She has been described as "a domestic, small-scale, early eighteenth-century poet of charm and intelligence (remembered particularly for her writing about her children), but also an incisive, often satirical commentator on social and gender issues.

"[2] Barber is an example of the eighteenth-century phenomenon of the "untutored poet, or 'natural genius'": an artist of unprepossessing background who achieved the patronage of literary or aristocratic notables.

She moved into his circle and knew Laetitia Pilkington, who later became her harshest critic, Mary Delany, and poets Thomas Tickell and Elizabeth Rowe.

The subscription list for the volume was almost "without precedent for its resplendent length and illustrious contents, and it was moreover remarkable given Barber's otherwise pedestrian social standing as an ailing Irish housewife.

Barber's critical reputation benefited from the general re-appraisal of past writers that occurred in the 1970s-1980s with the emergence of feminist literary studies.