Ever since I began this poem-a-week project almost a year ago, I have wanted to include this poem. But every time I get ready to do so, I change my mind at the last minute because it seems kind of trite. And then, later, I read it over and decide that it is not at all trite; that it is, in fact, a terrific poem, and that I am right to regard it as such. In any case, it has been a favorite of mine for a long time, and therefore it wouldn't seem right not to include it. So here it is.

Elizabeth Wordsworth was the great niece of William Wordsworth. She herself did not become famous as a poet, although she published a least one volume of poetry in 1890 entitled St. Christopher and Other Poems, which contained "Good and Clever." This is, without question, her best known poem, although it does not appear in any major poetry anthology. At least, it does not appear in any that I own. In fact, Elizabeth Wordsworth herself is not included in any of the popular biographical encyclopedias, or any of the best known guides to English literature. Because of the cleverness of "Good and Clever," however, she does appear in most of the large, comprehensive volumes of famous quotations, including the most authoritative, the Burton Stevenson Home Book of Quotations.

None of this is to say that Elizabeth Wordsworth did not lead an accomplished life. In fact, she was an extraordinary woman, having been the founder of St. Hugh's College, Oxford, described as follows on that institution's website.

Compared to many Oxford Colleges, St Hugh's is young. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth, the great niece of the poet. But she had a strong sense of the historical perspective in which her new foundation would take its place. Using money left to her by her father, a bishop of Lincoln, she named it after one of his twelfth century predecessors, Hugh of Avalon, who was canonised in 1220, and in whose diocese Oxford had been. Elizabeth Wordsworth was a champion of the cause of women's education, and her foundation was intended to enable poorer women to gain an Oxford education.

Over the following century her aim was triumphantly achieved: St Hugh's has produced some remarkable graduates in its relatively short life, including Barbara Castle, almost certainly the most influential female member of the Labour Party, and Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. But radical political engagement never was a prerequisite for admission to St Hughs, and female gender is so no longer: the first male Fellow was elected in 1978, and the first male undergraduates were admitted in 1986. The College is now one of the most successful mixed Colleges in Oxford, in the sense that it has something closer to an even balance of the sexes than most other Colleges in the University. This is true both of the Fellowship and the Junior Members.