele’s “genius,” as she termed it, had already created a “path” for her “poetical turn,” a path that would keep her from marrying for nearly thirty years. Wakeford, on the other hand, knew first-hand the difficulties marriage entailed, gently steering her niece in the opposite direction with such lines as “They’re worse companions than the Muses.” Wakeford’s path took her “a diff’rent way,” however, a way “ne’er the flow’ry plain cou’d reach.” On her way she left behind a striking tribute to the value of poetry in the life of Mary Steele, her two poems serving as fitting models of the communal, collaborative, and scribal nature of eighteenth-century women’s literary coteries. In this instance, two poems composed for the immediate benefit of a private circle were circulated and preserved as artifacts for future generations, providing a celebratory record of Mary Steele’s decision to follow the admonitions and example of her two aunts concerning the pursuit of the single life dedicated to poetry.