Appendix: “To Mrs. Barbauld, at Geneva” From John Aikin’s Poems (London: Joseph Johnson, 1791); reprinted here from Lucy Aikin’s Memoir of John Aikin, M. D. (Philadelphia: Abraham Small, 1824). From Yare’s low banks, where through the marshy plain He leads his scanty tribute to the main, On sea-girt Albion’s furthest Eastern bound Where direful shoals extend their bulwark round,— To thee I turn, my sister and my friend! On thee from far the mental vision bend. O’er land, o’er sea, freed Fancy speeds her flight, And now the chalky cliffs behind her fly, And Gallia’s realms in brilliant prospect lie; Now rivers, plains, and woods and vales are cross’d, 10 And many a scene in gay confusion lost, ’Till ’mid Burgundian hills she joins her chase, And social pleasure crowns the rapid race. Fair land! by nature deck’d, and graced by art, Alike to cheer the eye and glad the heart, Pour thy soft influence through Laetitia’s breast, And lull each swelling wave of care to rest; Heal with sweet balm the wounds of pain and toil, Bid anxious, busy years restore their spoil; The spirits light, the vigorous soul infuse, 20 And, to requite thy gifts, bring back the Muse. For sure that Muse, whose far-resounding strains Ennobled Cyrnus’ rocks and Mersey’s plains, Shall here with boldest touch awake the lyre, Soar to new heights, and glow with brighter fire. Methinks I hear the sweetly-warbled note On Seine’s meand’ring bosom gently float; Suzon’s rude vale repeats the charming voice, And all around the vine-clad hills rejoice: Now all thy grots, Auxcelles! with music sound; 30 From crystal roofs and vaults the strains rebound: Besançon’s splendid towers the song partake, And breezes waft it to the Leman lake. Delightful lake! whose margin gay and green 164 Appendix Smiles in soft contrast to the rugged scene Of stern brow’d Alps, where storms eternal roll, How must thy varied charms entrance the soul! With what high passions must thy prospect move The heart that beats to liberty and love! Around, fair Freedom builds her lofty throne, 40 And rocks and valour guard it for her own; While deep within embowering shades conceal’d, To none but Cupid’s mystic band reveal’d, Clarens! Thy roofs ascend, with turrets crown’d, And love and Julia fill th’ enchanted ground. Such, my Laetitia, on thy ravish’d eyes Bursts the bright scene, the vivid landscape rise; While from my sight the air-drawn pictures fade, And Fancy’s glass bedimm’d denies its aid; The colours melt, the lines dissolve in space, 50 And cold realities usurp the place. What different scenes succeed!—a steril shore, Long level plains, the restless ocean’s roar, The rattling car, the shipwright’s sturdy toil, The far-spread net, and heaps of finny spoil, Keen Eurus here sweeps o’er th’ unshelter’d land, Shakes the strong dome, and whirls the loosen’d sand: Fair Flora shrinks, the trees averted bend, While their thin boughs a scanty shade extend: And, for the flowering thicket’s cheerful notes, 60 Here hungry sea-fowl stretch their clamorous throats. And yet, e’en here, the soul-directed sight, Which nature’s views in ev’ry form delight, May catch, as o’er the brighten’d scene they gleam, Grandeur’s strong ray, or beauty’s softer beam. Frequent along the pebbly beach I pace, And gaze intent on ocean’s varying face. Now from the main rolls in the swelling tide, And waves on waves in long procession ride; Gath’ring they come, till, gain’d the ridgy height, 70 No more the liquid mound sustains its weight; It curls, it falls, it breaks with hideous roar, And pours a foamy deluge on the shore. From the bleak pole now driving tempests sweep, Tear the light clouds, and vex the ruffled deep, White o’er the shoals the spouting breakers rise, And mix the waste of waters with the skies: The anchoring vessels, stretched in long array, Shake from their bounding sides the dashing spray; Lab’ring they heave, the tighten’d cables strain, 80 And danger adds new horror to the main. Then shifts the scene, as to the western gales Delighted Commerce spreads her crowded sails. A cluster’d group the distant fleet appear, Appendix 165 That scatt’ring breaks in varied figures near: Now, all illum’d by the kindling ray, Swan-like, the stately vessel cuts her way; The full-wing’d barks now meet, now swiftly pass, And leave long traces in the liquid glass: Light boats, all sail, athwart the current bound, 90 And dot with shining specks the surface round. Nor with the day the sea-born splendours cease: When evening lulls each ruder gale to peace, The rising moon with silvery luster gleams, And shoots across the flood her quivering beams. Or if deep gloom succeeds the sultry day, On ocean’s bosom native meteors play, Flash from the wave, pursue the dipping oar, And roll in flashing billows to the shore. ’Tis thus, within this narrow nook confined, 100 I strive to feed with change th’ insatiate mind, But surer aid the Muses’ stores impart, With each new world of science and of art; And, more than all, the joys of sacred home Forbid my heart to pant, my feet to roam. Yet one dear wish still struggles in my breast, And points one darling object unpossess’d: How many years have whirl’d their rapid course Since we, sole streamlets from one honour’d source, In fond affection as in blood allied, 110 Have wandered devious from each other’s side; Allowed to catch alone some transient view, Scarce long enough to think the vision true; O then, while yet some zest of life remains, While transport yet can swell the beating veins, While sweet remembrance keeps her wonted seat, And fancy still retains some genial heat, When evening bids each busy task be o’er, Once let us meet again,—to part no more! Notes Preface 1. Cf. Stuart Curran, “Romantic Poetry: Why and Wherefore?” in The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism, ed. Stuart Curran (Cambridge UP, 1993): “Ages are marked by literary fashion as much as by their political settlements of upheavals” (216). For another view on the range of genres published during the Romantic period, see Rajan and Wright, Romanticism, History and the Possibilities of Genre (Cambridge UP, 1998). 2. See also Helen Waddell, The Wandering Scholars of the Middle Ages. 1932. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2000. 3. David Richard Jones, Great Directors at Work: Stanislavsky, Brecht, Kazan, Brook. Berkeley, CA: UC Press, 1987. p. 6. 4. I derive this idea of a mediating network from the plenary talk given by Clifford Siskin during the “Contesting Creativity: 1740–1830” conference at the University of Leeds on September 12, 2008. 5. See William McCarthy’s forthcoming biography, Anna Letitia Barbauld: Voice of the Enlightenment (JHU Press, 2008). 6. See William McCarthy, “The Celebrated Academy at Palgrave: A Documentary History of Anna Letitia Barbauld’s School.” The Age of Johnson: A Scholarly Annual 8. Ed. Paul J. Korshin. New York: AMS Press, Inc., 1997. 7. The poem in question was most certainly written for an intimate, occasional context, the conventions for which encouraged effusions of sentiment that would in other contexts appear clumsy and ill-fitting. Wollstonecraft must not have acknowledged such context, and she simply could not understand how a poem like “To a Lady, with some painted Flowers” could stand side-by-side in the same collection with a poem like “To Mrs. P(riestley), with Drawings of Birds and Insects,” a poem she actually praises. But that, it seems to me, is exactly the point with Barbauld: she was capable of negotiating a wide range of audiences without ever being disingenuous (see the introduction to SPP for a discussion of Barbauld’s ingenuousness). 8. See Vargo, who asserts that Coleridge fabricated the story about his response to Barbauld’s criticism of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in order to bury her career forever. 9. The most current title that intersects with this study at a number of points is Michelle Levy’s Family Authorship and Romantic Print Culture (Palgrave, 2008). Other titles include Literary Couplings: Writing Couples, Collaborators, and the Construction of Authorship, ed. Marjorie Stone and Judith Thompson (University of Wisconsin Press, 2006); Ruth Perry’s Novel Relations: The Transformation of Kinship in English Literature and Culture 1748–1818 (Cambridge, 2004); Carol Sherman’s The Family Crucible in Eighteenth 168 Notes Century Literature (Ashgate, 2005); and Jane Spencer’s Literary Relations: Kinship and the Canon 1660–1830 (Oxford, 2005). 10. Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey. Ed. John Wood Warter. 4 Vols. 1856 (London). New York: AMS Press, 1977. (2.17). 11. McCarthy and Kraft’s comment refers to the oft-cited but inadequately understood rift between Barbauld and Coleridge, but the comment is equally applicable in this instance. 12. Composed on the occasion of the Barbaulds’ trip to France in 1785. First published in Poems (1791). London, Joseph Johnson. Here, the excerpt is taken from Lucy Aikin’s Memoir of John Aikin, M. D. Philadelphia: Abraham Small, 1824. The poem is reprinted in its entirety on pages 64–66. 13. See Jung’s Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self (Part III), excerpted in The Portable Jung, ed. Joseph Campbell. New York: Viking, 1971. (148 ff.); I owe this observation to a recent discussion with Pat Hoy III, director of expository writing at NYU and one of the most influential teachers of my life.