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Reception History
Egerton was generally well received by her audience and peers alike throughout her lifetime, however, her first work, The Female Advocate, was highly controversial; albeit her most famous piece. Upon the second publishing of the poem, her father, enraged and embarrassed, banished her from their home in London. A few of her poems, in Poems on Several Occasions, lament this act and blame poetry for, “…[robbing her] of a tender Father’s love ”. She was also criticized for lacking humor, and grace compared to male satirists such as Robert Gould-the author of the work that inspired The Female Advocate, and for having the reputation of being a young lady too familiar with the world and how it functions. Additionally, she was publicly ridiculed by one of her peers, Delarivier Manley, four years after publishing her last piece, Poems on Several Occasions .Manley occasionally wrote negative commentary about Egerton. In both The New Atalantis and Memoirs of Europe, Manley makes fun of Egerton's second marriage, physical appearance, and some of her literary work .This lasted for a span of four years( 1707 to 1711) and affected how Egerton was later perceived.

On the other hand, Egerton did have several supporters. Although Poems on Several Occasions was not a commercial success, Egerton was still regarded as a talented poetess. Notable authors and poetesses, such as Susanna Centlivre and Mary Pix wrote dedicatory poems to her in Poems on Several Occasions. In a poem titled, “To Mrs. S.F. on her incomparable Poems”, Centlivre says, “Thou Champion for our Sex go on and show Ambitious Man what Womankind can do… .” Mary Pix tells her in a poem entitled, “To Mrs. S.F. on her poems”, “Clarinda will her charming lines expose, and in her strength we vanquish all our Foes .” Clarinda was Egerton’s pen name. There are two more poems dedicated to her; one with the same title as Pix’s and the other entitled, “To my Ingenious Friend Mrs. S.F. on her Poems”, written by a J.H. and an E.C. respectively. All four of the poems praise Egerton’s prowess as a female author.

Today, scholars look at Egerton's first work as an "astonishingly mature" piece for such a young girl. Jeslyn Medoff, a Sarah Fyge Egerton history scholar, said, "...Sarah Fyge is a small but sturdy link in feminist literary history, a history that goes back to Sulpicia, Corinna, and Sappho ." She is also highly praised for commanding respect in her work. She did this by writing about personal experiences; a writing style which had only barely begun. This allowed her to take ownership of both her private and public lives; refraining from the traditions of women's writing at the time. Overall, she is regarded as both a strong, rebellious feminist who insisted on women's rights, and a vulnerable woman who had to the deal with: the unfairness of a resentful marriage, unrequited love, and the loss of her father's respect.