Female Comeraderie
Lady Montagu writes often to other women, offering advice or sympathy of some sort. She expresses a constant identification with the particular trials of women in this world. For instance, she assures her friend, Delia, in "A Receipt to Cure the Vapors" that what others call "vapors" is really grief. She remembers the unique sorrow of losing a man and tells Delia that she should choose a new husband. There is present in the poem both an honor of the gravity and authenticity of Delia's past love and the need to press on and recover her own health.
Similarly, Montagu writes "Epistle from Mrs. Yonge to Her Husband" on behalf of Mrs. Yonge it appears, or perhaps the entire exchange is fictitious. In either situation, Montagu becomes the advocate for this woman who is estranged within her own marriage. Having observed her husband's constant manipulation -- paying her affection and care only after having gotten his fill of younger women, -- Mrs. Yonge desires to set the record straight by extending her judgement. In her poem, Montagu shines light upon the injustice of marriage that a woman both cannot leave and cannot influence without her husband's willingness to consent to change.
Loss
Loss is a constant theme in Montagu's poetry, as is common in poetry. She, however, dwells upon the concept in various forms. Flavia, the protagonist of "Town Eclogues: Saturday; The Small-Pox" mourns the loss of her beauty after contracting smallpox. She watches her suitors and friends leave her one by one as she retreats into privacy, embarrassed by how her physical appearance has permanently changed. Montagu herself explores the loss of intimacy she feels for her new friends in "Farewell to bath." Although she is leaving, she demonstrates how significant these place has become to her by naming the various groups and persons with whom she's become well-acquainted. Finally, the most obvious example is "A Receipt to Cure the Vapors" in which Delia mourns her husband's death. The reader receives the impression he has been dead already for some time, but she still feels the loss so keenly that she's sick with grief.
Healing
The idea of healing or its impossibility creeps into Montagu's poems. Along with loss, healing is a part of grief, but it can also be a preventative measure, to proverbially cut one's losses. For instance, Flavia in "Town Eclogues: Saturday; The Small-Pox" desperately desires to turn back time to before her illness, but she has survived the smallpox. That in and of itself is a tremendous feat of healing. Because her physical appearance has altered, she now must allow for emotional healing in the wake of these changes. "Epistle from Mrs. Yonge to Her Husband" mentions how strongly Mrs. Yonge wishes there were a fix or a solution to a poor marriage, but she finds none. She longs for healing in her relationship. Also, in the title "A Receipt to Cure the Vapors" Montagu hints that her advice will stir emotional healing for Delia in her season of grief.
