British Women Poets of the Romantic Era

Edited by Paula R. Feldman

~ritish Yvomen Poets of the 'RQmantic Gra

AN ANTHOLOGY

The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore & London This book has been brought to publication with the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities

06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 4 3 2

The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4319 The Johns Hopkins Press Ltd., London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data will be found at the end of this book. A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 0-8018-5430-x In Memory of my Grandmothers Bessie Burka Feldman and Clara Ethel Marcus Leon

While lingers in the heart one line, The nameless poet hath a shrine. Letitia Elizabeth Landon, "The Unknown Grave" (1837)

Contents

Acknowledgments xxiii Introduction xxv Editorial Note xxxv

Maria Abdy (c. 1797-1867) 1 An Original Thought 2 My Very Particular Friend 3

Lucy Aikin (1781-1864) 6 from Epistles on Women 8

Jane Austen (1775-1817) 16 Verses to Rhyme with "Rose" 19

On a Headache 20

Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) 21 Wind 27 Thunder 30 The Kitten 33 Up! Quit Thy Bower! 36 Woo'd and Married and!\ 37 Address to a Steam-Vessel 39 Song ("The gliding fish that takes his play") 44 The Sun Is Down 44 Lines to a Teapot 45 The Maid of Llanwellyn 49

lX x Contents

Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743-1825) sr The Mouse's Petition 56 An Inventory of the Furniture in Dr. Priestley's Study 59 A Summer Evening's Meditation 61 Tomorrow 64 Inscription for an Ice-House 65 To the Poor 66 Washing-Day 67 Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, A Poem 70 Life Sr The Baby-House 82 Riddle ("From rosy bowers we issue forth") 83

Mrs. E.-G. Bayfield (fl. 1803-1816) 84 The Danger of Discontent 85

Elizabeth Bentley (1767-1839) 87 To a Redbreast 89

Matilda Betham (1776-1852) 91 To Miss Rouse Boughton, Now the Right Hon. Lady St. John 93 Sonnet ("Urge me no more!") 94 To a Llangollen Rose, The Day after It Had Been Given by Miss Ponsonby 95 Fragment ("A Pilgrim weary, toil-subdued") 95 The Daughter 98 II ("Lucy, I think not of thy beauty") 101 VII ("Come, Magdalen, and bind my hair") 102

Susanna Blamire (1747-1794) 103 The Nabob 108 The Siller Craun no What Ails This Heart o' Mine? III Contents xi

The Chelsea Pensioners n2 Barley Broth n3 Stoklewath; or, The Cumbrian Village n5

Countess of Blessington (1790-1849) 147 Stock in Trade of Modern Poetesses 152

Mary Ann Browne (1812-1844) 154 A World without Water 155 The Song of the Elements 159 The Wild Horse 164 To a Wild Bee 166

Lady Byron (nee Anne Isabella Milbanke) (1792-1860) 169 To Ada 173

Dorothea Primrose Campbell (1793-1863) 175 The Shetland Fisherman 177

Ann Candler (1740-1814) 180 Reflections on My Own Situation 182

Elizabeth Cobbold (nee Eliza Knipe) (1767-1824) 185 On the Lake of Windermere 188 Keswick 190 The Nurse and the Newspaper 192

Sara Coleridge (1802-1852) 194 Poppies 199 I Was a Brook 200

Blest Is the Tarn 200 Milk-White Doe, 'Tis But the Breeze 201 Xll Contents

I Tremble When with Look Benign 202 The Captive Bird with Ardour Sings 203

Hannah Cowley (1743-1809) 204 Monologue 2rn Invocation 212

Ann Batten Cristall (c. 1768-after 1816) 213 Written in Devonshire, near the Dart 215 To a Lady, on the Rise of Morn 217 Songs of Arla (from "The Enthusiast") 218 Song I ("Wild wing my notes, fierce passions urge the strain") 218 Song II ("With awe my soul the wreck of Nature views") 218 Song III ("Impassion'd strains my trembling lips rehearse") 219

Verses Written in the Spring 220 A Song of Arla Written during her Enthusiasm 221 An Ode ("Almighty Power! who rul'st this world of storms!") 223 Song on Leaving the Country Early in the Spring 224

Catherine Ann Dorset (1750?-1817?) 226 The Humble Bee 228 To the Lady-Bird 230

Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) 231 On Chauntry's Statue of Watt in Handsworth Church 236 To Mrs. Carr 237 Laura Leicester 238 With a Dyed Silk Quilt Sent to Aunt Ruxton 239

Susan Evance (fl. 1808-1818) 241 Sonnet to Melancholy 242 Sonnet Written in a Ruinous Abbey 243 Contents Xlll

Sonnet to a Violet 243 Sonnet to the Clouds 244 Written during a Storm of Wind 244

Catherine Maria Fanshawe (1765-1834) 246 A Riddle(" 'Twas in heaven pronounced, and 'twas muttered in hell") 248 Fragment in Imitation of Wordsworth 249

Anne Grant (Mrs. Grant of Laggan) (1755-1838) 251 Postscript 255

Elizabeth Hands (fl. 1789) 256 A Poem, on the Supposition of an Advertisement Appearing in a Morning Paper 258 A Poem, on the Supposition of the Book Having Been Published and Read 260 Written, Originally Extempore, on Seeing a Mad Heifer Run through the Village 263 A Song ("Ye swains cease to flatter") 264 On a Wedding 265 The Widower's Courtship 266

Mary Hays (1760-1843) 268 Invocation to the Nightingale 271 Ode to Her Bullfinch 273

Felicia Hemans (1793-1835) 275 Epitaph on Mr. W--, a Celebrated Mineralogist 282 Epitaph on the Hammer of the Aforesaid Mineralogist 284 The Voice of Spring 285 The Messenger Bird 287 Bring Flowers 289 TroubadourSong 290 The Graves of a Household 291 X1V Contents

The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in New England 292 A Monarch's Death-Bed 294 Gertrude, or Fidelity till Death 295 Casabianca 297 The Wings of the Dove 299 The Image in Lava 301 The Coronation of Inez de Castro 303 Indian Woman's Death-Song 306 Arabella Stuart 308 The Dreamer 317 The Return 319 The Painter's Last Work-A Scene 320 I Dream of All Things Free 323

Mary Howitt (1799-1888) 325 The Countess Lamberti 332 The Spider and the Fly 337 The Voyage with the Nautilus 338 Tibbie Inglis, or The Scholar's Wooing 342 The Nettle-King 346 The Broom-Flower 347 A Swinging Song 349 The Sea-Gull 350 Old Christmas 352 The Fairies of the Caldon Low 354

Anna Maria Jones (1748-1829) 358 Sonnet to the Moon 360

Lady Caroline Lamb (1785-1828) 361 Invocation to Sleep 364

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802-1838) 365 The Oak 371 Home 372 Contents xv

Hannibal's Oath 373 The Altered River 374 Lines of Life 376 Carrick-a-Rede, Ireland 379 Fountain's Abbey 381 Marius at the Ruins of Carthage 382 The Unknown Grave 384

Mary Leadbeater (1758-1826) 386 Lines Written in a Bower 388

Helen Leigh (fl. 1788, d. before 1795) 389 The Natural Child 390 The Linnet; a Fable 391 The Revenge 394

Isabella Lickbarrow (fl. 1814-1818) 397 Lines on the Comet 398 On the Fate of Newspapers 400 The Nun's Soliloquy 401 On Sleep 404 The Widow 405 Colin 406 Lucy 407 Lines Written on the Banks of the Eden, near Kirkby Stephen 407 On the Sprint at Garnet Bridge 409 The Mountain Flower 410 Lady Hamilton 4n

Lady Anne Lindsay (1750-1825) 415 Auld Robin Gray 420 The Highland Storm 421

Janet Little (1759-1813) 423 To the Public 426 XVl Contents

Another Epistle to Nell 427 To My Aunty 428 On Reading Lady Mary Montague and Mrs. Rowe's Letters 430 To a Lady Who Sent the Author Some Paper with a Reading of Sillar's Poems 43r Given to a Lady Who Asked Me to Write a Poem 432 On Seeing Mr. ---Baking Cakes 434 The Month's Love 436

Maria Logan (fl. 1793) 438 To Opium 439 Verses on Hearing That an Airy and Pleasant Situation . . . Was Surrounded with New Buildings 442

Christian Milne (1773-after 1816) 443 To a Lady, Who Did Me the Honour to Call at My House 446 Sent with a Flower Pot, Begging a Slip of Geranium 44 7 On a Lady, Who Spoke with Some Ill-Nature of the Advertisement of My Little Work in the ''Aberdeen Journal" 448 To a Gentleman, Desirous of Seeing My Manuscripts 449 Song (''At eve, when Dee's transparent stream") 450

Mary Russell Mitford (1787-1855) 45r Winter Scenery, January, r809 455 To Mr. Lucas 457

Elizabeth Moody (d. 1814) 458 To Dr. Darwin, On Reading His Loves of the Plants 460 To Sleep, a Song 463 The Housewife; or, The Muse Learning to Ride the Great Horse Heroic 464

Hannah More (1745-1833) 468 The Black Slave Trade. A Poem 472 Contents XVll

Countess of Morley (1781-1857) 483 A Party of Pleasure up the River Tamer 485 Epilogue 491

Carolina, Baroness Nairne (1766-1845) 493 The Laird o' Cockpen 497 Caller Herrin' 499 The Lass o' Gowrie 501 John Tod 502 The Land o' the Leal 504

Caroline Norton (1808-1877) 506 I Do Not Love Thee 5n The Faithless Knight 512 We Have Been Friends Together 513 The Arab's Farewell to His Horse 514

Henrietta O'Neill (1758-1793) 517 Ode to the Poppy 520

Amelia Opie (1769-1853) 522 Ode: Written on the Opening of the Last Campaign 529 Stanzas Written under Aeolus's Harp 531 Allen Brooke, of Windermere 533 An Evening Walk at Cromer 534 Song ("I know you false") 535 Song ("Go, youth beloved") 536 The Despairing Wanderer 536

Isabel Pagan (c. 1741-1821) 539 Ca' the Ewes to the Knowes 543 The Crook and Plaid 544 Account of the Author's Lifetime 545 A New Love Song, with the Answer 546 XVlll Contents

The Answer 54 7 On Burns and Ramsay 548 A Letter 549 The Spinning Wheel 550 A Love Letter 552 Muirkirk Light Weights 553

Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) 556 To the Nightingale 560 Song of a Spirit 562 Sunset 563 The First Hour of Morning 564 Sonnet ("Now the bat circles on the breeze of eve") 565 To Melancholy 565 The Sea-Nymph 567 Rondeau 570 Storied Sonnet 571 Shakspeare's Cliff 572 To the River Dove 576 The Sea-Mew 578 On a First View of the Group Called the Seven Mountains 583 A Second View of the Seven Mountains 583

Emma Roberts (1794?-1840) 585 Song ("Upon the Ganges' regal stream") 588

Mary Robinson (1758-1800) 590 The Linnet's Petition 595 Second Ode to the Nightingale 598 The Maniac 602 Stanzas Written after Successive Nights of Melancholy Dreams 606 Marie Antoinette's Lamentation 608 London's Summer Morning 6n January, 1795 612 The Lascar 614 The Negro Girl 623 Contents X1X

The Haunted Beach 627 The Alien Boy 629 To the Poet Coleridge 633 The Camp 635 The Poet's Garret 636 The Lady of the Black Tower 639

Anna Seward (1742-1809) 647 Sonnet IV. To Honora Sneyd, Whose Health Was Always Best in Winter 654 Sonnet VII. ("By Derwent's rapid stream as oft I stray'd") 655 Sonnet x. To Honora Sneyd 655 Sonnet xv. Written on Rising Ground near Lichfield 656 Sonnet XVIII. An Evening in November 656 Sonnet XIX. To --- 657 Sonnet LXVII. On Doctor Johnson's Unjust Criticisms 658 Sonnet LXVIII. On the Posthumous Fame of Doctor Johnson 659 Sonnet LXXI. To the Poppy 660 Sonnet LXXXI. On a Lock of Miss Sarah Seward's Hair 660 Sonnet xcv. ("On the damp margin of the sea-beat shore") 66r

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) 662 Stanzas ("O, come to me in dreams, my love!") 669

Charlotte Smith (1749-1806) 67r Sonnet r. The Partial Muse 679 Sonnet II. Written at the Close of Spring 680 Sonnet III. To a Nightingale 680 Sonnet IV. To the Moon 68r Sonnet v. To the South Downs 682 Sonnet VII. On the Departure of the Nightingale 683 Sonnet VIII. To Spring 684 Sonnet xxr. Supposed to Be Written by Werter 685 Sonnet XXXIX. To Night 686 Sonnet XLIV. Written in the Church-Yard at Middleton in Sussex 686 xx Contents

Sonnet LXVII. On Passing over a Dreary Tract of Country, and near the Ruins of a Deserted Chapel, during a Tempest 687

Sonnet LXX. On Being Cautioned against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because It Was Frequented by a Lunatic 688 The Swallow 689 Beachy Head 692

Agnes Strickland (17¢-1874) 719 The Earthquake of Callao 723 To the Spirit of Dreams 726 The Enfranchised; or, The Butterfly's First Flight 728 The Self-Devoted 729

Ann Taylor (1782-1866) and Jane Taylor (1783-1824) 730 The Little Bird's Complaint to His Mistress 736 The Mistress's Reply to Her Little Bird 737

The Cow and the Ass 738 The Star 740 Recreation 741 The Squire's Pew 745 A Pair 747 from "Philip-A Fragment" 752

Mary Tighe (1772-1810) 755 from Psyche 761 On Receiving a Branch of Mezereon Which Flowered at Woodstock 775 Written at Scarborough. August, 1799 777 Sonnet (''As one who late hath lost a friend adored") 777 Address to My Harp 778 Sonnet, March 1791 779 Sonnet (" 'Tis past the cruel anguish of suspence") 780 Contents xx1

Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna (1790-1846) 781 from Osric, A Missionary Tale 784

Elizabeth Trejusis (1763-1808) 786 Aurora, or the Mad Tale Madly Told 788 The Quarrel 791

Jane West (1758-1852) 792 On the Sonnets of Mrs. Charlotte Smith 795 Sonnet to May 796

Helen Maria Williams (1761?-1827) 797 from Peru 805 Sonnet to Twilight 805 from ''An Epistle to Dr. Moore" 806 A Song ("No riches from his scanty store") 807 Elegy on a Young Thrush 808 Sonnet to the Moon 809 from A Farewell, for Two Years, to England. A Poem 810 To Dr. Moore, in Answer to a Poetical Epistle Written to Me by Him in Wales, September 1791 813 Sonnet to the Curlew 816 Sonnet to the White-Bird of the Tropic 816 Sonnet to the Torrid Zone 817 Hymn, Written among the Alps 817 To James Forbes, Esq. on His Bringing Me Flowers from Vaucluse 820 To a Friend, Who Sent Me Flowers, When Confined by Illness 821

Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855) 823 An Address to a Child in a High Wind 829 To My Niece Dorothy, a Sleepless Baby 830 XXll Contents

Ann Yearsley (1752-1806) 831 Anarchy 837 Peace 838 The Captive Linnet 838 Soliloquy 841

Mary Julia Young (fl. 1789-1808) 844 An Ode to Fancy 846 Sonnet to Dreams 849 To Miss ___ on Her Spending Too Much Time at Her Looking Glass 850 To a Friend, on His Desiring Me to Publish 851

Sources for Headnotes 853 Select Bibliography 865 Index of First Lines 869 Author-Title Index 874 Acknowledgments

From its very inception, Jeanne West believed in this book, and her encour agement, support, suggestions, and editorial expertise have been invaluable. My debts to many who have preceded me in considering the lives and works of women poets of the romantic era are apparent in my bibliogra phy and notes. I would like to express my warm thanks most particularly to those scholars who have been of assistance to me not just through their pub lished works but through their conversation and correspondence: Andrew Ashfield, Catherine Burroughs, Nora Crook, Stuart Curran, Roxanne Eberle, Anthony Harding, Kathleen Hickok, Nicholas Jones, Harriet Linkin, William McCarthy, Jeanne Moskal, Judith Pascoe, William Richey, Daniel Robin son, William St. Clair, Barbara Brandon Schnorrenberg, Judith Stanton, and Nanora Sweet. Their generosity and knowledge have made this a better book. Readers Jerome McGann, Anne Mellor, Jeffrey C. Robinson, Jack Stillinger, and Susan Wolfson offered valuable insights and suggestions. Others who have helped me in various ways include Stephen Behrendt, Catherine Cast ner, Faye Chadwell, Stephanie Dubose, Glen T. Dibert-Himes, Peter Garside, Gerald Graff, Adrian Le Harivel, Ina Rae Hark, Harrison Hayford, Trevor Howard-Hill, Linda Hughes, Martina Kearney, Susan Levin, Martin Levy, Carmel McKenna, Robert Newman, Buford Norman, Faust Pauluzzi, Donald Reiman, Daniel Riess, Ross Roy, and Bob Stuart. For research assistance I am grateful to Kreg Abshire, Dan Albergotti, Brian Cooney, Beth Dethlef son, Beth Diehl, Matthew Hanley, Kathryn Ledbetter, Gary Leising, Price McMurray, Lucy Morrison, Steven Morrison, Malia Myers, Anthony Ouel lette, LaDonna Skinner, and Staci Stone. I owe sincere thanks to my students at the University of South Carolina, who have inspired me with their insights and enthusiasm and whose responses to individual works helped me select poems to include here. I am particularly indebted to Jenny Ariail, Ellen Arnold, Lisa Baghdady, Ralph Edward Ball, Ned Borden, Louise Grant, Amy Hausser, Patrick Kennedy, Peter Larkin, Margaret Loose, Elizabeth Ouzts, Jan van Rosevelt, Thomas Shultz, Lynn Jor dan Stidon, Martha Thomas, Mary Sidney Watson, and Carolyn Whetstone. Financial support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the University of South Carolina Venture Fund, and the University of South

XXlll XX!V Acknowledgments

Carolina English Department helped make this book possible. I have been assisted in my research by the staffs at the British Library, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, the Humanities Research Center at the Uni versity of Texas, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Ireland, the National Library of Ireland, the National Library of Scotland, the Scot tish National Portrait Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the Thomas Cooper Library at the University of South Carolina. I am grateful to The Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, England, to Rut gers University Press, and to Susan Levin for permission to reprint Dorothy Wordsworth's "An Address to a Child in a High Wind" and "To My Niece Dorothy, a Sleepless Baby"; to the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Cen ter, the University of Texas at Austin, for permission to publish Lady Byron's "To Ada"; and to Oxford University Press for permission to reprint Jane Austen's "Verses to Rhyme with 'Rose'" and "On a Headache." Mary Tighe's sonnet "'Tis past the cruel anguish of suspence" and Maria Edgeworth's "On Chauntry's Statue of Watt in Handsworth Church," "To Mrs. Carr," "Laura Leicester," and "With a Dyed Silk Quilt Sent to Aunt Ruxton" are published courtesy of the National Library of Ireland, Dublin. Finally, it has been a pleasure to work with the editors and staff at the Johns Hopkins University Press, most especially with Joanne Allen, Douglas Armato, Kimberly Johnson, Barbara Lamb, and Thomas Roche.